The number of guns in Australia approaches four million, but ownership remains low

The number of registered guns in Australia approaches four million for the first time, but ownership rates remain low, with a 48 per cent decline since the National Firearm Agreement in 1996.

The Wieambilla property where two police officers and a neighbour were shot to death by domestic terrorists in December 2022. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The number of guns registered in Australia is approaching four million for the first time, yet firearm ownership in Australia remains low, and appears to be in continual decline.

As part of The Australian’s Target on Guns investigation, every state and territory has disclosed fresh data from their firearm registers showing the number of civilian guns registered, as well as the number of people holding a firearm licence.

The total number of registered firearms in Australia currently sits at a record 3,994,891, up from the last time figures were publicly revealed in 2021, which showed just over 3.5 million registered guns. In 2012, the Australian Crime Commission reported that there were 2.75 million registered guns in the country.

The number of people with firearm licences has also risen by about 30,000 since April 2021, from a little more than 868,000 in April 2021 to 897,204 this year.

Target on Guns

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Legal guns near four million in Australia

The number of registered guns in Australia approaches four million for the first time, but ownership rates remain low, with a 48 per cent decline since the National Firearm Agreement in 1996.

The forgotten victims of legal guns

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Christian extremist terror hit not enough to deliver gun register

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Young cop’s execution caught on body cam

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Up to 130,000 WA guns off the street

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Federation fail: Patchwork of laws keep sniper rifles on our streets

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Victoria and the Northern Territory supplied only the number of licences, and did not detail how many individual licence-holders were registered in those jurisdictions.

The figures have emerged during a renewed debate about Australia’s failure to develop a national firearm registry to track individual guns and firearm ­licence-holders.

Compared with population growth, the rise in the number of people licensed to own guns is proportionally small, although it cannot be precisely measured without a proper academic study.

Law enforcement generally accepts that some 260,000 “grey market’’ firearms are in existence, often comprising extra guns held by licensed firearm holders who don’t want to register them, or guns that were inherited or were never registered back in 1996.

Leading gun control advocate Philip Alpers.

Australia’s leading gun control academic, Philip Alpers from the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health, said he believed the figures showed Australia was still tracking at about a 48 per cent decline in gun ownership since the National Firearm Agreement and buyback scheme in 1996.

“It’s clear that those who already own guns have bought more, while those who don’t own guns are becoming more numerous,’’ Adjunct Associate Professor Alpers said of the latest figures.

“Polling confirms this, with the proportion of Australian households with a firearm falling by 75 per cent in recent decades.”

Professor Alpers last analysed firearm figures in 2021 to coincide with the 25-year anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre, in which a lone gunman with a legally purchased weapon murdered 35 people in Tasmania and wounded 20 more.

Figures showed that in 1997, after the National Firearms Agreement was reached, Australia had 1.2 million people licensed to possess firearms.

The number has been coming down ever since.

The memorial cross at Port Arthur to victims of the 1996 shooting massacre that claimed 35 lives.

In 2023, Australia’s most populous state, NSW, has the highest number of gun owners, with 250,766 people owning 1,108,413 guns, followed by Victoria, with 232,809 valid firearm licences in existence, and 941,466 registered guns.

Queensland had 202,579 firearm licence holders and 1,028,221 registered firearms.

New figures also show that firearm imports from overseas continued through Covid lockdowns, if at a slightly reduced rate than previous years.

Australian Border Force data supplied to The Australian reveals that from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2023, a quarter of a ­million firearms were legally ­imported.

The figures show 255,514 firearms were imported, including 66,019 shotguns, 36,858 hand guns, 151,065 rifles and 1572 guns classified as “other firearms’’.

Other firearms include machine guns and combination guns, which usually comprise a rifle barrel and a shotgun barrel.

The figures exclude items such as paintball markers, gel blasters and air guns.

Guns surrendered in a NSW police buyback and amnesty scheme.

As the states and territories grapple with how to standardise their recording and categorisation of firearms, Professor Alpers said one of the main reasons to keep a national register was to stop legal firearms leaking into the illicit market.

He said some gun owners claimed illegal firearms were being imported in large numbers on tuna boats or in the blocks of engines to avoid X-rays at the border but tracing guns found at crime scenes had shown that the firearms almost always originated from a licensed collection, and had fallen into the black market through sale, theft or neglect.

“Virtually every firearm used in crime came from the collection of a licensed gun owner,’’ he said.

“The only way that a gun can leak into the criminal market is from a lawful gun owner. And because criminals offer the best price, it’s a lot like gravity.

“Once they’re let loose, guns from law-abiding gun owners cascade downwards to unlawful owners.

“And that’s where the guns of most concern in Australia come from.’’