Almost half of the weapons were from New South Wales. Queensland collected 16,000 firearms while Victoria received 3,654. South Australia received 2,648 firearms, Western Australia and Tasmania received 1,242 and 1,924 firearms respectively. However there are still an estimated 260,000 unregistered guns not accounted for, Malcolm Turnbull said. “We have seen the shocking tragedy in Las Vegas,” Turnbull said. “The killer there had a collection of semi-automatic weapons which a person in his position would simply not be able to acquire in Australia. We have strict gun control laws, but we don’t take anything for granted, we’re not complacent about it.”
Some collected firearms
Turnbull said the amnesty would help keep Australians safe. Gun laws in Australia became a political issue in the 1980s. Licence holders must be at least 18 years of age, have a “genuine reason” for holding a firearm licence and must not be a “prohibited person.” All firearms in Australia must be registered by serial number to the owner. At this time, The National Firearms Agreement continues to have support from both Labor and Coalition Federal Governments.
