There have been a lot of shootings in Sydney lately, including a triple shooting at Greenacre at the weekend, an attempted assassination at a Marrickville hairdresser and an execution in Bondi Junction.
Data from the NSW Firearms Registry shows that there are 1.1 million registered guns in New South Wales, the equivalent of one gun per eight people in our state.
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Do we have too many guns in our state? Should we be worried?
On today’s This Arvo in Sydney, LiSTNR investigative editor Clair Weaver took a deep dive into the alarming data of registered guns, revealing the top 10 suburbs with the highest gun ownership in NSW.
There are almost 400 million guns in the US, meaning their gun population is bigger than their population.
While in Australia, former PM John Howard implemented the country’s National Firearms Agreement after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, destroying more than 650,000 guns.
Now, there are estimated to be more than 100,000 unregistered or illicit firearms in the state, with suburbs like Camden, Liverpool and Mulgoa having the highest gun ownership, each at 8,649, 5,573 and 4,256.
The defence forces have around 215,000 firearms, while the cops or law enforcement have about 69,000.
There are many more people applying for licences than handing back their weapons. Let’s look at two months ago, when there were 1,651 new firearms licence applications submitted and 6,392 permits to acquire gun applications submitted,”
Weaver said.
Weaver said Australia was ranked 26th out of 206 countries worldwide for the biggest total of privately owned guns.
That’s not counting the illegal weapons,”
she said.
Clair said the availability of guns was a primary risk factor in violent deaths among relationships impacted by intimate partner violence.
For example, the risk of a male perpetrator killing their partner. It’s 10 times higher if they have access to a gun.”
Hosted by Sacha Barbour, This Arvo in Sydney is a 10 to 12 minute daily news podcast made just for Sydney! Listen now on the Listnr app.