The Australian government has announced a gun buyback plan following the Bondi Beach attack, the worst mass shooting in decades.
The plan is the largest since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, which left 35 people dead and led Australia to introduce some of the world’s best gun control measures.
On Sunday, two gunmen believed to be motivated by “Islamic State ideology” opened fire on a Jewish festival on the country’s most iconic beach, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more.
Police on Friday also said there was no reason to continue detaining a group of men arrested in Sydney for their ‘extremist Islamic ideology’.
Police claim Sunday’s attack, which they have declared a terrorist incident, was perpetrated by a father-son duo. Navid Akram, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one count of terrorist acts. His father Sajid was killed during the attack.
The day after the shooting, the national cabinet, made up of federal government representatives and leaders from every state and territory, agreed to strengthen gun laws.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there were now four million guns in Australia, more than there were at the time of the Port Arthur massacre.
“We know that one of these terrorists had a firearms license and had six guns in his possession despite living in the middle of a Sydney suburb… There is no reason why someone in that situation would need that many guns.
“We need to get more guns off the streets.”
He said the new plan would result in a surplus of newly banned illegal firearms and would be funded 50-50 by states and territories. They estimate hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed.
The national cabinet also agreed to place limits on the number of guns a person can own, restrict unrestricted gun licenses and the types of guns that are legal, and make Australian citizenship a condition of holding a gun licence.
Work on a national firearms registry would accelerate and gun regulators would have better access to crime information.
On Friday, New South Wales police said they were preparing to release seven men with extremist views but said they would continue to be monitored.
In dramatic scenes in suburban Liverpool on Thursday, tactical officers swarmed a group who had traveled from Victoria and were known to police there. Police found a knife but no guns or other weapons.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told a news conference there was “no definitive link” between the alleged terrorists and the detained group, but said Bondi Beach was one of several locations the detained group had attempted to visit.
“The specific threat posed by the men is not known, but I can say that we are not prepared to take the risk that violent crime may be committed,” Commissioner Lanyon said.
