Labor to slash number of guns users can own under ‘unprecedented’ reform agenda

Recreational firearm owners will be restricted to four guns and 10 for landowners under sweeping reforms to NSW’s firearm laws.

Police Minister Yasmin Catley gave the most detailed explanation yet of the reforms, which are due to go before politicians as soon as Monday when parliament is recalled.

Describing the changes as “unprecedented”, Ms Catley said they would “close gaps and ensures guns are stored responsibly”.

“We recognise there are many law-abiding, responsible firearms owners in this state,” she said.

“These reforms are not about targeting those people, they are about stronger checks, clearer rules and better oversight so that firearms do not fall into the wrong hands.”

Under the changes, recreational firearm owners will be able to own just four guns.

Primary producers and sports and target shooters would be allowed up to 10 firearms, “recognising legitimate work and sporting needs”, Ms Catley said.

Recreational gun users would also be required to be part of a gun club, and an inspection of safe storage locations would take place prior to a weapon being acquired, not after.

The ammunition registry could also be digitised and all licence renewals brought forward to two years.

The changes join sweeping gun reforms championed by Premier Chris Minns in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre on Sunday that left 15 innocent people dead.

Mr Minns vowed the laws would be the “toughest” in Australia and include a limit on the number of weapons a person can own, the removal of an appeals pathway for licence decisions, and the reclassification of straight pull, pump action, and magazine capacities for shotguns.

Labor MP’s shock call on gun reform

Labor’s gun reform agenda has been thrown a fresh curveball, with an MP and Olympic shooter stating “symbolic” measures are not the answer.

The NSW government will be recalled on Monday afternoon in an effort to pass s

Hunter MP Dan Repacholi on Friday said he had received “thousands of emails and calls” over the past day in response to the laws.

“My position is consistent and clear,” he said.

“Australia has strong gun laws and they save lives, but I do not support changes that unfairly target responsible, law-abiding firearms owners.

“Measures that are blunt, symbolic or simply designed to appease public anger without improving safety are not the answer.”

As a gun owner, Mr Repacholi said he had gone through the requisite background checks and other relevant assessments.

“From what we are learning, the focus should be on information sharing, risk identification and enforcement of existing powers, not on arbitrary limits that penalise people who have done nothing wrong,” he said.

“NSW Police already have significant powers to suspend or cancel licences where someone is not fit and proper.”

Mr Repacholi will not vote on the proposal, as he is a member of federal parliament.

However, he said he would continue to raise concerns from his electorate with Mr Minns and state MPs.

Mr Repacholi represented Australia at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

On Friday, Anthony Albanese announced the government would introduce the largest firearms buyback scheme since the Port Arthur massacre.

The federal government has pledged to end open-ended firearms licenses and limit licences to citizens.

In NSW, Labor’s pledge to reform gun laws has been met with mixed reactions, such as from Nationals leader David Littleproud who called them a “smokescreen”.

Others, including One Nation leader Pauline Hanson – a firearm owner – and Barnaby Joyce have also decried the reforms as potentially punishing regional peoples and businesses reliant on firearms.

“If you go to the law-abiding to deal with the criminal because the law-abiding complies and the criminal is threatening, then you are a coward,” he said.

Arms and Ammo, a family-owned firearms store in Beresfield in the Hunter Region, said the reforms would “severely affect not only our entire industry but our livelihoods”.

“What NSW Premier Chris Minns is proposing is a discriminatory and uneducated approach to ‘fixing’ a problem by scapegoating all firearms licence holders,” it said.

“Rushed laws are often poorly considered laws, and firearms legislation demands careful, informed and balanced decision making.”

The Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia said the measures would risk undermining public safety by “diverting attention from enforcement, intelligence, and regulatory failures that demand urgent correction”.

“Failing to confront the regulatory and operational breakdowns that led to Sunday’s tragic incident risks repeating the very mistakes that allowed it to occur,” it said.

Invasive Species Council chief executive Jack Gough urged the state government to focus on reforms that “close clear loopholes, including banning straight-pull and push-button firearms that are not required for legitimate pest control and to strengthen regulation without impairing professional invasive species management”.

“Reasonable limits on firearm ownership for non-professional licence holders could reduce the circulation of weapons without undermining landholders’ or volunteers’ ability to conduct feral animal control,” he said.

Greens MLC Sue Higginson, a landowner, backed an even stricter suite of measures then what Labor proposed and said the party would support recalling parliament.