MEDIA RELEASE - 27 August 2026
Updated National Firearms Agreement Leaves Out Numerical Caps and Recategorisation
The first update to the National Firearms Agreement in nearly a decade, signed at National Cabinet on 26 August, adopts measures aimed at genuine risk — but does not include numerical caps, any recategorisation of firearm types, or a compulsory buyback. Both caps and firearm-type limits were placed on the table by National Cabinet in December 2025; neither survived into the Agreement. SSAA ACT INC welcomes an evidence-led national outcome, and asks why measures the nation as a whole did not adopt still sit in the ACT’s Bill.
CANBERRA, ACT — When National Cabinet met on Wednesday 26 August 2026, First Ministers signed the first update to the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) since 2017. The agreed changes — sharing Commonwealth criminal intelligence, making Australian citizenship a condition of a firearms licence, and prohibiting 3D-printed firearms — are directed at genuine risk and illicit supply. Absent from the updated Agreement were the two measures of greatest concern to lawful firearms owners: numerical caps on how many firearms a person may hold, and the recategorisation of specific firearm actions and magazine capacities. Both had been placed on the national table in December 2025; neither made the final Agreement.
“In December, National Cabinet asked officials to develop options for capping how many firearms a person may own, and for limiting the types that are legal. Eight months on, First Ministers have updated the National Firearms Agreement for the first time in nearly a decade — and left both out. That is a considered, evidence-led outcome, and we welcome it. The fair question now is why the ACT is still pressing measures the nation as a whole did not adopt.”
Nicole, Secretary, SSAA ACT INC
What National Cabinet agreed — and what it did not
The updated Agreement adopts three measures: sharing Commonwealth criminal intelligence with the states and territories; making Australian citizenship a condition of holding a firearms licence, subject to agreed exceptions; and prohibiting the manufacture of 3D-printed firearms and the possession and distribution of material for making them. SSAA ACT supports strong measures directed at genuine risk, and these are of that kind. What the Agreement does not contain is just as significant: no numerical caps, no recategorisation of firearm types, and no compulsory buyback.
From December to August: two measures dropped
The contrast with December is stark. On 15 December 2025, in the immediate aftermath of the Bondi Beach attack, National Cabinet commissioned officials to “develop options” to strengthen gun laws — expressly including “limiting the number of firearms to be held by any one individual” and “limiting open-ended firearms licencing and the types of guns that are legal, including modifications.” Those are numerical caps and recategorisation.
When the Agreement was updated eight months later, neither survived into it. Of the options canvassed in December, the measures adopted are those aimed at genuine risk and illicit supply; the two that would have fallen hardest on lawful, licensed owners were set aside.
Why it matters for the ACT — “national consistency”
Throughout the ACT debate, the Government has justified its proposals by appeal to “national consistency” and to the National Firearms Agreement itself.
That Agreement has now been updated for the first time in nearly a decade — and it contains neither caps nor recategorisation.
Numerical caps have only ever been legislated in two jurisdictions (New South Wales and Western Australia); five of the eight Australian jurisdictions declined them; and the updated national standard now omits them as well. On the Government’s own preferred test — consistency with the national standard — the case for the ACT’s proposed caps and recategorisation is weaker today, not stronger.
The buyback: opt-in, and named for two
On the buyback, the communiqué said little. The Commonwealth “stands ready to support states and territories which choose to implement a National Gun Buyback Scheme” — opt-in, not compulsory, and separate from the National Firearms Agreement. Its only specific reference named just two jurisdictions: “the Commonwealth welcomed progress implementation arrangements of the National Gun Buyback Scheme with New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.” As the ACT Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services, Dr Marisa Paterson, confirmed to SSAA ACT on 25 August, the terms of the ACT scheme are still not formalised and its cost is still not modelled. In the ACT, unlike the States, any acquisition of property must be on just terms at fair market value, as section 23 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) requires.
The alternative SSAA ACT supports
SSAA ACT INC is not opposed to sensible firearms regulation. It supports evidence-based measures directed at genuine risk — secure storage, fit-and-proper licensing, and keeping firearms away from anyone who would misuse them. The updated National Firearms Agreement reflects that approach, and we welcome it. We ask only that the ACT hold its own proposals to the same standard: if numerical caps and recategorisation did not meet the evidence test at the national level, the Assembly should ask why they belong in the ACT’s Bill.
“We welcome a national outcome built on risk and evidence rather than on arbitrary caps on firearms numbers for their own sake. Our message to the Assembly is a simple one: apply the same test here. Measures the nation weighed and set aside should not be imposed on Canberra’s licensed owners without a clear, stated public-safety benefit — and none has been given.”
Nicole, Secretary, SSAA ACT INC
-ENDS-
MEDIA CONTACT
Nicole
Secretary
SSAA ACT INC
info@ssaaact.org.au
NOTES TO EDITORS
NOTES TO EDITORS
National Cabinet, Communiqué, 26 August 2026: updated National Firearms Agreement (first update since 2017) — Commonwealth criminal-intelligence sharing; Australian citizenship as a condition of a firearms licence (subject to agreed exceptions); prohibition on the manufacture of 3D-printed firearms and the possession and distribution of material for making them; Commonwealth “stands ready to support states and territories which choose to implement a National Gun Buyback Scheme” (Recommendation 14); “the Commonwealth welcomed progress implementation arrangements of the National Gun Buyback Scheme with New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.” National Cabinet, Communiqué, 15 December 2025 (pm.gov.au): officials commissioned to “develop options” including “limiting the number of firearms to be held by any one individual” and “limiting open-ended firearms licencing and the types of guns that are legal, including modifications.” ACT buyback status per SSAA ACT’s meeting with the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services, Dr Marisa Paterson, on 25 August 2026 (terms not formalised; cost not modelled). Evidence and legal anchors: Lay Rapid Review of Victoria’s Firearms Laws (May 2026) — “no clear evidence that numerical caps on individual ownership, by themselves, reduce firearms-related harm”; ACT Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, Report 9 (May 2026), Finding 1; Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) s 23. Numerical caps legislated only in New South Wales and Western Australia; five of the eight jurisdictions declined caps.
The Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia ACT Inc (SSAA ACT INC) is the peak body representing licensed firearms owners, competitive shooters, hunters and rural users in the Australian Capital Territory. SSAA ACT represents approximately 5,700 members; there are approximately 7,000 licensed firearm owners in the ACT (these are distinct figures).
This release is for public information and does not constitute legal advice.