This was published 3 months ago
The Sydney suburbs with the most guns, as overall numbers rise
Gun ownership in Sydney is increasing and more people are buying multiple firearms on single gun licences.
As Premier Chris Minns flagged reforms to make NSW gun laws the strongest in the country after the Bondi terrorist attack, data from the state’s firearms registry shows ownership is widespread across suburban Sydney, with the average licence holder owning three or more guns.
Some individuals in Sydney, who are not classified as gun dealers or collectors, own almost 300 guns each, the firearms registry data shows.
“When I tell people that there are nearly 500,000 firearms legally owned on suburban streets they are surprised and they think I’m making it up,” said Stephen Bendle, convener of the Australian Gun Safety Alliance, which is campaigning for tighter restrictions on weapon ownership.
Camden in Sydney’s south-western fringe is home to 2621 licensed gun owners – the highest number in Sydney.
The Windsor area in the city’s north-west has 2232 gun owners, Liverpool has 2010, Wyong and Gosford in the Central Coast have 1736 and 1587 gun owners, respectively, and Campbelltown has 1433 licensees.
There is no limit on how many weapons a licensed gun owner can have and, in some cases, a low number of gun owners in a suburb does not correspond to a low number of guns, the registry shows.
One individual licence holder in Sydney’s eastern suburbs living in the Chifley-La Perouse area has 295 guns, another licensee in Punchbowl has 226 guns, another in the Terrey Hills area has 207 guns, a Narrabeen resident has 198 guns and a person living in Burwood has 192.
None of these individuals is a gun dealer or collector.
The average licence holder in Sydney owns three or more guns and the statewide average is just over four guns per licence holder.
Nationwide, there are now fewer individual gun licences than in 1996, when laws were tightened in response to the Port Arthur massacre, but the number of guns has risen.
There are over 4 million guns legally owned by civilians, a 25 per cent rise on the total number in 1996, according to a report released in January by think tank The Australia Institute.
In NSW, about one in 33 people hold a gun licence and 1,133,690 individual firearms are legally registered – the most of any state.
Gun ownership is skewed slightly towards people in regional areas, but about 41 per cent of licensed gun owners live in Sydney, Newcastle or Wollongong.
The Sydney areas with the fewest licensed gun owners are Badgerys Creek, with 15 licences, Camperdown with 20, Silverwater with 21 and Menangle Park with 25.
Other suburbs with low numbers of gun owners are Claymore with 26, Ultimo with 27, Mooney Mooney with 28, Erskineville with 29, and Double Bay with 31.
To get a firearms licence in NSW, a person must apply to police and meet at least one of eight “genuine reasons” for needing a weapon, such as working with livestock as a primary producer or being a member of a hunting club.
Wanting a gun for personal protection is not regarded as a genuine reason.
Sajid Akram, the alleged terrorist who was shot dead by police during the Bondi attack on Sunday, was the legal owner of six guns.
The Bonnyrigg man, 50, first applied for a licence in 2015 but failed to supply photo identification and his application lapsed in 2016. He applied again in 2020 and his gun licence was granted in 2023.
In addition to legally owned weapons, there are about 200,000 illegal firearms circulating in Australia, according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
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