Factcheck: Do Australians 'overwhelmingly support' gun control? Yes they do.

The Federal Government’s national gun buyback scheme has had a stumbling block. Despite Victoria, NSW, WA, and the ACT all signing up to the buyback, SA, QLD, Tasmania, and the NT have not agreed to take part.

Asked about this on Tuesday, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland told ABC News Breakfast:

Well, we will continue to prosecute our case, considering that this was agreed to by National Cabinet. For those states and territories who have not yet come on board, that is for them to explain to their constituencies why that’s the case … They are overwhelmingly supported by the Australian people, and when you consider the fact that there are now more guns in Australia than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre, and one of the key items that I think came out of the lessons from Bondi, unfortunately last December, is that we need to get our gun laws under control, we need to do that on a national level.

Are gun control reforms “overwhelmingly supported” by the Australian people?

Polling surveys consistently show that Australians support strengthened gun control.

An Australia Institute poll in January 2025 found seven in ten (70%) Australians thought Australia’s gun laws should make it harder to buy a gun. That included a majority of Australians across voting intentions, including supporters of the Coalition and One Nation, parties that voted against new federal gun laws earlier this year.

In the same poll, three-quarters (77%) of Australians also supported limiting the number of firearms an individual can own, as Western Australia did in 2024. Three-quarters of people in NSW (76%), Victoria (74%), and Queensland (78%) also supported ownership limits, though only NSW has implemented them so far.

Immediately after the Bondi Massacre in December, several polls showed overwhelming support for strengthened gun control laws. In the week following the massacre, a Resolve poll found 76% of Australians preferred toughening gun laws, and a YouGov poll found “near-universal” (92%) support for stronger gun laws, including 44% who supported a complete ban on the types of weapons used.

Even as the specifics of the Federal Government’s gun control legislation were revealed and the Liberal-National Coalition announced its opposition to the reforms, a clear majority (63%) of Australians still supported strengthening gun laws, while less than 20% opposed it.

Verdict: True

Are there more guns in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre?

In 1996, the year of the Port Arthur massacre, there were 3.2 million privately owned firearms in Australia, including those owned illegally. After the National Gun Buyback commenced by then-Prime Minister John Howard, with the cooperation of all states and territories, later that year, that number had fallen to just 2.5 million.

But the number of guns in Australia has been steadily creeping upwards since then.

Australia Institute research found that there were over four million privately owned, registered firearms in Australia as of 2024. As of December last year, the number had grown to 4.1 million, not including illegal firearms, according to data released by the Department of Home Affairs.

Verdict: True