Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to “get more guns off the streets” with a new national buyback scheme and a suite of sweeping reforms, following the deadliest mass shooting in the country since 1996.
The Australian government has announced its first major firearms buyback in nearly 30 years, signaling a historic shift in the nation’s gun control debate. Speaking Friday (December 19), Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the National Cabinet has agreed to establish a program to purchase and destroy civilian-owned firearms, responding to the “shattering” terror attack at Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead last Sunday.
The new measures mark the most significant overhaul of Australia’s gun laws since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. The catalyst for reform was the revelation that one of the Bondi shooters, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, legally owned six firearms despite living in a suburban area and being unemployed. “There is no reason someone in that situation needed that many guns,” Albanese said.
The reform package includes several key elements:
- National Buyback: A federally-funded program to compensate owners for surrendering newly prohibited weapons or surplus firearms.
- Ownership Caps: A proposed limit on the number of guns a person can own. New South Wales has already signaled a cap of four firearms per person.
- Citizenship Requirements: Firearms licenses will be restricted to Australian citizens only, a measure that would have disqualified Sajid Akram, who was a permanent resident holding an Indian passport.
- National Firearms Register: An accelerated timeline for a centralized database to let states and federal agencies share information in real-time.
The attack, which targeted a Hanukkah celebration, was carried out by Sajid and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram. Authorities have classified the massacre as an act of ISIS-inspired, antisemitic terrorism.
“Australia’s gun laws were the gold standard, but the terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” Prime Minister Albanese said during a press conference in Sydney.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke added that the buyback would focus on high-risk weaponry: “We are targeting the concentration of weapons in small numbers of hands, which creates pockets of high risk even as overall license-holder numbers fall.”
While Australia is famous for its strict gun control, the number of legally owned firearms has quietly jumped to nearly four million, higher than the levels before the 1996 ban. Critics have long argued that “recreational” and “primary producer” loopholes allowed individuals to build up small arsenals. The Bondi attack, which killed people ranging from a 10-year-old girl to a Holocaust survivor, has seemingly broken the political deadlock that prevented further tightening of the 1996 National Firearms Agreement.
State parliaments are expected to be recalled as early as next week to start legislating the changes. Beyond gun control, the government has also announced a review of migration laws to allow for visa cancellations for individuals who spread “hate and division,” along with increased penalties for aggravated hate speech.
Also Read / Bondi Beach gunmen identified as father-son duo; father was Hyderabad native who visited in 2022.
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