What it does
The Prohibited Weapons Act 1996 (ACT) establishes a comprehensive prohibition on the possession and use of specified dangerous items in the Australian Capital Territory while creating a permitting regime, police seizure powers, forfeiture mechanisms, and dynamic classification tools. At its core, the Act operates through two primary offence provisions. Section 5 makes it an offence to possess or use a prohibited weapon without authorisation by permit or other provision of the Act (maximum penalty 500 penalty units, 5 years imprisonment or both). Section 6 creates a parallel offence for prohibited articles (200 penalty units, 2 years imprisonment or both). Both offences apply the Criminal Code (ACT) general principles of criminal responsibility (s 2B).
The Act defines its key concepts with precision. "Prohibited weapon" is exhaustively defined in s 4A as any item listed in Schedule 1, prescribed by regulation, declared by the registrar under s 4L, or a "modified prohibited weapon" (one that would meet the description but for a missing part, defect, or addition). A parallel definition for "prohibited article" appears in s 4B, referencing Schedule 2. Schedule 1 is organised into four parts: prohibited bladed weapons (e.g. flick knives opening by gravity or button (item 1), daggers with flat blades on both sides (item 3), butterfly knives (item 4), ballistic knives (item 7), throwing blades (item 8)); prohibited hand weapons (knuckle-dusters (item 1), sap gloves (item 2), maces (item 4), nunchakus (item 8), extendable batons (item 10)); prohibited missile weapons (short spear guns (item 1), crossbows manufactured after 1 January 1900 (item 3), blow guns (item 4), shark darts (item 5)); and other prohibited weapons (explosive devices (item 1), flame throwers (item 3), electric shock devices such as tasers (item 4), OC spray and other irritant sprays (items 5 and 6), and laser pointers >1mW (item 8)).