NSW opens firearm buyback bookings as exemption questions persist

The NSW government has opened firearm buyback bookings at six police stations, with 100 owners registered and 30 appointments made for the scheme’s first week by 5pm on Monday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The bookings opened ahead of the scheme’s November 2 start, while farming and shooting groups questioned how many owners would take part without knowing whether they could obtain exemptions next year. The uncertainty concerns draft rules for owners who need more firearms than the applicable cap allows.

Under the draft, the police commissioner would assess additional exemptions individually, with a genuine need for firearms as the stated basis for consideration. The NSW government said police would conduct targeted consultation on the draft regulation.

The legislation sets a four-gun limit for most shooters and a 10-gun limit for farmers and sporting shooters, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The outlet also reported that the government’s legislation was passed after the Bondi terror attack, in which 15 people were killed and dozens of others injured.

That attack is context for the law’s passage; the current buyback booking process and draft exemptions are the immediate focus. The reported registration and appointment totals offer an early count of owners who have signed up and scheduled visits, but they do not establish how many will ultimately surrender firearms.

The groups’ concern, as described by the newspaper, is that owners are being asked to decide whether to participate while the rules for exemptions remain in draft form. A voter survey conducted in August and September found 53 per cent supported the government’s buyback.

The same survey found 80 per cent supported limiting gun licences to Australian citizens, 73 per cent favoured the four-gun cap for individuals, and 75 per cent supported time limits that require licence holders to reapply every few years.

Those figures describe surveyed opinion on several elements of the firearms policy; they do not indicate whether a particular owner has booked or intends to surrender a firearm. The next documented step is police consultation on the draft regulation, alongside the scheduled November 2 start of the scheme.

The commissioner’s case-by-case exemption role is proposed in the draft rules, while the NSW government’s stated plan is to have police consult on them. Griffith Police Station is identified in a Region Riverina headline as a location set to accept guns under the scheme.