The biggest lesson? Don't give an inch.
After the 2025 terror attack at Australia's Bondi Beach, the federal government quickly announced its plans for another "buyback" of firearms, new restrictions on the number of guns that can be owned, and more restrictions on who can own them.
The federal government is setting the terms of the compensated confiscation scheme, but it's up to individual states to participate. So far, only New South Wales has committed to the gun round-up, but almost every state has introduced legislation that would impose more restrictions on lawful owners to one degree or another.
The state of Tasmania recently released its proposed "reforms", and while they're more restrictive than anything we have in the United States, they don't go far enough for Australia's gun control lobby.
The bill still does not include a limit on the number of guns one person can own, despite the state's Police Commissioner Donna Adams calling for it.
It still reclassifies straight pull and button or lever release shotguns to the more restrictive Category C and introduces an Australian citizenship requirement for owners, with carve-outs for New Zealand citizens and people who need them for work.
But it now grandfathers these clauses, meaning the rules do not apply to guns that people already own or to non-citizens who currently own legal guns.
Greens' police spokesperson Tabatha Badger said the bill was "deeply disappointing" and "simply not good enough".
A higher-up in the Gun Control Australia organization complained that the grandfather clause means "shooters in Tasmania keep their guns," and questioned "How is that going to make Tasmania a safer place?"
Well, because the same people who aren't committing crimes today will continue to not commit crimes tomorrow.
For gun control activists, though, lawful gun owners are just potential gun criminals. The prohibitionist mindset that is largely hidden behind a facade of "reasonable safety measures" here in the United States is on full display in Australia, even in those supposedly gun-friendly states like Tasmania.
The Tasmanian government still plans on imposing a gun "buyback" of its own at some point, while New South Wales will be rolling out its compensated confiscation scheme in November.
I call it a compensated confiscation, but that's not really accurate. While gun owners will get some money for handing over their lawfully-purchased firearms, there's no guarantee they'll receive full compensation.
NSW Nationals MP Sarah Mitchell told a budget estimates hearing farmers were concerned about the scheme, the first phase of which is set to begin on November 1.
It will see those with excess guns paid up to $1,000 per weapon for surrendering them, with a second phase for more valuable firearms set to rollout in 2027.
Ms Mitchell said she met a farmer who paid $2,900 for his gun late last year, but would only get $850 for surrendering it.
NSW Premier Chris Minns was forced to defend the scheme, saying the government was paying above recommended retail value for many other types.
"We had to nominate a figure because we're looking at hundreds of thousands of guns being returned and surrendered to the state," he said.
They're not being "returned" to the state, because the state never had possession of these firearms to begin with. "Surrender" is the correct terminology, and that's exactly what the U.S. gun control lobby would love to see here as well.
Right now there are several firewalls that make full-blown confiscation efforts unrealistic, but if Democrats lock down complete control of the federal government after the 2028 cycle and pack the Supreme Court as promised, as well as doing away with the filibuster, then many of those firewalls will quickly crumble.
There's still one major problem that would stand in their way, though: the tens of millions of Americans who wouldn't comply with any demand to turn in their guns to the federal government. I would prefer we not get to that point, and the best way to do that is to vote like your rights depend on it; not just this November, but in every election, whether it's for school board or the U.S. Senate.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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