Australia faces record guns as Bondi massacre prompts reform
There were more than 4 million guns in Australia in 2025, more than at the time of a 1996 shooting that killed 35 and prompted a gun buy-back scheme
The number of firearms in Australia reached an all-time high of more than 4 million in 2025, the centre-left government reported on Sunday, a day after saying it would introduce a gun reform bill in parliament in response to the Bondi massacre.
There were a record 4,113,735 guns in Australia last year, with 1,158,654 of those in the most populous state of New South Wales where the Bondi attack took place, the government said, citing Department of Home Affairs data.
The Labour government on Saturday said parliament, recalled from its summer break, would debate bills this week to authorise a gun buy-back and lower the bar for hate speech prosecutions – measures drafted in the wake of the December 14 shooting that killed 15 at a Hanukkah celebration.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said there were now more guns in Australia than at the time of a 1996 shooting that killed 35 and prompted a gun buy-back scheme by the conservative government of former Prime Minister John Howard.
“The deadly antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi Beach is a national tragedy which can never be allowed to happen again,” Burke said, adding that the government was committed to “getting dangerous guns off our streets”.
New South Wales, responding to the Bondi massacre, passed state laws in December banning private individuals from owning more than four firearms, with exemptions for farmers, who can have up to 10.