The NSW Government, under Premier Chris Minns, may be directing the NSW Police Firearms Registry to revoke as many shooters’ and dealers’ licenses as possible to reduce the potential cost of the gun ‘buyback’ proposed by the Albanese Government.
Several sources from within the industry and gun clubs have told Sporting Shooter about a spike is licence revocations and an increased level of inspections of firearms dealers.
Some of those sources believe it is part of a campaign to cripple the gun sports and firearms industry in the state and reduce the number of legally held firearms before the compulsory acquisition of firearms — or ‘buyback’ — starts.
There is still no confirmation of when the ‘buyback’ will begin, although most observers agree it won’t be before February next year, and there is a growing belief that it may not happen at all, especially after only NSW and the ACT signed up for it by the deadline.
At the same time, shooting representatives are becoming more concerned about ongoing regulatory delays that are causing massive disruption in the shooting community, including the inordinately long time it is taking to introduce regulations to accompany the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Act rushed through parliament as ‘emergency’ legislation in December 2025.
Permit to acquire (PTA) delays in NSW have blown out to more than three months, with multiple shooters reporting waiting between 90-120 days for Category A or B PTAs, despite already holding a valid firearms licence.
Processing of firearms licence matters, including Permits To Acquire, has ground to a crawl at the NSW Firearms Registry following the rushed passage of the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Act in December 2025.
The situation has been further exacerbated by additional changes which came into effect on 1 July requiring new PTA applicants to have a valid safe-storage inspection report on file from NSW Police before the PTA will be issued.
These inspections will put an additional burden on police, who are not sufficiently resourced for doing them on a large scale.
The delays mean people who applied for PTAs in late March are only now receiving approvals, and those applying for a PTA now will be unlikely to take possession of their new firearm before October.
Shooters Union Australia president Graham Park said the delays were inexcusable and needed to be formally investigated.
“There is absolutely no practical reason whatsoever for it to take more than three months to issue any PTA for a firearm to someone who already has a gun licence,” he said.
“Even factoring in the additional background checks introduced in NSW, someone who has a licence has already been vetted, and a PTA should essentially be a formality – especially if someone already has a firearm registered to them.”
Mr Park said he believed there was obvious political interference at play in the NSW Firearms Registry’s work, and it needed to be properly investigated.
“Can you imagine if Transport NSW made everyone wait three months to process their car’s annual roadworthy certificate?” he said.
“No-one would accept them saying, ‘Sorry, you can’t register or drive your car for three months because we’ve decided we hate private vehicles and are going out of our way to make things as difficult as possible for no reason,’ yet that is exactly what is happening to shooters and it’s being allowed because it suits the Minns Labor Government’s agenda.”
The delays are compounding the crisis NSW firearms dealers are experience in the wake of the December 2025 legislative changes – a crisis which the Minns Labor Government does not seem in any hurry to resolve or mitigate.
Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SIFA) CEO James Walsh said NSW firearms businesses were experiencing losses of up to 80%, partly due to the administrative burden on the NSW firearms registry following the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Act, and the PTA delays were adding to an already dire situation.
“With permits taking four months or more to process, businesses are being impacted significantly as this drag is stopping the sale of regulated products,” he said.
“Despite the NSW government providing $40m in assistance to the Registry, this is over 10 years and nowhere near enough funding to ensure that our industry is administered in a timely manner.
“This is just another fail by the Minns Labor Government, that seems happy to be destroying small businesses across NSW.”
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