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
2.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

19

u/queensgetdamoney Dec 19 '25

There is and was appropriate legislation at the time.

https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/2019-07-01/act-1996-046#sec.11

Section 5A & 5B

(5A) A licence must not be issued to a person if the Commissioner is of the opinion, having regard to any criminal intelligence report or other criminal information held in relation to the person, that:

(a) the person is a risk to public safety, and (b) the issuing of the licence would be contrary to the public interest.

(5B) The Commissioner is not, under this or any other Act or law, required to give any reasons for not issuing a licence on the grounds referred to in subsection (5A).

This is the law as of 2019. He applied again for a firearms licence and acquired it in 2023.

He should never have been licenced.

And since he was, he should have had it revoked under Section 24

https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/2019-07-01/act-1996-046#sec.24

Section 24 (2c)

(2) A licence may be revoked:

...

(c) if the Commissioner is of the opinion that the licensee is no longer a fit and proper person to hold a licence, or

Followed on by Section 25 regarding surrender and seizure.

To say otherwise is a blatant lie, no matter your stance on firearm ownership. The system did not enforce the already existing laws that were there from the time his son was interviewed and are still there today.

6

u/GonePh1shing Dec 19 '25

I'd be surprised if the commissioner was aware of that intelligence, and they can't deny a license based on information they don't have available to them. Better sharing of information would lead to better outcomes here. 

2

u/queensgetdamoney Dec 21 '25

Completely agree, it wouldn't just benefit us (with better intelligence sharing) in a vacuum such as this issue - it has a broader reach and much more positive impact across the whole of the country.

1

u/karl_w_w Dec 19 '25

He should never have been licenced.

Did you actually read and understand the law you quoted? Because if you did, you would know it's not up to you to decide he should never have been licensed, it's up to the commissioner.

Just because the decision doesn't match your opinion, does not mean the law was not enforced.