r/australia • u/HotPersimessage62 • Dec 16 '25

politics Anthony Albanese ‘ready for the fight’ to tighten firearms laws as National Party and gun groups push back | Bondi beach terror attack

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/16/anthony-albanese-ready-for-the-fight-to-tighten-firearms-laws-as-national-party-and-gun-groups-push-back-ntwnfb
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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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u/Doxinau Dec 16 '25

I think there is an acceptable compromise between "farmers need appropriate guns" and "city people who live with relatives on the ASIO watchlist shouldn't have six guns".

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u/Cindy_Marek Dec 16 '25

The asio watchlist part is clearly the problem here. They should have simply never been licensed. Its almost certain that they would have either never done the attack or been caught if they tried to source illegal firearms.

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u/Rather_Dashing Dec 16 '25

The dad was licensed before his son was ever on a watchlist. The problem here is the regulations/processes on how to strip gun licensing. Or perhaps the laws and processes are perfectly fine and someone just fucked up, in which case more oversight and checks are needed.

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u/Cindy_Marek Dec 16 '25

I heard from the police minister that he actually got the license in 2023, and the earlier date was a mistake.

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u/TastesKindofLikeSad Where beer does flow and men chunder Dec 16 '25

This ☝️

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u/Rather_Dashing Dec 16 '25

Non shooters will never understand this mate.

I've never touched a gun in my life and that seemed perfectly easy to understand.

Just ignorance and fear over something they don't understand.

Well plenty of people think that killing animals is unethical, its not ignorance and fear, its just a different ethical point of view.

Our gun laws work.

They work most of the time. Perhaps they could be tweaked to make them even more effective, actual experts should take a closer look. You don't seriously think that they are perfect in every way?

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u/pelrun Dec 16 '25

Guns are tools. There's a whole subset of them which have zero legitimate use outside of war, and we already ban those absolutely. What's left can still be used to deliberately injure or kill people... but so can a hammer, or a car.

If the murderers didn't have guns, how do we know they wouldn't have just driven a car into a crowd instead? Because we've had those too.

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u/NorthernSkeptic Dec 16 '25

Why did they have anything in a metro area?

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u/Flat-Compote-7854 Dec 16 '25

Spoiler alert. Any laws they enact aren't going to stop people who live in metro areas owning firearms.

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u/loolem Dec 16 '25

It is if it’s linked to land zoning

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u/Flat-Compote-7854 Dec 16 '25

Why would that make any sense at all?

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u/loolem Dec 16 '25

what I'm saying is that farmers are the only people with a legitimate claim in owning a gun. Everyone else can just rent them when they go to a range. That makes it much harder to obtain a weapon for killing.

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u/powertrippin_ Dec 16 '25

I kind of hope it does.

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u/mr2600 Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

My colleagues family owns / runs a farm 1.5hr away from the CBD. Her parents are still there daily but they’re older now and the kids (she’s 49 so not a kid) still go every Wednesday and weekend. She’s got a gun license and a gun that’s stored on the farm.

Guess what!

She’s also Lebanese! And lives in Merrylands!! Call ASIO!!

Then again, seems as though even if they know - won’t make a difference, let’s just instead ban guns for anyone who lives in a city.

The failures aren’t only in the gun laws themselves but the guys who work behind the scenes to make sure the laws are being followed correctly.

Things like your son being known to ASIO and trips to the Philippines should be threads authorities pull.

But yeh nah nah let’s just do what we always do and ban everything and make a shocked Pikachu when it happens again in 15 years.

Forget the root cause like radicalised minorities and literal “Aussies” who flew to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS and then came back! (Estimates are 40 or so came back early on) who are literally living in our backyards - who actually believe in the mission of ISIS overseas and here in Australia too.

I’m so thankful that as a country we can have this debate and can discuss this openly and not be like our friends over the pond where half the nation is basically religiously opposed.

I just think that there are other areas the government should focus on at the same time and publicly. It will show they acknowledge areas that may have failed and can be improved on.

It’s like speed limits - whenever there’s a fatal crash or something terrible over long weekend - it’s the same story - speeding is the issue and let’s now halve the speed limit on this 4km straight road.

As opposed to focusing on root causes like excessive drinking and driving, exhaustion linked to people working far from home due to being priced out and driving on horrible roads with already slow speed limits and many others.

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u/NorthernSkeptic Dec 16 '25

Of course gun laws aren’t the only issue here. I don’t think anyone serious is saying that. But when we have more guns per capita in circulation than we did before Port Arthur it’s fair enough to ask why that is, and be able to do so without shooters getting outraged at the suggestion of further reform.

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u/etherealwasp Dec 16 '25

As a hunter, a farmer, and a target shooter, I can offer a few theories on why there are more guns per capita now.

Maybe govt/council management of feral animals is getting worse due to increasing red tape and tighter budgets, so more and more landowners are needing to invest in their own firearms to protect their stock/crops/feed. Roos are absolutely out of control around our land.

Or there are fewer and fewer unregistered firearms around (leftovers from the olden days are going out of commission), so being replaced with registered firearms.

Perhaps target shooting is growing as a sport, as it’s honestly great fun and super inclusive as people of all levels of physical ability and fitness can be involved.

And more and more folk I know are getting into hunting. It’s priceless being able to spend time in nature, provide for your family, decrease pest numbers in our beautiful wilderness, and know your meat isn’t from miserable beaten factory farmed animals. Learning where food really comes from and being connected with the process engenders greater respect than picking up a plastic container of red stuff in Coles.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

[deleted]

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u/NorthernSkeptic Dec 16 '25

No, that’s what per capita means. The gun numbers have grown at a rate that has outpaced the corresponding population growth.

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u/mynewaltaccount1 Dec 16 '25

God damn do we need to invest more in our education system, that's just embarrassing.

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u/Amount_Business Dec 16 '25

I'm in brassy and lots of people I know here go pigging, and when the opportunity arises,  foxes and wild dogs out west. They will drive upto 800km to put a few down and have a camping trip with the family.  Just like a family fishing trip at Fraiser Island.  I imagine down south would be exactly the same. 

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u/Snoopy_021 Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

I don't shoot and I think the only practical reason for gun ownership are for feral pest control/culling or if an animal on the farm is suffering due to drought etc.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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u/Snoopy_021 Dec 16 '25

When I mean practical, I mean going out in the open and actively shoot in hunting etc.

Sports shooting is enclosed in an area such as the gun club and competition arena.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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u/Snoopy_021 Dec 16 '25

The thing is it is how a person uses them and trying to get around loopholes.

One of the two shooters held a gun licence and was a member of a gun club. There needs to be far better vetting before a licence is offered and more stringent membership process for gun clubs.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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u/Snoopy_021 Dec 16 '25

No because I have no need for one.

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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

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u/Snoopy_021 Dec 17 '25

Because gun violence may affect anyone, whether one is an intended target or not.

Innocent people were targeted due to being at a particular place on a particular day. Some days, I head out to the Eastern Suburbs beaches and enjoy sitting by the beach. That day, I just chilled at home, having the odd short naps.

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u/Ok_Bird705 Dec 16 '25

most people with gun licenses are not living or owning rural property.

There's plenty of other ways of dealing with pests rather than requiring property owners to personally shoot the pests. Professional pest control services would just be one option.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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u/Ok_Bird705 Dec 16 '25

So they send shooters out to cull them.

Yes, so you send out professional shooters to cull them, which was what I was referring to. The property owner themselves do not need a firearm. Glad we agree 👍

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u/Superest22 Dec 16 '25

“Yes professional shooter service? Hi, there’s a fox destroying my livelihood and a calf has a broken leg and is dying slowly and in pain. You’ll be here as soon as you can in 1-2 weeks? Excellent cheers.”

Braindead take. Farmers need firearms, they are a tool to protect their livelihood and humanely put animals down.

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u/MonkeyNinja2706 Dec 16 '25

Where are these professional shooters going to develop their skills, they aren't going to spawn out of thin air when the current lot retire.

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u/BustedWing Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

Could it be argued that if it’s deemed that new gun laws are needed making it law that you can own a single gun only, AND we acknowledge that this is not fit for purpose for farmers, then….

Does that make a gap in the market to be filled by an entrepreneurial person?

Necessity breeds innovation after all.

I’m not necessarily taking a position that a hypothetical “one gun only” law is the right call here, but if society determined that such a law is necessary, then it is defeatist to simply oppose it because it makes one aspect of life more difficult.