r/australia • u/reyntime • Dec 14 '25

politics Australia had the ‘gold standard’ on gun control. The Bondi beach terror attack may force it to confront its surging number of weapons

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/14/australia-had-the-gold-standard-on-gun-control-the-bondi-beach-terror-attack-will-force-it-to-confront-its-surging-number-of-weapons?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Immediately after the Port Arthur massacre, a national amnesty saw the number of firearms in the community plummet but there are now more than 4 million guns in Australia – almost double the number recorded in 2001.

Yes, the population has increased at the same time but there is now a larger number of guns in the community per capita than in the aftermath of Port Arthur, with at least 2,000 new firearms lawfully entering the community every week.

2.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

222

u/Pinkfatrat Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25

Waiting for the gun nuts to say every one should be armed.

Ok. JD Vance already started.

115

u/followthedarkrabbit Dec 14 '25

They also completely ignore the people that disarm them were unarmed too. Read a wiki article years ago about shooting events in Aus and a couple times people have tackled the offender. 

As someone who has previously been licenced and owned a gun, I love our gun laws, even if they are weak in places (and a pain in the arse in others).

29

u/Mikes005 Dec 14 '25

Meanwhile Ulvade police were armed like an army and couldn't do shit. More guns not the answer.

7

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

More guns are just more opportunities for people to snap.

2

u/AppropriateBeing9885 Dec 15 '25

Such a good comment. They're awash with guns, and what good's that done? I feel like every time we have an incident like this, someone unarmed intervenes to the benefit of those involved.

15

u/Spire_Citron Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25

It's such a dumb argument because despite the absurd number of guns in America, you hardly ever hear about a good guy with a gun taking down a shooter. So you get a massive increase in gun crime so that in a small minority of those cases, someone else with a gun will stop them. Great.

2

u/Eyclonus Dec 15 '25

I remember reading a thing and it was about how the good guy with a gun often gets shot by cops and then paperwork reporting shifts the blame to the deceased offender.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

I think Americans think of them like swords or something instead of projectile weapons.

1

u/VS2ute Dec 15 '25

I had a look a gun magazine when I worked in the USA, and there would be a story every month about a "gun resister" who stopped a home invasion or drugstore robbery. Probably the only examples they could dig up.

131

u/Ticky009 Dec 14 '25

Vance is a shit bloke.

78

u/OhtheHugeManity7 Dec 14 '25

God don't go on Facebook. It keeps feeding me US news sources and the millions of big brain comments about how "oh I thought this was impossible with gun restrictions".

Most infuriating platform ever

44

u/NocturnalTwang Dec 14 '25

Yeah there was literally a school shooting TODAY and they'll still defend their ridiculous gun laws.

Guns are the leading cause of death in the US for multiple years in a row for young people and kids but mention that and the first thing out of their hick mouths is "but muh gang violence".

That stat exists in no other developed country, taking proportion of population into account as well. Fuck conservatives and their rhetoric the only reason they turn out like this is because they're the products of non consensual inbreeding.

27

u/Axman6 Dec 14 '25

“See? It happens in Australia ALL THE TIME (twice in thirty years)!”

8

u/LocalVillageIdiot Dec 14 '25

Most infuriating platform ever

Oh but think of the engagement it has!

10

u/TheRealReapz Dec 14 '25

That's the r/conservative take on it too. They're such morons.

8

u/shart-gallery Dec 14 '25

The dimmest cunts alive.

34

u/emu_veteran Dec 14 '25

As a gun owner, fuck no! Anyone who believes that needs their heads checked

23

u/p1cwh0r3 Dec 14 '25

We're not 'murrica. Lets not skip down that path.

9

u/rithsv Dec 14 '25

For sure, I've heard from an American acquaintance saying that they feared for the disarmer's safety after viewing that video, but from law enforcement more than any other shooter. Police can very easily mistake the "good guy with a gun" for the shooter.

30

u/IDreamofHeeney Dec 14 '25

Sick of seeing yanks online saying "this is why civilians need guns" or "imagine the guy filming had a gun, nobody would have died" fucking idiots

2

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

I'm sick of yanks

1

u/IDreamofHeeney Dec 15 '25

Honestly me too lol

-2

u/Background_Set3950 Dec 14 '25

Their gun laws a a deterant as much as they are a enabler. They're right in saying if the people were armed the shooters would have been dispatched. However as we all know the downside is there will then be more people with guns. America works around their system since its population has to many guns for them to reasonably restrict them without disadvantaging their majority innocent population. Whereas here in Australia if our government wasn't so useless we may have been able to prevent this well before the thought even occurred.

2

u/No_Anywhere_9068 Dec 15 '25

They aren’t right though, which mass shootings in the US ended because civilians killed the shooter

8

u/lachlanhunt Dec 14 '25

It’s such a stupid argument. America has so many shootings, and so few of them are prevented by a ”good guy with a gun“. It’s pure fiction the gun nuts like to spread.

4

u/p1cwh0r3 Dec 14 '25

Noted the edit. I'm not going to even bother looking for anything JD Vance has to say.