ACT Policing has refused to speculate on the number of illegal firearms in the territory after a report into the Sydney siege called for an urgent audit of national data, citing inaccuracies and shortcomings.
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The report, which was released by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and NSW Premier Mike Baird on Sunday, found the modified shotgun used by Man Haron Monis was most likely a "grey market" weapon not handed to authorities during the buy back program in 1996.
According to the Australian Crime Commission, as many as 250,000 illegal firearms and 10,000 handguns were not handed in and may still be diverted to the illicit market.
The report cited inaccuracies and inconsistencies in firearm data across Australia and urged state and territory authorities to take additional measures to control illegal firearms.
"The audit of firearms data is an ongoing police process as it is the role of the ACT Firearms Registry to crosscheck their records against other databases," an ACT Policing spokeswoman said.
"In any discussion it is important to remember that criminals do not respect borders and that the trafficking of illegal firearms is a significant national cross-border issue."
According to the report, police records showed Monis did not at any stage own a firearm and searches were undertaken by every police force in Australia, including against all known aliases.
"No amount of auditing will be able to capture illegally held weapons if they have never previously been registered in the system," the review said
"This presents an ongoing concern for police nationally, as are the links to organised crime."
ACT Policing records reveal 176 firearms were seized in the past year – an annual increase of 58 per cent – while the number of crimes involving a gun dropped by about 42 per cent.
As of January, there were 18,617 firearms registered to about 5886 licensees in the ACT, which is roughly around one gun for every 20 Canberrans.
"The success of the illicit firearms campaign shows that ACT Policing together with the community are committed to removing illegal weapons off our streets and out of the hands of criminals," said the police spokeswoman.
"The ACT Firearms Registry data provides a suite of information about gun owners, gun types, ownership details, firearms security and purpose of ownership, as well as an opportunity to crosscheck against other records when auditing."
Professor Roderic Broadhurst, chief investigator at the Centre for Excellence in Policing and Security at the ANU, was sceptical of the 250,000 illegal firearms figure and said it was an educated guess at best.
"There has been a long standing problem even accurately measuring registered weapons and there may be a large number of long-guns still located in rural areas despite Howard's amnesty," he said.
"We already know that theft of firearms – again in country areas – can be significant if not high volume.
"The biggest problem in recent times has been the mailing from overseas, notably the US, of firearm components that are then re-assembled."
The report, which was prepared by Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet Michael Thawley and Secretary of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet Blair Comley, said an estimated 1500 firearms were stolen each year with relatively few recovered.
"While better police information will not always be preventative in the fight against illegal firearm use, (…) improvements to firearms databases nationally will improve how policing databases can be used to track legal and some illegal firearms."
The ACT Policing spokeswoman said the force relied on the public as an important source of information about illegal firearms in the community.
"Any information we receive about illegal or unregistered firearms is investigated," she said.
