Changes to firearms laws could soon see mental health checks for WA's gun owners.

Anyone wishing to buy a gun in Western Australia will undergo mandatory and ongoing mental health checks.

The state has launched a complete overhaul of WA’s 50-year-old firearms legislation.

Police Minister Paul Papalia says twenty people died from gunshot wounds in the state last year, and mental health issues were involved in at least half of those.

He said the changes should help reduce murders, gun-related family and domestic violence, attacks on police and suicides.

Chief executive officer at the Centre for Women's Safety and Wellbeing, Alison Evans, says the change is urgently needed.

“We do know from research overseas, and in particular in the US, that I think over half of intimate partner homicides are committed with guns, which means a woman is five times more likely to be murdered when her abuser has access to a gun,” Ms Evans said.

The changes are occurring separately to any potential national gun register, and will make WA the first state or territory requiring specific, legislated and recurring mental health checks for gun owners.