There are more firearms legally held in private hands in Australia than at any time in our history.
New restrictions were introduced in the late 1990s after a spate of gun massacres between 1987 and 1996, but they only affected a fairly limited number of firearms (basically high capacity semi-automatics), and further restrictions on handguns came in the early 2000s.
But only a fairly small proportion of Australians had ever owned weapons like that - we don't have the same culture around guns as the US does.
And the restrictions have been constantly exaggerated in the United States as well.
Law abiding citizens have little difficulty in owning firearms if they want to. But not all that many do compared to the US.
We do have universal registration, and actually carrying a firearm unless you are actually doing something like hunting at the time, etc, is heavily regulated. Storage rules are also very strict.
In other words, you’re screwed.
The purpose of owning a firearm for a mass amount of people in the USA is to have it available for protection. Owning a firearm is not the goal. The restrictions that are placed upon people is how tyrannical governments operate. The people that purchase a firearm should not be burdened with government officials coming into their homes to “inspect” their “registered” firearms. The mass media has an agenda. Every mass shooter that is taken out by a good guy with a gun is hidden from the world. You never see a headline story about when a bad guy with a firearm is taken out by a citizen that is lawfully carrying a weapon. My understanding of Australia is that yes you can own firearms BUT the ownership comes with fees, inspections and restrictions while the gun is owned. In a nutshell if you are “allowed” to own a gun but you have regulations on that ownership you may as well not own the gun and because you are restricted from using it in a meaningful way.
What comes to mind a few years back when I was staying in Sydney. A knife wielding guy murdered a woman and was out on the street after he killed the woman. He had to be subdued by a couple Brits who I think used a chair! At the time no one had a gun to lay the murderer down.
Prayers for the victims and their families in this senseless murder of these people.