Australia to Confiscate and Destroy 'Hundreds of Thousands of Firearms'

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made clear Friday that a forced buyback “scheme” will be enacted and result in the collection and destruction of “hundreds of thousands of firearms.”

This gun control push comes after two terrorists–a father and son duo ages 50 and 24–used legally-owned firearms to attack innocents at an event celebrating Hanukkah on Bondi Beach Sunday evening.

On December 16, 2025, Breitbart News noted that Albanese’s knee-jerk reaction to two terrorists misusing guns was to consider more gun control for the whole of Australia.

On Friday, WXII 12 reported on his announcement of the plan, noting that there will be a forced buyback funded by the government. The target of the buyback: “Surplus, newly banned, and illegal firearms.”

Albanese said, “We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme.”

The projection of “hundreds of thousands of firearms” being “collected and destroyed” is reminiscent of Australia’s initial confiscatory gun ban, following the 1996 Port Arthur shooting. The National Firearms Agreement emerged at that time, containing a firearm buyback that was mandatory. The result? At least 700,000 guns were handed over to the government during the buyback time frame.

The National Firearms Agreement targeted semiautomatic firearms and contained universal background checks and licensing and registration requirements for the few types of guns which the government would still allow Australians to own. CNN summed up this aspect of the National Firearms Agreement: “Rapid-fire rifles and shotguns were banned, gun owner licensing was tightened and remaining firearms were registered to uniform national standards.”

Many other guns were handed over to the Australian government apart from the buyback, bringing the total number of guns taken and destroyed by the government to approximately one million.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.