Australian PM proposes tougher gun laws after Bondi mass shooting
Australia saw sweeping gun reforms after a 1996 mass shooting in Port Arthur, including a gun buyback scheme, a national firearms register and a crackdown on the ownership of semi-automatic weapons.
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SYDNEY: Australia's prime minister proposed tougher gun laws on Monday (Dec 15) after gunmen - a father and son duo - killed 15 people in a mass shooting targeting a Jewish festival at a Sydney beach.
The father, a 50-year-old, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in critical condition in hospital, police said at a press conference on Monday.
Forty people were taken to hospital following the attack, including two police officers who are in serious but stable condition, police said. The victims were aged between 10 and 87.
After Australia's worst mass shooting in 1996, it took the government 12 days to ban semi-automatic weapons, organise a gun buyback scheme and introduce a licensing system to weed out people considered unfit to carry a weapon.
Police did not release the shooters' names, but said the father had held a firearms license since 2015 and had six registered weapons. One of the suspected attackers was known to authorities but had not been deemed an immediate threat, security officials said.
They were identified as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram by state broadcaster ABC and other local media outlets.
Home Minister Tony Burke said the father arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, while his son is an Australian-born citizen.
Police did not provide details about the firearms, but videos from the scene showed the men firing what appeared to be a bolt-action rifle and a shotgun.
Sunday's shooting raised questions about whether Australia's gun laws, already among the toughest in the world, remain fit for purpose.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would ask Cabinet to consider limits on the number of weapons permitted by a gun licence, and how long a licence should last.
"People's circumstances can change," he told reporters on Monday as police investigated what they called the terrorist attack on Sydney's waterfront.
"People can be radicalised over a period of time. Licences should not be in perpetuity."
Australia's gun ownership system has been widely credited with one of the lowest per capita gun homicide rates.
But the number of guns held legally has risen steadily for more than two decades and now, at four million, exceeds the number before the 1996 crackdown, think tank the Australia Institute said earlier this year.
"Events like this feel unimaginable here, which is a testament to the strength of our gun laws," said Gun Control Australia president Tim Quinn in a blog post about Sunday's attack.
"It is essential that we ask careful, evidence-based questions about how this attack occurred, including how any weapons were obtained and whether our current laws and enforcement mechanisms are keeping pace with changing risks and technologies."
Australia's existing gun laws
Nearly 30 years after the sweeping reforms that followed the Port Arthur massacre, the Bondi Beach shootings have raised questions about the effectiveness of those reforms. The main elements of the reforms included:
- A ban on some categories of firearms, including semiautomatic assault rifles
- A temporary firearms buyback programme for the newly banned weapons
- A national firearm register
- A 28-day waiting period for firearm purchases
- Tightened licensing rules, including a ban on licenses for those under 18
However, the Australia Institute noted that despite all jurisdictions reconfirming the agreement in 2017, some of the resolutions remained unimplemented, including the creation of a national firearm registry. Other elements, such as the under-18 firearm ban, have been implemented inconsistently across states and territories, limiting their effectiveness.
Chris Minns, New South Wales state premier, whose jurisdiction includes Sydney, said he would consider recalling state parliament to fast-track new gun legislation.
"It's time we have a change to the law in relation to the firearms legislation ... but I am not ready to announce it today. You can expect action soon," Minns told reporters, without going into detail.
As things stood, the licence held by one of the suspects entitled him to own the weapons he had, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters.
Maya Gomez, a lecturer in criminology at Swinburne University of Technology, said NSW gun licence holders must first prove a genuine reason for needing a weapon.
In the aftermath of the Bondi shooting, "questions may turn on the genuine reason provided in terms of the amount, as well as the reasons linked to the types of guns registered and used in the attack", Gomez said in an email.
Although Australia's gun numbers are rising, gun-related crime remains low by global standards. In the year to June 2024, 33 Australians died in gun homicides, according to the latest published data from the Australian Institute of Criminology.
That compares with 49 gun homicides per day in the United States through 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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