As far as I can recall, it wasn't a big deal at all. I remember seeing some small protests on the news, seemed to pretty much be the same people who come out every year to protest duck hunting laws and things like that. There are still small political parties that want looser gun regulations, but it's all about hunting or collecting. Even the gun nuts don't really talk about self defense.

At the time it happened I lived in a rural area. A lot of local farmers went and handed in their guns even though they didn't actually have to, many hadn't even touched the things in a decade so were just happy to get some money for them. I remember a few farmers being annoyed about the hassle of properly registering their guns, but that was just because they hated going into town.

I've never really known anyone who had a gun for protection purposes or who even thought of a gun that way. I've known people who own guns for hunting/farming purposes who've been robbed while they were home or had someone crazy from their past show up and threaten them at home, and they never even thought about going for their gun. It's just not a part of our mindset.

Living in the city now I occasionally see armed police out and about, usually seems like they're just training. In my state at least, the biker gang and crime family killings seem to have pretty much dried up in the last decade, and those were usually completely self-contained. Outside of police I've never seen a handgun in Australia. Or anything other than I guess what you'd call a basic rifle.

It's just not comparable to the US. Every time I visit I'm so freaked out by regular cops with guns and all the people who do a super shitty job of concealing the fact that they're carrying. Just seeing one or knowing someone has one outside of a farming/hunting situation kicks in a fight or flight response I can barely control.