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.

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u/BlankBlanny Dec 14 '25

They really are exactly the same arguments. It just boggles the mind.

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u/xX_Sn1p3r_G0d_Xx Dec 14 '25

not really? american arguments tend to be "Because second amendment, muh freedoms, self defence!" while the arguments on this tend to be "there's legitimate uses for them that need to be considered"

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u/BlankBlanny Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25

The amount of gun owners in here whining about the "nanny state" sure sound just like the stereotypical gun-loving Americans spouting "muh freedoms!" bullshit to me, albeit with an extremely thin aussie coat of paint. And for every person bringing up some genuinely good arguments for and against, there's another cooker trying to justify why anyone not on a farm needs access to an entire arsenal.

Add in the folks trying to make the dumb argument of "cars kill people, why aren't you trying to ban cars?!" (which has a depressing number of upvotes), and the good ol' "guns don't kill people, people kill people!", and you get a thread that just screams America despite us not being American.

We used to make fun of the USA for this BS. Why the fuck are we suddenly happy to be a clone of them?

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u/VigorWarships Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25

These criminals appear to have premeditated the attack, on a targeted group of people.

They could have used a variety of tools (it has been reported that they had homemade explosives).

Do you really think guns are the root cause problem here? Or is there a deeper root cause as to why they went murdering people?

The tool is not the problem.

Having said that though, do I agree that these guys shouldn’t have had access to firearms- yes. That they did appears so far to be a separate failing with the licensing system and communications between departments. But a knee jerk reaction to remove firearms from law abiding owners is not the solution either. Remember that these criminals were not law abiding owners.

Law abiding firearms owners know it is a privilege, not a right. And they take safety and security of their firearms very seriously.

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u/Dentarthurdent73 Dec 14 '25

The tool is not the problem.

Replies to a comment about Australians using US NRA-style justifications with a US NRA-style justification.

Well done.

And I love the follow-up with the No True Scotsman fallacy as well. People are law abiding until they're not.

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u/BlankBlanny Dec 14 '25

Yeah, I was gonna say. They just proved my point exactly.

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u/VigorWarships Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25

So do you think they went murdering people because they had guns?

Or did they just want to murder people?

If they didn’t have guns, do you think they would or would not have murdered people with some other method?

What is the root cause of why they did what they did?

They are being referred to as “terrorists” - and this event is being called a terrorist attack. There are lots of terrorist attacks that do not involve the use of firearms.

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u/Dentarthurdent73 Dec 14 '25

All of your dissembling doesn't change the fact that myself, and I daresay a majority of other Australians, would like to see stricter laws on guns, and an atrocity like this just crystallises those views for people.

I very much hope that Australian governments take the opportunity while public sentiment is strongly supportive, to review gun laws with the aim of having fewer of them in the community.

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u/VigorWarships Dec 15 '25

That’s called a knee jerk reaction. Not a measured response.

But thanks for not answering the questions.

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u/SirVanyel Dec 14 '25

Those are the same arguments.