NSW Gun Caps Put Police at the Gate

New South Wales began a 12-month gun buyback scheme on Nov. 2, putting police-run surrender appointments and new firearm caps at the center of a program affecting licensed gun owners. The Minns and Albanese governments say fewer firearms in the community will reduce the chance of guns being misused or falling into the wrong hands. Some owners can hand firearms to police in exchange for money; others face caps on how many they may keep.

Alan Brown, a fourth-generation Wagga Wagga farmer, called the program a knee-jerk response. “What we needed was a carefully thought through program and a buyback is just not part of that,” he said. “We have feral pests on this place and they're getting worse. So we absolutely need weapons ... to keep the feral pests under control.” His objection points to the people who must live with rules made elsewhere: farmers whose work, Brown says, depends on firearms.

Caps, Exceptions and Official Permission

The scheme limits recreational hunters to four firearms. Sporting shooters, farmers, vertebrate pest controllers and other professionals are limited to 10. Those caps already applied to people seeking new weapons, but they hadn't been formalized for existing gun owners. Owners weren't yet required to surrender firearms while the government finalized regulations and possible exemptions. No exemptions were planned for recreational hunters.

The government proposed letting some owners keep more than 10 firearms with the police commissioner's permission, but it hadn't published precise eligibility criteria. NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley offered two examples: a farmer who kept guns across multiple properties and an elite-level sporting shooter who needed different firearms for different events. For everyone else, the rules remain tied to a limit and an official decision about who qualifies for an exception.

NSW Farmers Association president Rebecca Reardon said farmers could need more than 10 firearms for different tasks. “Whether you're having to shoot from near far, whether it's a small animal, large animal, whether it's moving, whether you're shooting from a helicopter or on the ground, different firearms perform different functions,” she said. “[It is] essential therefore that we have the firearm that is able to do the right job.” The association's objection is about practical needs under caps set by government, not a community-run process for deciding what people need.

Police Appointments and Buyback Payments

Registered owners who want to participate must book through the NSW Police Gun Safe website. At the start, six stations were taking bookings: Dubbo, Griffith, Grafton, Penrith, Sutherland and Narellan. Catley said every available appointment had been filled. Another 34 police stations were due to begin accepting bookings in early December. The account describes a police-administered process, not a grassroots or mutual-aid response organized by gun owners.

Under phase one, owners could receive between $450 and $1,000, depending on the firearm. Phase two, planned for next year, could offer up to $10,000 for higher-value guns, though its details hadn't been worked out. Brown called the amount “a joke” compared with what most guns were worth. “[People will] surrender old rubbish, but they certainly won't surrender good weapons,” he said.

Political Promises, Police Logic

The buyback is part of a national scheme announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the days after the Bondi terrorist attack. So far, only NSW and the ACT had agreed to join it; Western Australia held its own buyback in 2024.

Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane, who had earlier backed Premier Chris Minns' calls for tighter gun controls after the attack, later opposed the buyback. She called it “absolute bullshit” to suggest the scheme would prevent another Bondi-style attack and said owners who didn't want to surrender firearms shouldn't do so. “Hold onto your guns if you don't want to give them away,” she said last month, adding that it wasn't compulsory “at the moment.” The Coalition pledged to scrap the caps for farmers and sporting shooters if elected. One Nation NSW leader Mike Newman also promised to abolish the caps and scrap the buyback. The political argument offers competing promises about who will set the rules; the scheme itself remains administered through police and government.

Catley defended the program by pointing to theft: she said more than one gun on average was stolen from NSW every day, adding, “so those legal guns, become illegal.” Her case for the buyback was blunt: “Fewer guns in circulation in our community makes for a safer community.”