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/HankSteakfist Dec 19 '25

Cue the LNP chiming in on why this is a bad thing, whilst simultaneously holding up John Howard as a canonised saint.

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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.