Australia’s strict gun laws have reduced domestic gun violence, but the country still enables global harm through defence companies linked to weapons used in organised crime and terrorism abroad, writes Jake Steisel.
ALMOST 30 YEARS AGO, the Port Arthur massacre forced Australia to confront gun violence head-on. Within 12 days, the Government announced sweeping gun control reforms: banning semi-automatic weapons, instituting mandatory buybacks and requiring licences for firearm ownership.
Fast forward to 14 December 2025 and the Bondi Beach terror attack reminds Australia that while it has made great progress in reducing the risk of gun violence, the threat is far from over. Parliament recently voted in favour of sweeping gun law reforms. But there’s a blind spot in these reforms: Australian companies can still profit from supplying some of the world’s deadliest firearms — guns with minimal restrictions in other countries, used to commit terrorism and atrocities worldwide.
In January 2023, NIOA Group, a Queensland-based munitions company, acquired Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, a renowned U.S. rifle maker known for its .50 calibre rifles, which it sells to the general public, including teenagers, in the United States. While the military has long used .50 calibre firearms, their introduction to the civilian market is credited to the development of the Barrett semi-automatic rifle.
Ronnie Barrett’s 1987 patent called his invention an ‘anti-armour gun’ and it has capabilities including extended range and accuracy of at least 1,000 yards (914 metres) and up to 2,000 yards (1.83 kilometres — more than twice the average effective range of an AR-15), and immense destructive power, such as the ability to destroy armoured vehicles and aircraft. In short, Barrett rifles bring weapons of war into civilian markets.
History shows the consequences. A recent report from the Violence Policy Centre documents the ties between Barrett rifles and international criminal activity from the company’s earliest days. For example, in the late 1980s, ‘Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda bought 25 Barrett .50 calibre anti-armour sniper rifles’ and the Irish Republican Army used Barrett .50 calibre rifles to assassinate British troops and Irish constables.
By 1999, a U.S. government report highlighted that Barrett’s .50 calibre rifles were linked to criminal misuse ‘with a nexus to terrorism, outlaw motorcycle gangs, international and domestic drug trafficking and violent crime’.
Despite that report, Barrett .50 calibre rifles remain alarmingly accessible in the U.S., as long as one is willing to pay between US$5,000-15,000 (AU$7,000-21,000). Virtually any U.S. citizen over the age of 18 and not a convicted felon can walk into one of thousands of dealers and walk out with a Barrett .50 calibre rifle.
Thankfully, most U.S. dealers do not wantonly sell firearms to criminals. Indeed, over 90% of firearms dealers sell virtually no crime guns. The problem is that a small percentage of gun dealers willfully or recklessly ignore indicators of criminality to maximise profits at all costs; 5% of dealers sell over 90% of crime guns.
But despite manufacturers like Barrett having the ability to restrict sales to high-risk dealers and to require dealers to proactively stop questionable sales, as put by a former National Rifle Association lawyer, gun lobbyist and firearms trade association director Robert Ricker, they have chosen a “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” approach. Or as put by a Glock executive, Glock (and other manufacturers) ‘would keep doing business with a gun dealer who had been indicted on a charge of violating firearms laws because “This is still America” and “‘You’re still innocent until proven guilty”’.
This permissive attitude has deadly consequences. As detailed by Mexico in its lawsuit filed against seven gun manufacturers, including Barrett, the Barrett .50 calibre rifle ‘has become one of the cartels’ guns of choice’ and they are frequently purchased in the U.S. and trafficked to Mexican cartels.
In one instance, a Barrett .50 calibre rifle was used by a Mexican cartel in September 2016 to shoot down a helicopter belonging to a state attorney general’s office. The recent Violence Policy Centre report detailed a lengthy list of cartel attacks and assassinations in Mexico with .50 calibre rifles. These weapons of war have recently been used by gangs in Haiti as well, to take on law enforcement.
Despite this background, NIOA Group proudly acquired Barrett in 2023, with NIOA Group CEO Robert Nioa sharing that NIOA was “inspired by the story of Barrett and admire what Ronnie, Chris and the family have built over more than four decades”. Robert Nioa has since intimately involved himself in Barrett’s operations, including befriending and presenting Donald Trump Jr “with a custom Barrett MRADELR, hand-painted in a battle finish American flag design”.
Australia must act. Stricter domestic gun laws are necessary — but so is global responsibility. Government contracts should not reward companies profiting from gun violence abroad. NIOA has received hundreds of millions in Australian defence contracts, including a $527.2 million award in 2022 and funding for new facilities. These contracts should not support companies whose products fuel terror and cartel violence worldwide.
Australia has shown it can lead on gun control. It’s time to extend that leadership beyond its borders.
Jake Steisel is a Senior Staff Attorney at Global Action on Gun Violence, the only organisation working with countries and people around the world to reduce the global harm from guns by using litigation and human rights strategies to reform dangerous gun industry practices.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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