VIENNA – Austria’s federal government is moving at full speed toward what officials call the most sweeping overhaul of gun laws in decades, aiming to have the legislation finalized before the new school year begins. The push comes exactly two months after a 21-year-old shot and killed ten people at BORG Dreierschützengasse in Graz—a massacre that jolted the country and triggered immediate political action.
SPÖ security spokesman Maximilian Köllner told Heute that consensus has been reached on the central points, with only technical details remaining. The planned changes would raise the minimum purchase age for Category B firearms, such as pistols, from 18 to 25; allow direct data sharing between health authorities and weapons regulators; mandate more rigorous psychological evaluations for gun owners; extend the mandatory waiting period for purchases to four weeks; and authorize authorities to confiscate weapons from anyone deemed dangerous.
Köllner also pushed for retroactive application, arguing that the surge in gun purchases since news of the reforms broke was no coincidence. Those transactions, he said, should be brought under the scope of the new law—a point still to be negotiated with coalition partners.
The Interior Committee is expected to convene no later than early September, with Köllner confident that remaining points can be resolved swiftly.
In a pointed jab at the Greens, who have criticized the plan, Köllner dismissed their stance as moral grandstanding, questioning their record over the past five years and labeling their opposition to the government’s initiative as lacking credibility.
While summer recess would normally slow legislative momentum, the urgency of the Graz tragedy has kept the gears of policymaking turning at full pace, setting the stage for what may become the most consequential change to Austria’s firearms regulations in a generation.
