This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.
In the wake of a Sunday mass shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach that left 15 dead and more than two dozen injured, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to strengthen the country’s gun laws. The massacre, which occurred during a Hanukkah event, was reportedly carried out by a father-son pair, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, with the older gunman having held a gun license for a decade while legally owning six guns.
“The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary. Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws,” Albanese said.
Other government leaders also proposed restricting gun ownership to Australian citizens – a measure which would have excluded the older suspected gunman who has lived in Australia since 1998 on a student visa, and became a permanent resident after marrying a local woman, according to authorities, who did not confirm what country he had migrated from.
Government leaders are also proposing the “additional use of criminal intelligence” in deciding who can obtain a firearms license, which “could hypothetically have meant that a 2019 investigation into the son’s suspicious associates, confirmed Monday by Albanese, would have disqualified the father from owning a gun,” CBS News reports.
New South Wales Premier Christopher Minns said his state’s gun laws would change, but did not outline how.
“It means introducing a bill to Parliament to — I mean to be really blunt — make it more difficult to get these horrifying weapons that have no practical use in our community,” he said. “If you’re not a farmer, you’re not involved in agriculture, so why do you need these massive weapons that put the public in danger and make life dangerous and difficult for New South Wales Police?”
Of note, Australia enacted a suite of strict gun control laws roughly two weeks after an April 1996 massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in which one man killed 35 people and wounded another 23, prompting then PM John Howard to “significantly strengthen laws relating to gun control in Australia.” Under the National Firearms Agreement (NFA), gun ownership was explicitly made a privilege, while two federally-funded gun buybacks and voluntary surrenders led to the collection of more than a million firearms, which were then destroyed. In order to possess a firearm in Australia, a person must have a firearm license and demonstrate at least one “genuine reason” for ownership that doesn’t include self-defense.
Albanese, meanwhile, invoked ‘right-wing extremism’ during a press conference after the Islamic terrorist attack when asked about one of the alleged gunmen.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Mike Burgess warned you in February that antisemitism was the number one threat to life. Is that still the case and have you taken these threats seriously enough? And Acting Deputy Commissioner, if I may, it’s my understanding that Sajid Akram moved to Australia in the late 90s, I believe from Pakistan. Is that correct?
PRIME MINISTER: On the latter the Minister will respond. We take ASIO’s advice very seriously. We work closely with them. We receive regular updates as well. The Director-General of ASIO has warned about a range of threats, be it antisemitism, the rise of right wing extremist groups as well. And we continue to work closely with our security agencies
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