In response to the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in decades, the Australian government has initiated a comprehensive firearm buyback program—the most significant since the landmark Port Arthur massacre of 1996. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the scheme following Sunday’s terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, where two assailants motivated by Islamic State ideology opened fire at a Jewish festival, killing 15 people and injuring dozens.
The attack has been formally declared a terrorist incident by authorities, who identified the perpetrators as a father-son duo. Naveed Akram, 24, faces 59 criminal charges including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act. His father Sajid was killed during the confrontation with law enforcement.
Revealing concerning statistics, Prime Minister Albanese stated that Australia now hosts over 4 million firearms—exceeding the number present during the Port Arthur tragedy that claimed 35 lives. ‘We know that one of these terrorists held a firearm licence and possessed six guns, despite residing in suburban Sydney,’ Albanese emphasized. ‘There’s no legitimate reason why someone in that situation needed that many firearms.’
The security situation intensified on Thursday when counter-terrorism officers apprehended seven men in Sydney’s Liverpool suburb who had traveled from Victoria and were known to police. NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson indicated that while Bondi Beach was among locations the group might have visited, no specific malicious intent had been established. Authorities utilized rarely invoked national security powers to intercept the group preemptively, discovering only a knife during the operation.
The national cabinet—comprising federal, state, and territory leaders—has unanimously agreed to strengthen gun control measures in the attack’s aftermath, signaling a renewed commitment to Australia’s traditionally strict firearm regulations.