But even after 25 years of importing well over a million new guns since the firearm buybacks, the rate of registered firearms per 100 population has only risen by 1.7 percent.” “Government figures show that imports of modern firearms for private owners fluctuate between 65,000 and 116,000 each year. “This doesn’t mean Australians own fewer guns,” he says. In 1997, the federal firearm buyback campaign reported that 1.2 million Australians were licensed to possess firearms.
“Although several states and territories still refuse to release their firearm licensing data, we know that today about 868,000 Australians have a current gun licence,” says Associate Professor Alpers. By 2020, that proportion had almost halved, to 3.41 licensed gun owners for every 100 people. In 1997, the year after the Port Arthur massacre, Australia had 6.52 licensed firearm owners per 100 population. In new figures published yesterday by the university-hosted project, Associate Professor Alpers reported: “The proportion of Australians who hold a gun licence has fallen by 48 percent, as each year a smaller segment of the population decide they need a firearm.” “In those same years, there’s also been a significant shift in the country’s gun culture.” “In the wake of John Howard’s gun reforms, the risk of an Australian dying by gunshot quickly fell by more than half – and it’s stayed that low for 25 years. A recently published perspective, co-authored with Associate Professor Alpers in the high-impact New England Journal of Medicine also discussed this point.Ī University event, Public Health at the Forefront of Social Change: 25 Years of Gun Control since Port Arthur, discussed the impact of Australia’s post-1996 response and the future of fire-arm prevention.Īssociate Professor Philip Alpers, a specialist in firearm injury prevention, says: Gun control expert Adjunct Associate Professor Philip Alpers from the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, revealed the figures on the eve of the 25th anniversary of gun control since Port Arthur.Īn opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald by the Head of the School of Public Health, Professor Joel Negin outlined the importance of continuing vigilance. Data indicates that people who already own guns have bought more rather than an increase in new gun owners.The proportion of Australian households with a firearm has fallen by 75 percent in recent decades.The proportion of Australians who hold a gun licence has fallen by 48 percent since 1997.
Australian civilians now own more than 3.5 million registered firearms, an average of four for each licensed gun owner.New University of Sydney figures on gun ownership in Australia:
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