The Australian Institute of Criminology has released a Statistical Bulletin on the availability and purchase of digital firearms products among online Australians, based on a national survey of 9,951 online Australian adults:
- More than twice as many respondents (2.4%) had seen digital firearms products for sale on the public internet (clear web) compared with the darknet (0.9%).
- Just over one percent (1.1%) of respondents said they or someone they knew had bought or traded digital firearms products online on the public internet (0.7%) or on the darknet (0.8%).
- Respondents who said they or someone they knew had bought or traded digital firearms products online were more likely than other respondents to have had contact with the criminal justice system, including for violent offences, to own a firearm without a licence, to have intentionally viewed fringe or radical content and to have seen content depicting or calling for violent action.
Media
For media enquiries related to this report, or requests for interviews, please reach out to AIC Media.
Email: media@acic.gov.au
Phone: 02 6268 7343