Australia's Capital to Join Gun Buyback in Response to Bondi Beach Attack

Reuters

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Australia’s capital will join a national gun buyback scheme as part of measures introduced in response to a shooting spree that killed 15 people at a Jewish festival in Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday.

Albanese’s government introduced legislation in January establishing the gun buyback scheme, tightening firearm licensing requirements and strengthening measures to combat hate following the 14 December attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, was the first to commit to the scheme, which is due to begin on 2 November.

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), home of the national capital Canberra, has agreed to a similar scheme in an effort to make sure "an antisemitic terrorist attack like we saw at Bondi can’t happen again", Albanese said.

"I thank the ACT Government for their collaboration as we work to take guns off our streets in order to better protect Australians," he ‌said ⁠in a statement.

The ACT has around 23,000 firearms and more than 7,000 licensed gun owners, according to a government statement. 

The two suspects accused of carrying out the Bondi Beach attack, a father and son whom police say were inspired by Islamic State, used powerful firearms that had been legally obtained. 

Australia had a record 4.1 million firearms last year, according to government figures.

The planned buyback will be the country’s largest since a similar scheme was introduced following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, in which a gunman killed 35 people.



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