"Australia has launched a national program that hopes to crackdown on the amount of illegal guns that are in circulation in the country's black market. The program entitled Operation Unification hopes to cut down the large amount of gun thefts that occur in the country. This operation is seeing its first light in the state of New South Wales. Last year alone police report that around 555 firearms were reported stolen in New South Wales alone. A large majority of the gun that are reported stolen are rifles and shotguns. Most of the reported incidents of gun theft occur in the rural parts of the state, which are the northern and western regions. There is a large black market for all different types of guns. Most of the guns that are taken during gun thefts are being sold on the local black markets, with only a small percentage of the guns being used to commit crimes. The rifles and shotguns fetch a very high price on the black market and that helps to explain the large amount of gun thefts that occur in this state. When speaking of the increase in the black market gun trade the Northern Region Commander, Assistant Commissioner Jeff Loy said ""It's not so much that there's the gun trade as we see in the movies and things, this is the day-to-day people that take advantage to make and earn, to actually sell these firearms that are taken from these properties."" He also mentions the importance of keeping your guns locked up and protected so that they do not become another statistic of gun thefts. With gun thefts increasing not only in Australia but also worldwide, it is encouraging to see things that work to lower the amount that occur. It is so important to make sure that your guns are protected and being stored in proper storage units. If you wish to learn more about Operation Unification or about how it turns out than you can find all of that here."