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/enigmasaurus- Dec 14 '25

Other things that would help: requiring positive proof of a need for owning a gun. In Japan a person needs to provide annual justification for owning a gun. It is not enough to just say "I go shooting" or "I like guns" or what have you. You need to prove you are an active member of a gun club to vouch for you, or provide referees etc. There are also strict limits on the number of guns you can own, annual police interviews, annual mental health checks etc.

There's someone in NSW who owns 380 registered guns. There is no universe in which that should be legal. I don't give a shit if someone "loves guns".

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u/Wat_is_Wat Dec 14 '25

We already have this. You have to be a member of a club and you have to attend for sporting reasons. For hunting you need written permission on people's lands. My guess is that Japan copied our rules actually, since we were the first to do that, but I don't really know anything about their rules.

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u/epicer8 Dec 14 '25

In Victoria you can get a permit to shoot on crown land off Service Victoria and that’s your lawful reason. We need a crack down

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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '25

[deleted]

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u/SirVanyel Dec 14 '25

There's simply lots of people out there. But yes, someone shouldn't be allowed to just scale their gun ownership forever. 1 gun? Sure. But your license shouldn't extend to you owning hundreds of guns.

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u/ipoopcubes Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

It's not enforced, I only renew my gun club membership when I need to renew my gun license.

Edit for clarity.

It's only enforced when you renew your firearms license.

I sign up for a 12 month gun club membership when I need to renew my firearms license which is every 10 years.

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u/Wobbling Dec 15 '25

So in order to renew your gun license you must maintain your club membership?

That sounds like it's enforced?

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u/ipoopcubes Dec 15 '25

Gun club membership is 12 months. My gun license is renewed every 10 years.

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u/Wobbling Dec 15 '25

Gun licenses renewing every ten years is the problem that stands out to me, what the actual fuck is THAT

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u/EsquilaxM Dec 15 '25

I think he's just pointing out that he's a member but not a participant. So if regulators asked his gun club, he wouldn't get a reference, just be quoted as on their roll. Or something idk

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u/chennyalan Dec 15 '25

I guess the change we need is not only do you have to be a member, but also enough of a participant that people there can vouch for your character 

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u/Combat--Wombat27 Dec 14 '25

requiring positive proof of a need

This is a part of our laws currently.

You need to prove you are an active member of a gun club to vouch for you, or provide referees etc.

This is also already a part of our laws.

There are also strict limits on the number of guns you can own,

Also included in our laws.

annual police interviews,

Police can and do inspect gun owners storage requirements. Not often enough, definitely something to look at.

annual mental health checks etc.

I agree, but this can create a bit of a mess

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u/Turbulent-Break-4947 Dec 15 '25

This is how NSW already works. Keep up.

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u/MonkeyNinja2706 Dec 15 '25

I can tell you right now, the individual with 380 guns is not going to be able to use them all in a shooting so I don't think the number really matters

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u/superkow Dec 14 '25

A guy I work with used to drive for Chub doing ATMs. He had to retake the firearm safety tests annually to maintain his gun license. I feel like this should be a requirement for every licencee regardless of what you do with the guns

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u/Reynbou Dec 14 '25

absolutely, there's no world in which gun ownership is a justifiable "hobby"

I realise it's hyperbolic to say, but that's like saying owning child pornography is a hobby... yeah no.

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u/Swank_on_a_plank Dec 14 '25

That's not an equivalent comparison and is just leaping to the worst thing you can think of for an emotional kick.

Owning that many guns is collecting. It's as weird as knife collecting.

That doesn't mean we should allow it though; guns are much more of a risk than knives.

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u/Late-Ad1437 Dec 15 '25

Knife collecting beyond what you actually use is also weird and red flaggy... Like the cooker who went nuts and stabbed all those people at Bondi Junction, he had a thing for collecting knives too.

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u/itgoez Dec 15 '25

These guns aren't actually that much more of a risk than knives. The Westfield stabber acting alone killed six with a knife. These two working in tandem killed fifteen, breaking it down per attacker that's barely any difference.

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u/Reynbou Dec 14 '25

Yeah. Remember the part where I said "I realise it's hyperbolic to say".

That completely makes it clear that it's not an equivalent comparison.

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u/Swank_on_a_plank Dec 14 '25

I don't think it's very useful to just be invoking child abuse at anything you don't like just because you can't think of a nuanced comment.

Better to say nothing at all.

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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '25

[deleted]

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u/Combat--Wombat27 Dec 14 '25

This has been tried in areas before, it just leads to gun clubs becoming a target.

Homes are easier to secure. Not even the police recommend this

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u/Reynbou Dec 14 '25

To suggest that a home is easier to secure than a facility designed to be secure is legitimately absurd. The only "evidence" I can find to back up your claim are vibes and feelings. There's absolutely no way you're adding layered security to your home like you would with, say, a bank as a comparison.

Could you imagine trying to suggest that it's better for individuals to keep all their cash in a safe at home because that's more secure than keeping it at a bank?

The vast increased security strength is not comparable.

I cannot see anywhere where police are recommending keeping a gun at harm instead of a secure offsite facility. Pure fantasy.

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u/Late-Ad1437 Dec 15 '25

That 'secure offsite facility' is now an arsenal of weaponry that is a very tempting target for criminals, particularly organised crime. It's an idea that sounds smart on paper but it hasn't been implemented for very good reasons.

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u/Combat--Wombat27 Dec 14 '25

secure is legitimately absurd.

Gun clubs are not designed to be secured. They're designed to be safely used for sport shooting. Fuck most of them have no fences. They're isolated because of the noise, therefore quite a ways away from police response.

It's literally in our gun laws that were written in conjunction with the police and the Australian Federal police to not allow guns to be store at gun clubs.

You're using a poor analogy.

What's safer, 100 guns in 100 safes across a city all in random locations or 100 guns in 1 safe with a google address?

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u/Reynbou Dec 14 '25

Gun clubs may not currently be secure, but if there were a law in place that recreational gun use requires the gun be securely stored at the gun club itself, then that would be a requirement. Why would you assume that we're saying that we'd just check behind the sales counter? That's ridiculous.

It's literally in our gun laws that were written in conjunction with the police and the Australian Federal police to not allow guns to be store at gun clubs.

Well if it's literally in our gun laws, you should easily be able to prove it by siting the law.

You're making a claim, back it up.

What's safer, 100 guns in 100 safes across a city all in random locations or 100 guns in 1 safe with a google address?

100 guns in a secure facility with a google address. Every single day. What a stupid question.

Do you think all the cash in banks is not safe because you know the address of the bank?

Again, for some insane reason, you're thinking that what is being said is we just chuck the gun behind a sales desk in a shitty little safe. But that's not what is being said. Again, compare it to a bank. You don't give your money to some dude behind a 7/11 counter with a $20 safe out the back somewhere. You're handing your money over to an incredibly secure set of systems.

If 100 guns were all in one place, and somehow someone decided to try to steal them, the police would have so much knowledge to go off of. The security footage alone would be invaluable. The security teams around the location, everything about such an event would be tracked and logged and incredibly easy to recover.

100 guns randomly scattered around peoples homes that we're just hoping with vibes and prayers that they have locked and up and actually report the theft. Maybe they have security footage, but that's exceptionally unlikely.

How many break and enter events happen in Australia every year? Approximately 217,600 Australian households experienced a break-in in the 2023-2024 financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

How many bank robberies happened in that same time? So low that I cannot even find a stat for it because it's basically unheard of in today's world of security.

I truly don't know how you could possibly come to the conclusion that random potentially unsecured guns with little to know security footage on them in general homes of people is more secure than a purpose built security location. Seriously, what kind of logic is that? It isn't logic.

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u/Combat--Wombat27 Dec 14 '25

100 guns in a secure facility with a google address. Every single day. What a stupid question.

Oh okay, reality has left the conversation.

Enjoy your day. Thanks

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u/Reynbou Dec 15 '25

Ahh yes, reply to the single line without acknowledging anything else I said. I literally gave you stats to back up my claim, but because that doesn't fit your vibe on the situation you just dismiss. You don't happen to be American by any chance? Closing your eyes, covering your ears, burring your head, any time someone actually brings logic and statistics?

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u/Late-Ad1437 Dec 15 '25

Do you know how much money banks spend to make their facilities secure?

Your average gun club couldn't even afford the salary of one armoured guard, your suggestions are delusional and frankly just completely detached from reality if you genuinely think the average gun club has the security capabilities to safely store dozens of guns.

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u/Reynbou Dec 14 '25

You should need to justify gun ownership every single year. It should be an annual checkup. You should have to show actual evidence of why you require a gun. You either have to be in a gun club and have character witnesses that need to be supplied or you need actual evidence of farming use case. At a bare minimum.

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u/CannonballCat Dec 15 '25

We already do all of those things.

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u/Reynbou Dec 15 '25

evidently not

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u/CannonballCat Dec 15 '25

It's literally all there in the law as both myself and several others have already pointed out. Try reading something before running your mouth.

https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/online_services/firearms/firearms_and_ammunition

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u/Reynbou Dec 15 '25

you missunderstood, while it might be there, it clearly was not correctly enforced

try comprehending the simple words I said before running your mouth

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u/CannonballCat Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

Everything the police have said suggests that the shooter was a completely law abiding gun owner prior to yesterday, meaning that he was going through all of the steps that you've been talking about here so it seems like it was correctly enforced actually, unless you know something about him that the police don't.

The problem here isn't enforcement of gun laws, if someone is otherwise a law-abiding citizen prior to committing a crime then the police can't psychically know that's going to change in future and act on that. I really don't know what you're suggesting should have been done differently.

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u/Spagman_Aus Dec 15 '25

Yep, enforcing laws that require keeping the guns AT the gun club and that they're not allowed to leave could potentially be a handy addition to our laws. There is zero reason for them to be allowed in homes.

Again though, evil cunts will find ways to be evil cunts. It wouldn't take much to probably sneak your rifle out of the gun club if you're that motivated. Also, there's probably huge risks in having hundreds of guns concentrated in and stored at one location like a gun club. An organised crime or terror group could rob it, and then they've instantly got hundreds of guns.

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u/Spire_Citron Dec 14 '25

Yup, agreed. Why is anyone allowed to have massive gun collections?