Australia Is Coming After People’s Guns
Australia is using a terrorist attack on a Jewish gathering that happened last year as an excuse to erode what remains of its citizens’ gun rights. Aussies are being coerced into giving up their guns through new firearm and ammunition ownership caps, restrictive reclassification, and buyback schemes.
The Buyback Scheme
The “biggest gun buyback in 30 years” kicked off on November 2, according to an announcement by the government of Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW). The buyback scheme is part of the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 passed in NSW after the Bondi Beach mass shooting on December 14, 2025. The scheme, which also applies to the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), is designed to get all gun owners in compliance before the legislation goes into full effect. After that, violators face jail time. As for when the law commences, it has yet to be determined.
The Australian federal government has made it clear it wants to see the same draconian anti-gun laws across the entire continent, not just in NSW and ACT.
The NSW buyback program is expected to affect 18 percent of gun owners — about 50,000 — and yield 270,000 firearms. Every Australian state has a gun registry, implemented in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre, so authorities know where all the legal guns are. In January, an Australian news outlet published this ominous sentence: “The government is now moving toward a comprehensive audit of all existing licences.”
Reducing the Number of Guns
The NSW government aims to eliminate as many privately owned guns as possible. It says on its website that “the National Gun Buyback Scheme is one part of the NSW Government’s broader package of legislative … firearm reforms designed to strengthen oversight, reduce risk and reduce the number of firearms in the community.” (Emphasis added.)
Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley told citizens that fewer guns mean a safer community because legal guns eventually end up in the wrong hands. “Evidence shows that fewer guns in the community means a safer community, it’s that simple,” she said in a statement. “Any gun can end up in the wrong hands which is why we introduced a suite of reforms to reduce risk, strengthen compliance and safeguards, and reduce the number of guns in our community.”
Some members of the NSW parliament objected to the law early on. MP Helen Dalton of Murray, representing rural areas, said, “We have close to 10,000 law-abiding firearms owners in Murray… None of them have behaved like terrorists, but they are being treated like they are.”
Capping Guns and Ammunition
The buyback scheme legally forces people who have more guns or ammunition than allowed under the impending law to give them up in exchange for money. People have one year “to understand their obligations under the new laws and safely surrender eligible firearms,” the government says.
The upcoming law caps the number of guns most people can have at four, unless they meet one of a few exceptions. Those exceptions are for someone who “uses firearms for the genuine reason of sport/target shooting, vertebrate pest animal control or business or employment”; or for the “genuine” reason of “primary production, occupational requirements relating to rural purposes, [or] animal welfare.” Farmers are an example of those who can have 10 firearms.