SYDNEY: Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme following the mass shooting in Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, as hundreds of surfers and swimmers paddled out at Bondi Beach to honour victims.
The buyback would be similar to gun reforms introduced soon after the massacre in 1996 in Tasmania’s Port Arthur after a lone gunman killed 35 people, which prompted authorities to implement some of the world’s toughest gun laws.
“Australia’s gun laws were last substantially reformed in the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy. The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” Albanese said during a media briefing.
Fifteen people were killed and dozens wounded on Sunday in Bondi after two gunmen opened fire at people celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.
In the shooting’s aftermath, authorities have ramped up patrols and policing across the country in an effort to prevent further violence.
Both the federal government and the state government of New South Wales, where Sydney is located, have also pledged a raft of reforms, including tightening gun control laws.
A 50-year-old gunman, who was killed at the scene, held a firearm licence and had six guns registered. If a man in Sydney’s suburbs needs “six high-powered rifles and is able to get them under existing licensing schemes, then there’s something wrong”, Albanese said.
An estimated four million firearms are currently in the country. The government would work with states to target surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms, with the costs to be shared between the federal and state governments, he said.
On the same day, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns announced the state government would be recalled next week to enact the “toughest gun law reforms in the country”. Changes would include limiting firearms to four per person, restricting access to high-risk weapons and components, and tightening licensing requirements.
Following the Port Arthur massacre, Australia announced a gun buy-back scheme and secured the surrender of about 640,000 prohibited firearms nationwide. The total cost of compensation to owners was about A$304 million ($201 million).
Neighbouring New Zealand announced sweeping gun reforms, including gun buyback schemes, after the Christchurch terror attack in 2019.
Albanese, under pressure from critics who say his centre-left government has not done enough to curb a surge in antisemitism since the start of the Gaza war, has said the government would also strengthen hate laws. On Friday night, Albanese joined the Jewish community at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, writing on social media platform X: “All Australians stand together against antisemitism and hatred.”
The government said it had consistently denounced antisemitism over the last two years and passed legislation to criminalise hate speech. It expelled the Iranian ambassador after accusing Tehran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks.
Authorities have said Sunday’s shooting appears to have been inspired by the Islamic State.
Late on Thursday, police said they had intercepted two cars and detained seven men in Sydney’s southwest after receiving information that “a violent act was possibly being planned.”
Islamic State called the Bondi mass shooting a “source of pride” in an article published on the group’s Telegram channel, though it did not explicitly claim responsibility.
