A devastating antisemitic attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that claimed 15 lives has revealed significant deficiencies in Australia’s firearm licensing bureaucracy. The perpetrator, Sajid Akram, who was fatally shot by police during the December 14 rampage, legally owned six rifles and shotguns despite concerning circumstances that should have raised red flags.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns confirmed Tuesday that bureaucratic inefficiencies rather than security concerns caused the three-year delay in processing Akram’s firearm license application in 2000. The standard processing time typically ranges from six to ten weeks, indicating systemic failures within the licensing system.
The tragedy has prompted urgent legislative action, with proposed reforms that would establish Australia’s toughest gun laws. The new measures include making Australian citizenship a prerequisite for firearm ownership, which would have excluded Akram as an Indian permanent resident. The proposed legislation also eliminates appeal rights for license denials based on security agency recommendations and imposes strict limits on firearm ownership—four guns for recreational shooters and ten for farmers and sports shooters.
Court documents reveal the Akrams adhered to a “religiously motivated ideology linked to Islamic State,” adding complexity to the security implications. The younger Akram, Naveed, who participated in the attack, had previously been investigated by Australian Security Intelligence Organization in 2019 for extremist connections.
The state government has initiated a royal commission to examine both the massacre circumstances and the surge of antisemitism in Australia since the Israel-Hamas conflict began. As victims’ funerals continue and twelve wounded remain hospitalized—four in critical condition—the nation confronts its worst mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur tragedy that previously catalyzed Australia’s landmark gun reform legislation.