Gun licence applications explode after Bondi terror attack crackdown
New gun laws have triggered a shocking stampede that nobody saw coming.
Gun licence applications have exploded following the announcement of tougher firearms laws after the Bondi terror attack.
Two days after the Bondi terror shootings, the NSW Premier flagged what would become the toughest gun laws in Australia, which became law on Christmas Eve.
But the announcement sparked an unintended consequence - a boom in licence applications that has stunned authorities.
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7NEWS can reveal statistics signed off by the police minister applications for new firearm licences exploded from December 16 to January 16, with a 71 per cent increase on the previous year.
Category C applications, including semi-automatics, leapt from 15 to 226, an increase of 1400 per cent.
Applications to buy extra guns shot up by 33 per cent to more than 7500.
Applications to be a firearms collector, allowing unlimited gun ownership, went off the charts, skyrocketing by 7000 per cent.
“This is completely a stampede,” Upper House Independent Rod Roberts told 7NEWS.
“This has just backfired completely.
“Anybody with any sense of common sense would know that this would happen.”
“I certainly saw social media campaigns from gun lobby groups, for example, who were pushing people and encouraging people to apply for gun licences,” Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst said.
Current licences are being audited as part of the sweeping reforms, with the government looking for people who have slipped through loopholes.
“I guess our ultimate hope is that we can do everything possible to keep firearms away from unstable or dangerous people,” Premier Chris Minns said.
At Safari Firearms in Bexley, shelves remain loaded, but business has been shot.
“We just don’t know what to do. We need the government to organise this buyback, to draw a line in the sand,” Safari Firearms owner Gary Georgiou said.
At state parliament, some argue there’s already a sneaky push to weaken gun laws again.
The Shooters Party put a bill back on the agenda to open up public spaces for hunting and set up a $12.9 million hunting authority.
Originally published on 7NEWS
