Melbourne faces growing "gangster culture" with firearms offenses occurring every two days

Firearms are being seized by police in Australia's Melbourne every second day and Victoria's Police Association has seen the city's emerging "gangster culture" culture as grave cause for concern.

Police Association secretary Ron Iddles said Friday that police officers are finding firearms in huge numbers, often by accident, in Melbourne's north west corridor and radical changes need to be made to discourage the growing gun culture.

He said imprisonment should be considered for weapons possession.

Iddles said young Victoria Police officers on the beat in 2015 are finding guns every two days, compared to colleagues in previous generations who were thankful to only come across one or two throughout their careers.

"In my whole career I might have located only one or two; these members are locating them nearly every second day," Iddles told 3AW radio.

"I think it has happened over a period of time... I think now the criminals think their cohort have a firearm so they must get one too."

In addition, Iddles said that drive-by shootings are happening at least once a week in Melbourne's volatile areas, such as Sunshine, Broadmeadows and Werribee.

When asked if a "gangster culture" is emerging in Melbourne, Iddles said it was, and was quickly becoming a problem. He said that radical changes need to be made to discourage the gun culture that was emerging.

"I think we maybe need to look at the penalties," he said.

"Years ago if you were found with a firearm, the penalty was imprisonment... maybe that's what we've got to get back to."

Iddles said that most of the seized firearms were stolen or brought to Australia years ago when the city's underworld gang wars were at their peaks.

"Some of these weapons have had serial numbers ground off, meaning they're likely stolen," he told 3AW.

Victoria's Police Minister Wade Noonan told local media that it wasn't just Melbourne's west that had gun control issues, and an emergence of firearms offenses across the state have authorities worried.

"When I analyse the crime statistics over the last five years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of offenses," he said on Friday.

Noonan said the government is considering a review of its gun control laws and associated penalties.

"We are looking at some areas, such as tougher penalties for gun trafficking, we will continue to do that," he said.

"Obviously what we would like to see is a reduction in firearms offenses across the board, that is challenging given the growth over the last four or five years."

But Iddles hinted that the problem would only get worse. As more criminals get their hands on guns, he said, others would feel the pressure to follow.

"It is the old saying 'do not take a knife to a gun fight'," he said. Endi