Unfortunately Paul, you are correct. They announced the intention of an amnesty for people to hand in firearms without risk of prosecution for having unlicenced guns.
One of the arguments they are using is "there are now more legally owned guns in Australia than prior to the 1996 Buy Back Amnesty" (not targeting law-abiding licenced firearms owners, yeah right !!
). Another they are using is..."there are probably many people out there that have Grandpa's old unlicenced gun down in the back shed and it would be good for the community to have these guns surrendered and off the street without risk of prosecution". They are saying though that they are not targeting licenced firearms owners. I call BS on that one...it's a case of "let's hit the soft target again" as far as I am concerned.
There is no doubt in my mind that the ANTIs
are behind this in some way...either that, or the relevant Govt Minister has ANTI gun leanings or sponsors.
You are 100% correct when you say criminals won't hand in any guns. They, by their very nature don't give a rat's rectum about the laws of the country. They will just laugh at any suggestion they might "do the right thing" and hand in their guns.