News · Firearms
Firearm-making material obtained online.
A man appeared in the NSW Bail Division on 31 July 2026 after a search in the Blue Mountains turned up firearm parts, live ammunition and devices holding digital files for making firearms. The lead charge was not a state one. It was a Commonwealth offence under section 474.45H of the Criminal Code for possessing firearm manufacture material obtained online. Five years.
By Aaron Kernaghan · Published 1 August 2026
The news, in summary.
The AFP says the matter began with a referral from the Australian Border Force about a NSW-based person said to be importing items used to make firearms over about two years. A search warrant was executed in Katoomba on 30 July 2026. Officers seized firearm parts, imitation firearms, live ammunition, and electronic devices holding digital blueprints for making firearms and firearm parts. A man appeared before the NSW Bail Division on 31 July, was refused bail, and is listed at Katoomba Local Court on 3 August.
That matter is before a court and the person charged is presumed innocent. What follows is about the law, not the person.
The charge sheet is worth reading for how it is built. Three charges, from two different law-makers. One count of possessing firearm manufacture material obtained or accessed using a carriage service, under section 474.45H of the Criminal Code (Cth), five years. One count of possessing an unauthorised firearm, under section 7A(1) of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW), five years. One count of possessing ammunition without a licence or permit, under section 65(1) of the same Act, a fine. One search, one seizure, three offences, and the most serious of them is federal.
What is the offence of possessing firearm manufacture material obtained using a carriage service?
Section 474.45H sits in Part 10.6 of the Criminal Code (Cth), the part that deals with telecommunications offences. That is the same part that carries the well-known offence of using a carriage service to menace or harass. Parliament added a set of firearm offences to it to reach the online trade in the material used to make guns at home.
The offence has three parts. The person possesses material. The material is firearm manufacture material. And the material was obtained or accessed using a carriage service. If those three things are made out, the offence is complete. The maximum penalty is five years imprisonment.
Read what the offence is aimed at. Not the gun. Not even the making of the gun. The material a person pulled off the internet to make one. It criminalises the input, and it does so at the point of possession, which is much earlier than the point at which anyone builds anything.
What counts as a carriage service, and what is firearm manufacture material?
A carriage service is a service for carrying communications by electronic means. In plain terms, that is the internet, a phone line, or a mobile network. Downloading a file, opening a web page, receiving something by email or message, all of it runs over a carriage service. The word does a lot of the work in these charges, because almost anything obtained online answers the description.
Firearm manufacture material is the class of material that helps a person make a firearm or a firearm part. It reaches the digital design files that a 3D printer or a computer-controlled machine reads, and it reaches instructions and other material of that kind. The seizure described in the AFP release, devices holding blueprints for making firearms and firearm parts, is the kind of material the section is written for.
The reason the offence exists is the same reason the state blueprint offence exists. A home-built firearm leaves no supply trail. There is no serial number, no dealer record, no registration entry, and no controlled part whose purchase raises a flag. If the finished gun cannot be counted, the law moves back a step and controls the material that makes it possible. Section 474.45H is the federal version of that move.
How is the Commonwealth offence different from the NSW digital blueprint offence?
They overlap, but they are not the same, and the difference matters at charge stage. NSW has its own offence in section 51F of the Firearms Act 1996, which we set out in full in our note on 3D-printed firearms and digital blueprints. Section 51F makes it an offence to possess a digital blueprint for making a firearm on a 3D printer or an electronic milling machine, and it carries 14 years. It does not require the file to have come from anywhere in particular. Having the blueprint is enough.
The Commonwealth offence is keyed to the carriage service. Its extra element is that the material was obtained or accessed online. Its reach is wider than a blueprint, because firearm manufacture material is a broader idea than a technical drawing. And it applies across the country, not just in NSW. So the state offence asks whether you had a blueprint. The federal offence asks whether you got the material online. The same file on the same device can answer both questions, which is how a single item ends up supporting a state charge and a federal one.
Which offences are actually laid is a decision for the investigators and the prosecuting authority. In the Katoomba matter the material was charged under the Commonwealth section, not section 51F. That choice will not always be obvious from the outside, and it is one of the first things worth understanding on any file of this kind.
Is it illegal to possess an unauthorised firearm in NSW?
Yes. Section 7A(1) of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) makes it an offence to possess or use a firearm without being authorised to do so by a licence or permit. The maximum is five years. This is the charge for ordinary firearms. It is the one used in the Katoomba matter for the firearm said to have been found.
Where the firearm is a pistol or a prohibited firearm, the charge is section 7 instead, and the maximum climbs to 14 years. A home-built semi-automatic will often be a prohibited firearm, which is why the classification of the item is never a side issue. Our page on unauthorised possession of a firearm in NSW sets out how the two sections divide up. The point that surprises people is that a firearm made at home is a firearm. The Act does not care how it was built. Every possession offence that applies to a factory gun applies to a printed one.
What is the penalty for possessing ammunition without a licence in NSW?
Section 65(1) of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) makes it an offence to possess ammunition for a firearm without holding a licence or permit for a firearm. The maximum penalty is a fine of 50 penalty units, currently $5,500. There is no prison term for the basic offence.
It catches more people than they expect. You do not need to own a gun. Live rounds in a drawer, left over from a licence that has lapsed, or picked up from a relative, are enough. The charge is a fine, but it is still a conviction and it still leaves a record, so it is worth dealing with properly rather than pleading to it as an afterthought. Where it sits next to firearm and manufacture charges, it is usually the least of the problems, but it is rarely the reason to give up ground on the rest.
Is importing firearm parts into Australia an offence?
Yes, and it is worth explaining because it is why the Border Force was involved at all. Firearm parts are prohibited imports under the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956. Bringing them into the country without approval is an offence under section 233BAB of the Customs Act 1901 (Cth). For tier 2 goods of this kind the maximum is 10 years imprisonment or a fine of 2,500 penalty units, or both. Approval has to be obtained before the goods arrive, not after.
In the Katoomba matter the person was not charged with an importation offence. The three charges laid are the ones set out above. The importation framework matters here as context, because it explains how these investigations usually start. A parcel is examined at the mail gateway, or a purchase is flagged, and a referral goes from the Border Force to the AFP. The gun leaves no trail, so the case runs on the imports, the purchases and the data instead. That is why matters of this kind tend to arrive as a search warrant followed by a forensic examination of devices.
Why does one search produce both state and federal charges?
Because two Parliaments legislate over the same room. The Commonwealth reaches the material through the carriage service and reaches the parts through the customs power. NSW reaches the firearm and the ammunition through its own firearms law. A single seizure can trigger all of it. The result is a charge sheet that runs across the Criminal Code (Cth), the Customs Act and the Firearms Act (NSW) at once.
For a person facing that mix, the practical consequences are real. Commonwealth offences are sentenced under Part IB of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), and bail, case management and the prosecuting authority can differ from the state charges sitting beside them. It is common for the federal charge to be the one that drives the exposure while the state charges fill out the sheet. Understanding which charge is doing the heavy lifting is where the defence starts.
What we do for clients facing these charges.
Start with possession, because that is what has to be proved, and it is usually proved by inference from a device or a room, not by direct evidence. Whose device held the material? Who else had access to it? Was the file ever opened, or was it one item in a bulk archive that was never looked at? On the firearm and the ammunition, the same questions of control and knowledge apply. A shared house, a shed used by more than one person, a device set up by someone else, each of those changes the case.
Then the description of the material. Section 474.45H requires firearm manufacture material obtained or accessed using a carriage service. Not everything an investigator calls a blueprint answers that description, and whether a particular file does is a question for expert evidence, worth asking early. On the firearm, the classification of the item decides whether the NSW charge is the five-year section or the 14-year one.
Then how the evidence was obtained. These cases come out of search warrants and device examinations. If a warrant has been executed at your home, our note on what to do after a search warrant sets out the first steps. Where firearms charges are laid and bail is refused, the immediate fight is often bail itself, and our note on show cause bail explains what has to be established.
One plain warning to finish. People assume that a file is not a gun, and that material downloaded out of curiosity is not a crime. Both federal and NSW law treat that assumption as wrong, and the federal offence puts five years behind it. If you have downloaded something and you are worried about it, get advice before you touch the device.
Frequently asked.
What is section 474.45H of the Criminal Code (Cth)?
It is a Commonwealth offence of possessing firearm manufacture material that was obtained or accessed using a carriage service. A carriage service means a telephone or internet service. The maximum penalty is five years imprisonment. The offence targets the material that a person gets online to make a firearm, and it applies anywhere in Australia because it is federal law.
Can you go to jail for possessing gun files you downloaded?
Yes. If the file or material is firearm manufacture material and it was obtained or accessed using a carriage service, possessing it is a Commonwealth offence under section 474.45H of the Criminal Code, with a maximum of five years. In NSW, possessing a digital blueprint for making a firearm on a 3D printer is a separate state offence under section 51F of the Firearms Act 1996, with a maximum of 14 years. The two can be charged over the same material.
Is it illegal to possess an unauthorised firearm in NSW?
Yes. Section 7A(1) of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) makes it an offence to possess or use a firearm without a licence or permit. The maximum is five years. If the firearm is a pistol or a prohibited firearm, the charge is section 7 instead, and the maximum is 14 years. A home-made firearm is caught the same as a factory one, because nothing turns on how it was made.
What is the penalty for possessing ammunition without a licence in NSW?
Section 65(1) of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) makes it an offence to possess ammunition for a firearm without holding a licence or permit for a firearm. The maximum penalty is a fine of 50 penalty units, which is currently $5,500. There is no prison term for the basic offence, but a conviction still leaves a criminal record.
Is importing firearm parts into Australia an offence?
Yes. Firearm parts are prohibited imports under the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956, and importing them without approval is an offence under section 233BAB of the Customs Act 1901 (Cth). The maximum penalty for importing tier 2 goods of that kind is 10 years imprisonment or a fine of 2,500 penalty units, or both. Approval must be obtained before the goods arrive.
Can police charge you for gun parts found in your house?
Yes. Firearm parts, ammunition, imitation firearms and digital files can each ground a separate charge, and one search warrant can produce a charge sheet that mixes state and federal offences. Possession is usually proved by inference from what was seized and from the devices examined, so who controlled the item, and who knew it was there, is often the centre of the case.
To speak to a criminal defence lawyer, call Aaron Kernaghan on 0421 717 019.
This article is written by Aaron Kernaghan, criminal defence lawyer at Good Legal Lawyers, as at 1 August 2026. It is commentary and reflects the personal opinion of the author only. It is not legal advice, it is not a substitute for advice on your own matter, and it does not purport to be accurate or complete. Any matter referred to may be before the court and any person charged is presumed innocent. For advice on a specific matter, contact Aaron Kernaghan on 0421 717 019 or contact the firm.
More criminal-law commentary by Aaron Kernaghan.
Sources: AFP media release, 31 July 2026 · Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) · Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) · Customs Act 1901 (Cth), s 233BAB · JADE