The National Firearms Theft Monitoring Program (NFTMP) was established at the Australian Institute of Criminology following a recommendation by the (then) Australasian Police Ministers' Council Firearms Policy Working Group for the long-term monitoring of firearm theft. The program is funded by the Australian Government under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for a period of four years, starting 1 July 2006. This report represents the second in the NFTMP-funded series and the third examining annual firearm theft data.
From 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007, 626 incidents of firearm theft were reported to police, with a total of 1,526 firearms stolen. Around half of these incidents resulted in the theft of a single firearm; in the majority of these, the firearm was registered, and the owner was in possession of an appropriate firearm licence. Rifles comprised 57 percent of stolen firearms; shotguns, a quarter; and handguns, seven percent. The majority of thefts targeted private residential premises, and one in ten thefts were from vehicles or business premises.