The annual rate of gun theft in Australia has almost doubled since 2009, with more than 6,000 guns stolen from mid-2013 to mid-2015, according to a report by Gun Control Australia.

Key points: A 2009 AIS study found the number of stolen firearms around 1,700

A 2009 AIS study found the number of stolen firearms around 1,700 Gun Control Australia is concerned stolen guns will end up in the illicit market

Gun Control Australia is concerned stolen guns will end up in the illicit market Vast majority of stolen guns in NSW were rifles and guns taken from homes

The figures were compiled from police reports obtained through Freedom of Information requests by the group.

Sam Lee, the chairwoman of Gun Control Australia, said the increase represented a serious problem for law enforcement.

"We're seeing a doubling of the number of firearms being stolen," she said.

"Back in 2009 the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) published their study on stolen firearms and that was around 1,700 guns — we're now looking at around over 3,000 guns being stolen in 2015."

Ms Lee said her major concern was that those guns were finding their way onto the black market, and into the hands of criminals.

"The majority of firearms that are stolen are never recovered, these firearms are moving into the illicit market," she said.

"It's our concern that the legal market is feeding the illegal market, that the number of guns flowing into the illicit market are coming from private homes from legal gun owners."

The figures from Gun Control Australia show that in New South Wales, one jurisdiction where such data was available, the vast majority of the stolen guns were rifles and guns taken from homes.

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Ms Lee called for stricter controls, including alarm systems connected to a police station for all safes in houses storing firearms.

"We also want a limit on the number of firearms that any individual gun license-holder can hold and that limit being three," she said.

"There are enough guns out there in the community, we don't need any more firearms being stored in local homes that can be stolen and then be moved into the illicit market."

'Only concern would be an increase in handheld firearms'

Professor Michael Kennedy, from the University of Western Sydney, said he agreed that the apparent increase in thefts deserved to be closely watched.

But he said he was sceptical that the stolen weapons were be falling into the hands of organised crime gangs.

"The type of firearms that are being stolen and the areas that they're being stolen from, where there's been increases, there is no evidence to support that at all," he said.

"My concern would be if there was an increase in the number of handheld firearms."

Professor Kennedy said there was no basis for Gun Control Australia to be suggesting "that all of a sudden this industry needs to be regulated so stringently that it becomes counter-productive".

"The real issue of firearm-related deaths is not relative to the number of firearms that have been either misplaced or stolen, or passed on to another owner," he said.

"They're going to collectors, or they're going to farmers that traditionally might register their firearm or might not.

"I worked in organised crime and major crime, any self-respecting criminal who wants to be taken seriously is going to be owning a handheld firearm.

"They're not going to be walking around with a sawn-off hunting rifle."

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) estimated that there were more than 260,000 firearms in the illicit firearms market.