The Minns Government has caused significant and unnecessary damage to the NSW shooting industry. Consumer confidence has collapsed, leaving licensed firearms dealers to absorb the cost of policies that were introduced without supporting evidence, and that changed the marketplace almost overnight.

The reforms include a four-firearm cap for most licence holders, the reclassification of straight-pull, pump-action, button-release and lever-release firearms, reduced magazine capacities, mandatory club membership, two-year standard licence terms and a government funded buyback that has yet to be implemented.

More than seven months after the legislation passed Parliament, several of its most consequential measures have still not commenced. The two-year licence term and changes to permits, identity checks and eligibility requirements took effect on 1 July 2026. However, licensed shooters and dealers are still waiting for the commencement dates, transitional and compliance arrangements, and buyback details for the remaining reforms including how affected firearms already owned by licence holders, or held as dealer inventory, will be treated under the compensation scheme.

The industry is already paying the price for this uncertainty. With future demand and the treatment of existing inventory unresolved, orders continue to fall, cash flow is tightening and essential operating costs, including security, alarms, insurance, staffing and regulatory compliance, must still be paid. Many businesses are now close to the edge.

The Commonwealth has compounded that pressure through the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Act 2026, which established the national firearms buyback and amended firearms import, customs and background-check arrangements.

The regulatory burden of these unnecessary laws is already evident. NSW Police has acknowledged that implementing the reforms has required substantial changes to Firearms Registry systems, processes, policies and business practices. This has led to delays across Registry services and added to the financial hit that firearms businesses are already struggling with. 

Given the lack of any government action or economic support to assist the industry with the fallout from their policy decisions, it is apparent that the NSW and Commonwealth governments appear to regard the destruction of the firearms dealer network as an industry problem. But it is much more than that. 

What they fail to recognise is that the loss of the dealer network would also impose a substantial operational burden on police. 

Licensed firearms dealers perform most of the transaction processing, verification and record-keeping that keeps the lawful firearms system operating. Under the NSW firearms dealer framework, a dealer licence authorises the manufacture, acquisition, supply, testing and repair of firearms and firearm parts, while being subjected to extensive record-keeping, security, safe-storage and reporting obligations.

Dealers verify licences, permits and identification, process acquisitions and disposals, witness transfers, record firearm movements and manage interstate transactions. They receive firearms for repair, warranty work, consignment and safekeeping, deal with deceased estates and assist owners to dispose of firearms they no longer want or can no longer lawfully possess. Dealers also securely store seized firearms for police and are the principal lawful surrender point under the permanent firearms amnesty. 

Under NSW law, a firearm may only be disposed of through a licensed dealer or surrendered to police, and a transfer to another licence holder must be witnessed by a dealer who checks the purchaser’s firearms licence, Permit to Acquire and identification. The NSW Police Gun Safe dealer portal is built around that regulated role, giving dealers a secure, real-time system for recording firearm movements and meeting their reporting obligations. The Firearms Registry maintains the system, but dealers undertake the administration and enter the information on which the regulator relies.

If firearms dealers are forced to close, the work they do doesn’t disappear with them. NSW has 261,000 firearms licence holders, and someone will still have to administer the system and perform the work dealers currently undertake in the ordinary course of business; and that is the police.

A significant unintended consequence of making the lawful market unviable is that police stations across the state will be required to absorb work currently undertaken by regulated private businesses. This would place further pressure on police stations, frontline and licensing police officers and the Firearms Registry.

The scale of this burden would be substantial. The Queensland Audit Office reported that Queensland Police estimated that processing firearm transfer and disposal forms between 2015 and 2019 consumed between 60,000 and 100,000 hours, equivalent to the workload of 12 full-time staff over that five-year period.

Whilst NSW operates an online system, it’s important to note that not all the work required is automated. The portal records the transaction, but it does not perform it. This means that someone must still be available to inspect the documents, verify the parties, receive and identify the firearm and ultimately enter all the details.

At a time when the New South Wales Police Force is facing a chronic staffing shortage, with more than 2,000 active vacancies and thousands more officers unavailable due to leave, the Minns Government is playing a dangerous game. Questions need to be asked as to why it would implement policies that could impose even more administrative work on police and divert officers from the frontline?

Licensed firearms dealers in Australia are an essential part of Australia’s firearms regulatory framework and are therefore a critical part in upholding public safety. If the dealer network is rendered unviable due to government policy, the system will fail, public safety will suffer, and frontline police will be forced to undertake the full administration of the firearms sector. 

This is now urgent! The government needs to step up before it’s too late and adequately compensate businesses it is destroying.