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Australia Firearm Data Breach Shows Dangers of Gun Licensing and Registration

Monday, August 4, 2025

Australia Firearm Data Breach Shows Dangers of Gun Licensing and Registration

Firearm data breaches are becoming the norm in Australasia.

In 2024, The Australian state of Western Australia enacted what it termed "Australia's toughest firearms laws." According to the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC), the legislation sought to severely limit the number of people eligible to acquire a license to possess firearms “by requiring stronger evidence of why firearms are needed.” The ABC item noted that it is the government’s position that “the possession and use of a firearm is a privilege but not a right.”

The legislation also capped the number of firearms an individual may own to 5 or 10, depending on the type of license they are able to acquire. The ABC report stated that up to 40,000 firearms would be confiscated under the scheme.

To carry out the new legal regime, Western Australia developed the online Western Australia Police Force Firearms Licensing and Registration Portal. Since coming online earlier this year, the system has proven to be a mess.

A July article from WAtoday titled “Deb’s 25 years of administration experience proved no match for WA’s firearms portal” chronicled former administrator Deb Taylor’s odyssey with the system. Taylor stated, “I was having a hell of a time with it – it wasn’t good, and I’ve been [doing this] for 25 years, and I was struggling to try and navigate it. All I could think was so many people are going to struggle with this.”

Another gun owner told the news outlet, “It’s almost as if it’s designed to be deliberately difficult,” and that, “he had spent months being bounced between different customer service agents who had at times just stopped answering his queries.”

The byzantine compliance procedure may not be the worst thing about this bureaucratic monstrosity.

On July 17, the Western Australian ran a story with the headline “Firearm portal paused after security breach exposes gun safe locations in WA.” According to the report,

A Jarrahdale sports shooting club raised the alarm, after it realised persons with expired authorisation were still able to access data including storage locations of firearms registered to the club’s corporate licence.

The West Australian understands the alarm was raised on Wednesday night, when the club contacted police.

Police have “paused” the portal as a result, with the website instead notifying users that the service is unavailable due to system maintenance.

Western Australian Member of Parliament Brian Walker told the paper, “The system is not only faulty, but is dangerously unfit for purpose,” adding, “Those involved have had the physical addresses of their properties shared, including the locations of their gun safes, to every other person on the list.”

In response to the breach, the Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SIFA) chastised the Western Australia government. SIFA CEO James Walsh stated,

“First, they leak the addresses of gun owners’ safe storage locations to be published by the media. Now their clunky, largely unusable $35 million firearms portal has been breached with more safe storage locations compromised

“This entire process has been a complete debacle. While the WA Government attempted to sell the reforms as an increase in public safety, they have done nothing but compromise the safety of not only law-abiding firearm owners, but the public as well.”

Gun owners would be right to feel a sense of déjà vu.

NRA-ILA has reported on three separate gun owner data leaks in Australia’s Oceania neighbor New Zealand. In 2025, Israeli gun owner data was breached.

Stateside, the California Department of Justice  leaked sensitive gun owner data in 2022. The breach included the data for individuals who had been granted or denied a Concealed Carry Weapons permit between 2011 and 2021 (names, date of birth, gender, race, driver’s license number, addresses, and criminal history) and potentially implicated other categories of gun owners.

As this ever-increasing list of sensitive firearm information data breaches shows, the only sure way to safeguard gun owner data is to not collect it at all.

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North Carolina: Pro-Gun Bills Advance in Veto Override Session

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

North Carolina: Pro-Gun Bills Advance in Veto Override Session

During a veto override session on Tuesday, July 29th, both chambers passed House Bill 193 (H193) and defeated Governor Josh Stein's veto.

NRA, Other Leading Second Amendment Groups File Lawsuit Challenging the Constitutionality of the National Firearms Act

News  

Friday, August 1, 2025

NRA, Other Leading Second Amendment Groups File Lawsuit Challenging the Constitutionality of the National Firearms Act

Today, the National Rifle Association (NRA), American Suppressor Association (ASA), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Prime Protection STL Tactical Boutique, and two members of the organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality ...

Report: Newsom Rejected Gifted Handgun Because California Law is Too Complicated

News  

Monday, July 28, 2025

Report: Newsom Rejected Gifted Handgun Because California Law is Too Complicated

In a video interview with Tennessee-based podcaster Shawn Ryan published earlier this month, anti-gun California Governor Gavin Newsom appeared to accept a gift of a Sig P365 XMACRO semi-automatic handgun from the former U.S. Navy ...

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Signed by Governor

Monday, July 7, 2025

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Signed by Governor

Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed the Florida Budget for Fiscal Year 2025–2026, which includes a Second Amendment sales tax holiday from September 8 through December 31, 2025. The NRA is thankful for Governor DeSantis’ strong ...

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

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Second Amendment  

Thursday, May 22, 2025

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act, completely removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA).

Legislation Introduced to Prevent States from Enforcing Firearm Rosters

News  

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Legislation Introduced to Prevent States from Enforcing Firearm Rosters

On July 23, Representatives Darrell Issa (R-CA-48) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) introduced the Modern Firearm Safety Act (H.R. 4676). This legislation would reject the effort by anti-gun radicals to utilize unconstitutional “handgun rosters.” These rosters prevent law-abiding ...

Minnesota: Shotgun-Only Hunting Zones Repealed

Friday, June 20, 2025

Minnesota: Shotgun-Only Hunting Zones Repealed

On Monday, June 9th, outside of regular session, the Senate passed the Environment Omnibus bill, removing shotgun-only hunting zones in the state. 

North Carolina: Update on Gun Bills Moving through the General Assembly

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Gun Bills Moving through the General Assembly

Recently, House Bill 193 (H193) was reported favorably out of both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Rules Committee, with amendments.

Sen. Murphy and Political Performance Art

News  

Monday, July 28, 2025

Sen. Murphy and Political Performance Art

Readers of our alerts know, very well, that U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) does not believe in the Second Amendment, and would probably like to see virtually every law-abiding American disarmed. And he has held ...

Montana: Governor Gianforte Signs Legislation Protecting Against Localized "Red Flag" Laws

Monday, May 12, 2025

Montana: Governor Gianforte Signs Legislation Protecting Against Localized "Red Flag" Laws

On Thursday, May 8th, Governor Greg Gianforte signed House Bill 809 into law, protecting citizens against localized "red flag" laws and any outside funding intended to promote the use of such schemes. 

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NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.