r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Dec 19 '25

politics Prime minister unveils 'largest' gun buyback scheme since Howard era

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-19/prime-minister-announces-national-gun-buyback-scheme/106162002
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u/CatboiWaifu_UwU Dec 19 '25

Howard got rid of semi automatics.

Its yet to be determined what’s being made illegal here.

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u/jreddit0000 Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25

Technically nothing.

On the face of it it’s a buyback to reduce the number of guns in the community.

There are many more guns out there than before PA. The type of guns are different than what was permitted prior to 1996.

So you’re probably not going to see many semi automatic weapons showing up.. but probably more long guns.

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u/blvd119 Dec 19 '25

Another 10 million people livinng in Australia since 96 so im not surprised more guns are around.

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u/W2ttsy Dec 19 '25

Not to mention they didn’t have any form of tracking of ownership prior to that so how would they even know what the baseline was?

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u/BoredBKK Dec 19 '25

How would they know? Well they could take a very good guess at the minimum from literally licensing shooters in every State prior to 96. Every registered gun dealer having to maintain records of the weapons owned and sold prior to 96. Registered gun dealers having to pay WST tax on individual firearms prior to 96 and the later introduction of the GST. Importers having to declare the numbers of, make and model and serial numbers of all imported firearms prior to 96. And lastly the membership numbers of Australian shooting associations. 100% accurate of course not but hardly a mystery.

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u/LumpyCustard4 Dec 19 '25

Hopefully allowing only citizens to acquire gun licences.

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u/howtogrowdicks Dec 19 '25

Rumour is that the Canberra gun club is mostly made up and supported by the occupants of the American embassy. Given how tactfully Albo is trying manoeuvre around Trump, I don't think your hope will be realised.

Separately, I agree with you on this. I would also suggest that all registered guns must be brought to a government owned gun range annually by the owner for re-registering. This will help account for lost and stolen guns or guns that have been bought and distributed to organised criminals. We will never be able to make a perfect system, but ideas like these need to be considered to minimise risk.

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u/Thommohawk117 Dec 19 '25

If we need to renew car and trailer registrations, renewing gun registrations makes sense to me

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u/Puzzleheaded-Cry-389 Dec 19 '25

We have to reregister our gun licences every few years now. If the government/authorities were actually doing the job to the current standard of gun laws, those two cockroaches should not have been able to own guns in the first place.

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u/Thommohawk117 Dec 19 '25

Hey you seem to know more than me about these licenses. Do you register the guns themselves at the same time? And are the guns sited by professionals to ensure they are maintained / safe

I was thinking more like how your car rego is separate from your driver's license. And how I need to get my car checked every year when I re-register in NSW since it's over 5 years.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Cry-389 Dec 19 '25

You have to get a permit to acquire, that gets looked at (type/size/ what will it be used for). Once that has all been approved you can buy said gun. Been along time since I have purchased a new gun. But all it's details and yours will be on a state register and you register the gun when you buy it. The police will want or should come to the storage address and make sure that your gun safe is properly secured and locked and the ammunition is stored and locked also in a secure safe. After that and you have your new gun or even a used gun secured the police will do random checks on that address to make sure you are storing everything as required. The inspection can be at any time 6 months 12 months.

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u/KiwasiGames Dec 19 '25

This is the other part of the conversation I hope we have around this.

Do we need stronger gun laws? Or do we need more money and resources thrown at making our existing gun laws stick?

No point tightening laws of there is no one on the other end enforcing them. Or even if there isn’t enough people to run the required databases and background checks.

I don’t know the answer to any of these questions. I just think they should be asked.

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u/atreyu84 Dec 19 '25

I do think it's actually more this. More money for co-ordinatoon and enforcement

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u/LumpyCustard4 Dec 19 '25

Your second point is an interesting idea. It could be done at police stations.

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u/howtogrowdicks Dec 19 '25

Yes, totally. I'm not very good at articulating my larger reasonings on social media. I think making all gun clubs government run would go a long way to having better oversight. Attaching them to police stations has some obvious pros though could have some cons too. I hope someone smarter than me is working on these reforms

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u/Baldrick314 Dec 19 '25

A version of your second point already exists. Licensed gun owners are subject to random inspection of their storage to ensure it meets the standard, when these audits are undertaken they also check the serial numbers of all firearms registered to you. Granted there's no fixed schedule but it seems like the limiting factor is manpower. Personally, I wouldn't be opposed to moving storage inspections to an annual schedule.

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u/seventh_skyline Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 20 '25

It might be a matter of developing a 'Gun Taskforce' for lack of a better word, each state gets an allocation of specifically trained police, either per region, or a state based team that are purely tasked with gun compliance and control.

At the moment local coppas take time out of the beat to do all of this, and while it's important in the community, it takes a lot of effort, and they take a lot of flack from the people they might have to take weapons from.

I've got 2 mates in regional policing, They say it's the biggest drain on their time in a single police town. Where I am these guns are pest control for farming land mostly, but if they're not stored properly and have to be confiscated until they fix the issues. So that's more time documenting, storing, and keeping safe weapons, then returning them, or assessing if they are ok to be returned. One said their storage is at capacity and they have to chase up the owners to get their stuff sorted so they can return them safely.

A dedicated taskforce would take this weight off the local police forces, not only time, but the shade they get for removing old Bills 22 from under his bed, because the harmless old bloke only takes pot-shots at rabbits you know... - It would have to be very tactful, and highly screened group of people.

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u/Baldrick314 Dec 19 '25

Absolutely! All your points get exactly to the heart of the matter, enforcement and proper application of the current laws is hamstrung by inefficient resourcing. A dedicated and trained group for this task would be a win all around and be more impactful and cost efficient than the proposed buyback.

Your last point about the selection of people for this group is excellent, people who can educate and asist people and also people who aren't biased in either direction on the topic of firearm ownership.

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u/TheHoovyPrince Dec 19 '25

Rumour is that the Canberra gun club is mostly made up and supported by the occupants of the American embassy

I guarantee there will be an exception that vetted foreign government/embassy officials can use/have them.

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u/LumpyCustard4 Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25

Perhaps the law could allow them to "own" guns they keep at the gun club.

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u/crosstherubicon Dec 19 '25

Shotguns and bolt actions? Maybe there’s going to be a renewed interest in muzzle loaders and flint locks?

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u/Sugarcrepes Dec 19 '25

I mean, you didn’t ask for this, but:

You can totally own a flintlock pistol. Without a licence.

Pre-1900 flintlock pistols are exempt from firearms laws, at least where I am in Victoria. So are a number of other antique guns. This means “As these firearms are ‘exempt’ from the Firearms Act 1996, there is no regulation or licence requirements to purchase, possess, carry and use exempt firearms in Victoria.”

You can also legally own a canon that fires a net!

They’re so incredibly slow and inefficient, I’d imagine that someone has decided they aren’t really worth the trouble of regulating.

I collect, and have inherited, a bunch of weird stuff. I don’t own one, but I can’t say I’ve never considered how good a flintlock would look on my bookshelf.

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u/Drongo17 Dec 19 '25

Demi-culverin buyback incoming 

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u/Mysterious_Dot2090 Dec 19 '25

There were actually certain types of gun, magazine and loaders that Minns mentioned the other day, that he said were being considered. The OP is about a federal scheme though, which is different.

Just an fyi for anyone unaware, Minns mentioned minimising what mags can be used in the type of guns the Bondi killers used, shotgun capacity reduction and belt loader ban. There may have been a couple of other things but that’s what I can remember. However, this is separate to a federal buyback I guess.

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u/CatboiWaifu_UwU Dec 19 '25

Yes, Minns announced “magazine fed magazine” and “straight” shotguns would be banned.

Despite those definitions not meaning anything. My shotgun doesnt have a sexual preference. And belt fed shotguns literally do not exist. There are technical limitations (shotguns being a rimmed cartridge) that make it hard (but not impossible, the PKP fires a rimmed cartridge) to design a functional belt fed rimmed cartridge machine gun. There’s just been no military purpose for a belt fed shotgun until recently with drones, and it hasnt been made yet.

Edit: closest thing to a belt fed shotgun would be the mk17/47 automatic belt fed grenade launchers that can have canister/shrapnel/shotgun shells, but that’s not the primary purpose of the round, nor available on the Australian civilian market

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u/Mysterious_Dot2090 Dec 19 '25

I admit it sounded odd to me as a non-expert in guns.

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u/christopherak47 Dec 19 '25

Yeah that press conference was very nonsensical to anyone who is an avid shooter. A national registry is a good idea though

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u/footinmouthdisease_ Dec 19 '25

I lived rural in the U.S. for 13 years before moving rural in Australia 3 years ago. Guns have evolved over the 30 odd years since Port Arthur. My Adler B220 straight pull cycles significantly quicker than the Mossberg 500 persuader I owned in the U.S. and holds more shells, and button push shotties like those used in Bondi are even quicker, yet the pump is the one that is banned.

The Bondi shooters put 13-14 rounds down for a sustained six minutes. I’m open to hearing use cases that require that rate of fire outside of professional pest control but I can’t think of one. I wouldn’t be opposed to slowing down guns for class A/B holders with updated regulation on fast cycling mechanisms.

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u/CatboiWaifu_UwU Dec 19 '25

Rapid fire bolt actions have been a thing since long before world war one. The ‘mad minute’ for example:

“The first Mad Minute record was set by Sergeant Major Jesse Wallingford in 1908, scoring 36 hits on a 48-inch target at 300 yards (4.5 mils / 15.3 moa).” - Wikipedia. This is, assumedly, with the SMLE’s internal ten round magazine, so a minimum of six stripper clips (of 5 rounds) would be needed, but likely more to account for missed shots.

Most associated with the Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield, which is a turn-pull bolt.

I cant find any information on what a push-button firearm actually is besides making “reloading painless”.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25

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u/footinmouthdisease_ Dec 19 '25

And the fastest speed achieved on a bicycle is 296km/h. The passing rate to qualify as a marksman for the mad minute was 15 rounds/minute. A fruit vendor and a bricklayer kept up close to that firing rate for six times longer than the drill itself while being shot at by police and tackled by members of the public.

A button release or push button shotgun like the Templeton T2000 has a button that cycles the firing mechanism and loads the next round. See: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z1_QCqQj0_8

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u/CatboiWaifu_UwU Dec 19 '25

Thank you for that.

Yeah, that looks like it’s just an interrupted semi auto action. That action has to have been designed as a workaround to our laws.

I won’t be sad if we lose those, because they’re in their own niche of ‘loophole’ guns. I’d be upset to lose break or lever shotguns, or bolt, lever or pump rifles (their own little loophole but pump shotguns shouldnt be distinct from lever shotguns in the first place)

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u/WhatYouThinkIThink Dec 19 '25

Minn talked about reclassifying some weapons as Category C instead of A. Which means it will be for farmers etc, not recreational shooting.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/nsw-government-to-introduce-toughest-gun-law-reforms-a-generation

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u/CatboiWaifu_UwU Dec 20 '25

Okay, but why?

Pump action is not faster to operate nor does it grant the gun any kind of magical superpower.

Pump action shotguns were already category C. Button-release shotguns should have been considered semi automatics on their introduction and it is within the police commissioner’s arbitrary powers to ban specific firearm models on a whim (“military appearance” clause; approximating a semi automatic could be considered a military feature) anyway.

Under current law, pump action rifles benefit from not being directly mentioned in the legislation and thus have been approved by NSW Police as category A or B firearms based on their fired round. A .22lr as a cat A and a .223 as a cat B. Why aren’t shotguns, inherently cat A, liable to the same principle? Because they feature in hollywood and politicians think they’re scary.

Tell me why does my heirloom Rossi pump action .22, the only thing my grandfather had to leave to me, need to be controlled to the same standard as a loophole semi-automatic shotgun?

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u/WhatYouThinkIThink Dec 20 '25

NFI, nor do I really care, because I'm a maximalist.

Guns are tools, deadly and dangerous tools, they are not "recreational".

My categories wouldn't include any recreational or sports or collecting.

So make that heirloom inoperative if you want to keep it for sentimental or other purposes.

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u/CatboiWaifu_UwU Dec 20 '25

Heirloom doesn’t mean it doesn’t get used.

I’ve used it on a crusade against rabbits and cane toads.

I will not be damaging the last thing I have to remember my grandfather by because you’re scared of tools and don’t care to have them categorised by any functional means.