"So as opposed to buying one, you can loan it. If you use it, you pay for it, if you don't use it, you return." He said criminals were sharing newer "bling" guns rather an older style revolvers. "I think [the reason is] price, the governance of price, the increase of price, it's just another option they have." "Clean" guns which had not been used in the commission of a crime could fetch in excess of $15,000 and "dirty" ones a lot less. State Crime Command director Detective Chief Superintendent Ken Finch said more resources needed to be thrown at border detection.

"We need to have an increased focus on border control - we don't know what we don't know," Chief Superintendent Finch said. "Obviously illegal importations are still happening; it's just simply at the moment they aren't being detected. Whether people are becoming more sophisticated in their methods we don't know." He said people were "hanging on" to firearms more tightly partly because police had done significant work in detecting importations. The inquiry also heard there was minimal data about how many illegal guns were being imported. The Greens-initiated inquiry looked at whether semi-automatics should be banned and whether there should be tighter restrictions on the storage of legally owned weapons.

There was also little known about the numbers of 3D-printed guns. 3D guns can be made with an ordinary printer, have the ability to kill and cannot be detected by X-rays and scanners. The Victims of Crime Assistance League's Howard Brown said there needed to be more funding for research into what guns had been imported illegally and which were stolen firearms used in the commission of a crime. Sarah McKinnon, manager, workplace relations and legal affairs, at the National Farmers' Federation, agreed there needed to be more data about what type of guns were being stolen and the number of those being used in a crime.