John Maxwell
Here’s an interesting one. The government has officially downsized the estimated number of illicit guns in the community. And here’s another. The second annual report of the Permanent National Firearms Amnesty disclosed that during 2022-23, Australians surrendered 12,190 assorted firearms, although a good number of the total aren’t actually guns.
The report cites figures for firearms and ‘weapons’ which aren’t specifically defined but apparently include edged weapons, imitation firearms, crossbows, tasers, knuckle dusters and gel-blasters. Also surrendered were 637 firearm parts and accessories including barrels, magazines, stocks, receivers and suppressors. That total was a 30.5 per cent reduction on the first year of the permanent amnesty when 17,543 firearms and ‘weapons’ were handed in, along with 606 parts and accessories during 2021-22.
Over the two years of the permanent amnesty, 29,733 assorted firearms and ‘weapons’ along with 1243 parts and accessories have been given up. Why the big dip you may ask? The former Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management approved a permanent firearms amnesty in November 2019 and, after Covid-related delays, it launched on July 1, 2021. That was accompanied by a year-long publicity campaign and with the end of widespread publicity, a reduction in surrenders was anticipated.
And there were other factors. Following the end of the 2017 national firearms amnesty, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia maintained their own amnesties until the start of the permanent one in 2021. Furthermore, the two years of the permanent amnesty cover the period when new stringent gun legislation was canvassed and introduced in WA, legislation which sets limits on how many guns can be owned.
Another possibility not directly considered in the latest report is that Australia may be running low on illicit guns likely to be surrendered by their custodians so, to encourage the more reluctant, different approaches may be required. “To increase surrenders, especially from more reluctant firearms owners, future campaign strategies will need to identify and target gaps in the first year’s campaign. This will be done in consultation with state and territory police, the Australian Federal Police, ACIC and Crime Stoppers,” the report says.
Thet report and its predecessor were prepared by the Federal Attorney General’s department based on data from state and territory police forces. Many gun amnesties run by the Commonwealth and individual states and territories have gone before, each for a defined period.
“While previous amnesties were successful, a permanent amnesty at national level provides an ongoing nationally-consistent and coordinated approach to better enable individuals to surrender unwanted or otherwise illegal and illicitly held firearms over time without fear of criminal liability,” says the executive summary for the 2022-23 report.
Different states and territories variously permitted surrendered guns to be legally registered or sold with 2374 registered, 900 sold and the rest destroyed. With more than 45,000 guns and ‘weapons’ surrendered over two years of the permanent amnesty, you’d think that would make a dent in the number of illegals guns in the community. The first report cited an estimate of 250,000 long-arms and 10,000 handguns, based on an assessment prepared by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). It has now revised down that estimate.
“In June 2023, on data available to it at the time, ACIC conservatively estimated there are around 200,000 illicit firearms in Australia, comprising 190,000 long-arms and 10,000 handguns. This represents a reduction of 60,000 long-arms since ACIC’s last estimate in 2015,” the report says.
It also cites a figure of 3.9 million legally owned and registered firearms in the community. “Unregistered and unwanted firearms also fuel Australia’s illicit firearms market. While illicit long-arms have been reduced overall, since 2015 ACIC estimates 40,000 long-arms have been added to the illicit market as a result of theft.”
ACIC says in the report that amnesties have contributed to the reduction of firearms in the illicit market. That’s mainly attributed to more than 57,000 firearms presented for registration or surrender under the 2017 national firearms amnesty along with 17,543 surrendered in the first year of the permanent amnesty. Across the nation most of those guns and ‘weapons’ were surrendered in NSW (3413), followed by Victoria (2665) and WA (2253). Some states and territories checked surrendered guns to see if they’d been reported stolen or lost but there were surprisingly few at just 19.
Though mostly banned in the 1996 National Firearms Agreement, there are still semi-automatic rifles out there. Indeed 296 were surrendered across the nation including one fully automatic weapon in NSW, yet in 2021-22 numbers were substantially higher with 535 semi-autos and 16 full-autos.
With headline figures of 17,542 guns and weapons surrendered in 2021-22 and 12,190 in 2022-23, is it possible to work out how many of those are actually guns? It’s not that easy because of the different reporting procedures across states and territories, though one table lists numbers of firearms by description (rifle, shotgun, handgun, air rifle, imitation and other). Excluding air rifles, imitation and other, the total comes to 9262 actual guns surrendered in 2022-23.
On the same basis, in 2021-22 there were 11,825 actual guns surrendered, giving a grand total of 21,087. That’s still a lot of guns, mostly removed from the community, though it would follow that few members of the criminal fraternity were civic-minded enough to hand in their stash. Other than some police photos, neither report contains good information on just what type of guns were given up.
Images from the 2022-23 report only relate to the ACT and feature an AR-pattern semi-automatic rifle, some sawn-off shotguns along with various airguns, hunting rifles and shotguns. Images from the 2021-22 report show a stack of gel blasters as well as shotguns, sawn-off shotguns, rifles, handguns and even the business end of a flamethrower surrendered in the ACT.
The permanent amnesty allows people to surrender guns and other items without fear of prosecution and it in its first year, participants were invited to fill out an anonymous paper survey form, which 247 people did. No paper form option was available in 2022-23 and just 12 filled out the online form though that’s likely to change.
So only the first year produced useful data, which likely also applies to those who participated in the 2022-23 amnesty. In the first year, 48.7 per cent of respondents said they handed in guns as they no longer wanted or needed them, 19 per cent cited ‘other’ unspecified reasons while 15.8 per cent claimed sense of responsibility.
Strangely, 17.4 per cent claimed they’d participated in previous gun amnesties and almost a quarter said surrendered firearms were family heirlooms or came from a deceased estate. A lot of people said guns had been in their possession since before the 1996 and 2002 amnesties and for various periods, ranging from one day to more than 50 years. More than half the respondents (54.6 per cent) held firearms licences, three-quarters being male with the largest single group (almost 40 per cent) aged over 65.