Almost three decades after the Port Arthur massacre prompted sweeping gun reforms in Australia, the country finds itself at a crossroads: firearm ownership is surging to record highs, the gun lobby is emboldened, and lawmakers are once again locked in heated debate over the future of gun control. As a new investigative series by Guardian Australia reveals, the number of legal firearms in the country has now surpassed four million—nearly double the figure recorded in the years following the 1996 tragedy that left 35 dead and shocked the nation into action.
This sharp rise in gun ownership comes amid a climate of political mobilisation. On August 24, 2025, tens of thousands of Australians marched in cities across the country, with Brisbane hosting its largest pro-Palestine crowd ever. But another, quieter mobilisation is underway: a coalition of pro-gun groups, for the first time, is banding together to resist what they see as a "growing attack" on firearm users. According to Guardian Australia, these groups met in Canberra in May and again in July, strategizing unified opposition to new restrictions, particularly those introduced in Western Australia that limit the number of guns per license holder.
The numbers are staggering. Data obtained from state and territory firearm registers shows more than a 10% rise in guns in both Victoria and New South Wales over the past five years, a 30% increase in Queensland, and a 45% spike in the Northern Territory. At least 2,000 new guns are lawfully entering the Australian community every week. In Sydney alone, more than 70 individuals own over 100 firearms each, with one person reportedly possessing 385 guns—a figure that, according to the registry, does not belong to a collector or a dealer.
Graham Park, president of Shooters Union Australia, has become the face of this reinvigorated movement. In a June 16 video address to his members, Park declared, "We’re actually winning, and when I say ‘we’, I mean you as firearm owners anywhere in Australia—you’re actually winning." He went on to describe the national firearms agreement, implemented just days after Port Arthur, as the "wet dream of the anti-gunners," arguing that the expectation shooters would fade away has proven false. "We’ve been winning because, every year since about ’99 or 2000, the number of shooters in your state, and every other state, has grown and grown and grown."
Park maintains that responsible gun owners support common-sense measures: "It’s not rocket science that criminals and crazy people should be restricted from owning guns: We [licensed gun owners] all want that. We want that more than anyone else." Yet he is urging license holders to stay active—even if they no longer use firearms—and to recruit others. "The more people with gun licences, the more political influence. Politicians are going to pay attention because politicians respect numbers, and the last thing they want to do is to irritate big blocks of people," Park said, as quoted by Guardian Australia.
Australia’s gun laws, often cited as the global gold standard for community safety, were hammered out in the wake of Port Arthur. The 1996 national firearms agreement introduced mandatory licensing, secure storage requirements, and restrictions on semiautomatic rifles and pump-action shotguns. A buyback scheme saw over 600,000 firearms surrendered in exchange for compensation. The agreement enshrined the principle that firearm possession is a privilege, not a right—setting Australia apart from countries like the United States, where the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected.
Yet, as Guardian Australia reports, the effectiveness of these measures is now a matter of debate. Some elements, such as a nationwide firearms register, remain only partially enacted. The new register, agreed upon by state and territory leaders in 2023 and set to take effect in 2028, will allow data sharing and firearms tracing between jurisdictions. The Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (Sifa) and other pro-gun groups have voiced strong opposition, calling the register "an expensive and unworkable duplication of something that already exists at state level."
This resistance is not confined to lobbyists. Federal politicians, including Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and Labor MP (and Olympic shooter) Dan Repacholi, have publicly encouraged shooting groups to become more politically active. McKenzie, speaking at an online national gun conference, said she was pleased to see "one united conversation" among shooting groups and advocated for a "caucus" to lobby government. "There’s a militancy, there’s a political arm ... that has to be employed, but the social licence to be militant, to be political, also has to come with a legitimacy, and that legitimacy in a democracy like ours comes from people accepting that you have a right and a privilege to do what we want to do," she said.
Repacholi has similarly advised shooting groups on how to "engage and use the political process," including hiring professional lobbyists. He told Guardian Australia he supports a national firearm registry developed in consultation with industry: "I’ve always backed responsible firearm ownership for sport, farming and other legit reasons. Our gun laws are there for a reason, to keep people safe and they’ve worked well for decades. If the number of guns goes up, it’s got to be matched with strong checks and balances."
Not everyone is convinced the current trajectory is safe. Tim Quinn, president of Gun Control Australia, warns that it is "extremely easy" to obtain a firearm in Australia and that the number of guns is "getting bigger, faster." Quinn told Guardian Australia, "We are obviously very proud of our gun laws but there are so many loose processes that we can fix. People don’t know the nuance of that, and they don’t know the individual law—what they do know is they don’t want a society that has got more guns in it, and the number of guns is going up, and it is going up at an alarming rate."
Stephen Bendle, national convener of the Australian Gun Safety Alliance, argues that the new Western Australia legislation—limiting the number of guns per license—"has scared the pants off [the gun lobby]" but is a reasonable reform that should be adopted nationally. "The owning and possession of a firearm is a privilege conditional on the matter of public safety—that is written into every firearm act in the country—and I think the firearm industry has forgotten that," he said. "The community doesn’t expect that there is open slather on getting as many legal guns as you can and having them stored [in homes] in suburban streets."
WA police commander Lawrence Panaia hopes other states will see the reforms as a "beacon" for public safety, but he acknowledges the political battle ahead: "You have a professional gun lobby that continually tries to disrupt the process. They will fight it on every single front. Everything you do will be questioned." He added, "It beggars belief that someone in NSW can claim a genuine reason for having almost 400 guns. The real question here is ... what genuine need or reason could there be to have 400 firearms? What could it possibly be?"
As the debate intensifies, Australia finds itself wrestling with its own legacy. The reforms of the late 1990s made the country a model for gun control, but the steady rise in firearm ownership and the growing political clout of the gun lobby suggest that the story is far from over. The choices made in the coming years will determine whether Australia’s hard-won reputation for gun safety endures—or is rewritten by a new generation.
