NSW firearms data: almost 250,000 shooters and over 1m guns

A steadily increasing number of NSW residents are taking up shooting and hunting, with the latest figures from the state Firearms Registry confirming almost 250,000 NSW residents now have firearms licences.

The 2022 Firearms Registry Performance and Data Report – which you can read here – has been released and shows that, as of 28 August, 2022, there were 248,055 licensed firearms owners in NSW – up 2,495 from December 2021.

If this trend continues, the state exceed a quarter of a million licensed shooters during 2023.

Nearly all of them are licensed for Category A firearms (241,464) and Category B firearms (228,980) while 16,599 are licensed for Category C guns.

Only 517 people are licensed for semi-auto centrefire rifles (Category D).

There are more pistol shooters than you might expect in the state, with 17,538 Category H licences, although this does include security businesses, too.

2900 people have Collector’s Licences and there are 676 licensed firearms dealers and club armourers in the state.

On the hardware front, there are just over a million registered guns across NSW — 1,074,586 firearms on the books as of 28 August. You are, of course, free to self-insert the ‘rookie numbers’ meme at this point, although it’s worth noting that number is up from 1,046,469 in December 2021.

Almost half of NSW’s registered guns on 28 August this year were Category A (535,982), trailed by Category B with 373,215 firearms.

There were only 11,672 Category C firearms and a paltry 728 guns comprised Category D.

The state’s handgun licensees own 44,658 pistols, while collectors have 14,449 firearms of assorted categories registered to them.

The remainder of the legally recorded guns in NSW are held by the state’s firearm dealers, with 93,879 guns of various types in their inventories.

The data release also shows that – shock, horror – people across the entire state own guns, with almost every single city/town/local government area having firearms licensees in it.

We can look forward to a pearl-clutching story in some of the clickbait-chasing media outlets soon.

72,792 PTA applications were received from September 2021 to August 2022, averaging 6066 a month – the highest number was in August (7029 applications) while unsurprisingly December 2021 had the lowest number with 4749 PTA applications.

PTA processing times over the year have averaged 10-14 days, including mandatory cooling off periods as well as delays caused by applicants responding, or not responding, to Registry queries.

Finally, the report also includes some information on the ongoing amnesty, showing that from September 2021 to August 2022, 5371 guns were surrendered as part of the amnesty.

Unsurprisingly, more than half (3407) were Category A guns – you can bet a lot of cheap air-rifles and worn-out single-shot .22s and shotguns were among them – with 1518 Category B firearms, 214 Category C or D firearms (the data combined the categories, suggesting there weren’t many Category D guns getting handed in), 180 handguns, and 52 prohibited weapons.

Overall, the report makes interesting reading and paints a broadly positive picture of the firearms ownership scene in NSW.