Days after the ghastly mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which claimed 15 lives, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme.
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. The Bondi Beach has also reopened, with hundreds of people thronging to the beach to pay their respects to the victims of the deadly attack.
What is known about the proposed weapon buyback scheme?
According to Reuters, the proposed scheme 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.
Following the Port Arthur massacre, Australia had announced a gun buy-back scheme and secured the surrender of about 6m40,000 prohibited firearms nationwide. The total cost of compensation to owners was about AU$304 million.
An estimated four million firearms are currently in Australia. 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, Albanese said.
Neighbouring New Zealand had also announced sweeping gun reforms, including gun buyback schemes, after the Christchurch terror attack in 2019, according to Reuters.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns had also announced that the state government would be recalled 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, according to Sky News.
Bondi shooting: Attacker had six licensed firearms; 7 people detained in further probe
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.
Police said they had intercepted two cars and also detained seven men in Sydney’s southwest for further probe into the massacre.