NSW gun reforms must pass without delay

2 hours ago 1

December 22, 2025 — 5.00am

The NSW government will today introduce laws to parliament for the biggest overhaul to gun laws in decades.

The way two terrorists were able to fire high-powered weapons at members of the Jewish community from a bridge at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people and injuring dozens, shows the proposed firearms reforms are justified and necessary.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has unveiled sweeping new gun law reforms for NSW.

Most of the state’s residents will welcome the changes; polls show a clear majority of voters support tighter gun restrictions, especially on the types of weapons used in the devastating mass shooting at Bondi.

Under the new laws announced by Premier Chris Minns on Friday, each gun owner in NSW will be restricted to four firearms, with exemptions for primary producers and sports shooters, who will be allowed a maximum of 10.

There will be a complete ban on firearms that can use belt-fed magazines, while ownership of some other powerful weapons will be further restricted.

Gun club membership will become mandatory for all firearm licence holders, some licensing rules will be tightened, and there will be new controls on ammunition.

The changes will be accompanied by a gun buyback, funded 50-50 by federal and state governments, that will purchase surplus and newly illegal firearms. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday he expects “hundreds of thousands of firearms” to be collected and destroyed.

This buyback scheme will be similar to the one introduced by the Howard government in 1996 following the Port Arthur massacre, when a single shooter killed 35 people and wounded 26.

Following the 1996 buyback, the number of guns in Australia fell from about 3.2 million to 2.5 million, research by The Australia Institute shows. However, the national gun count has since climbed above 4 million, driven in part by population growth (Australia’s population has risen from 18.3 million to 27.5 million since Port Arthur).

There are 1.13 million legally registered firearms in NSW and, as the Herald’s Ben Cubby and Craig Butt reported last week, gun ownership is widespread across suburban Sydney. The Camden postcode area in the city’s south-west is home to 2621 licensed gun owners – the highest number in Sydney – followed by Windsor with 2232 and Liverpool with 2010.

Sajid Akram, the alleged terrorist who was shot dead by police during the Bondi attack on Sunday, lived in suburban Sydney and was the legal owner of six guns.

The proposed four-weapon limit on each individual gun owner promises to deliver a welcome reduction in the number of firearms per person in NSW.

Western Australia, which already caps the number of firearms at five for recreational shooters and 10 for farmers and competition shooters, has the lowest number of guns per person of any state or territory.

Tighter gun control won’t eradicate hate crimes or banish the scourge of antisemitism. But it must be part of the response to the sickening bloodshed at Bondi on December 14.

The Herald urges all parties in the NSW parliament to ensure the strong firearms laws proposed by the Minns government be passed into law without delay.

Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.