Australia is awash with over four million legally owned guns, many of them kept in homes in our metropolitan and suburban areas.
Disturbing new Australia Institute research has found, despite gun reforms after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, Australia now harbours even more guns than before this tragic event.
As of September 2024, over four million registered guns were owned by civilians, 25 per cent more than the 3.2 million firearms before Port Arthur.
This dramatic upsurge shows Australian governments urgently need to refocus attention on effective firearms controls.
Laws are inconsistent across states and territories and are failing to keep pace with firearms technology and community expectations.
A representative poll late last year found 70% of Australians want gun laws to make it much harder to access a gun.
This included most voters for all political parties and people living in metropolitan, regional and rural Australia.
Although Australia has been a global leader in gun control, we cannot afford to be complacent.
Our gun laws are not keeping up with weapon advancements, which is putting our community at increasing risk.
We must act before a tragedy forces our hand as has happened too many times before.
Despite impressions to the contrary, gun ownership is a privilege in Australia, not a right, and needs to be tightly controlled, monitored and policed.
The Australia Institute research and polling reports, produced by the Australia Institute with assistance from the Australian Gun Safety Alliance and Gun Control Australia, are available at: https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/gun-control-in-australia/
Gun Control Australia represents the will of most Australians who support effective gun laws aimed at protecting community safety first and foremost.
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