Australia eyes tougher gun laws after deadly Sydney attack
Published in News & Features
SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and state leaders pledged to strengthen gun laws a day after a father and son killed 15 people in the nation’s deadliest terror attack.
The National Cabinet tasked police ministers and attorneys general to explore options including caps on the number of firearms an individual can hold, limits on open-ended licenses, stricter rules on the permitted gun types and modifications, and a requirement that license holders be Australian citizens.
After an emergency meeting of state and national leaders Monday, Albanese said ministers had pledged to stamp out antisemitism, hate, violence and terrorism. Earlier, he’d described the Sunday shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach as a “targeted attack” on the Jewish community.
“Leaders agreed that strong, decisive and focused action was needed on gun law reform as an immediate action,” Albanese said.
The gunmen in Sunday’s massacre were identified as Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid, 50, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp., citing law enforcement sources.
The father, who died during the attack, had arrived as a student visa holder in 1998, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Monday, without saying which country the man had come from. The minister confirmed that the son was an Australian-born citizen.
The son, who is in a coma in the hospital after sustaining injuries Sunday, had been investigated by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency ASIO in 2019, Albanese said. Lanyon said the 24-year-old perpetrator remained in the hospital and would likely face criminal charges, without naming him.
“We live in a more dangerous world in 2025. The threat of antisemitism, as we have seen, is very real,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday. The rise of the far-right “is also a threat,” he added.
The prime minister said there was no evidence of collusion between the gunmen and other groups, or that they were part of a terrorist cell, though both men were clearly motivated by “extremist ideology.” He added that further details would emerge as police continue their active investigation.
The father was licensed to own six “longarms” weapons, and was a gun-club member who had held a firearm permit for a decade, Lanyon said. Police were satisfied they had recovered six firearms from the scene.
Albanese said after the National Cabinet meeting that New South Wales government Premier Chris Minns together with his counterpart in Western Australia Roger Cook will lead and coordinate new gun control work across jurisdictions.
As an immediate priority, the Australian government will begin work on additional customs restrictions for firearms and other weapons-type imports, including 3D printing and novel technology, and firearms equipment that can hold large amounts of ammunition.
Some 27 people remained hospitalized as of 5 p.m. local time on Monday, according to a statement from New South Wales Health, with about a dozen in critical condition at this stage. Victims of the shooting ranged from 10 years old to 87, Minns said earlier. Local press has identified one of the victims as a rabbi.
Bystander Ahmed el Ahmed, who rushed and disarmed one of the attackers, has won praise from leaders around the world, including U.S. President Donald Trump and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who announced a reward program for community heroes. Albanese hailed him as an “example of the best of humanity.”
The Australian prime minister urged unity in response to questions about potential attempts to link the Bondi massacre to immigration of Muslims and amid rising anger over antisemitism.
“We are a great nation and we are not going to allow anyone, let alone these terrorists, to divide us,” Albanese said. “What we will do is we will unite, we will work together, we will continue to overcome antisemitism and we will continue to oppose terrorism.”
On Monday morning, at the northern end of Bondi Beach, less than 100 meters from the bridge where the attackers staged a final stand, police set up a taped perimeter. Nearby, people cried and hugged each other.
Bouquets of flowers piled up against a fence and pairs of mental health first aiders mingled in the crowd, dressed in green bibs. Some onlookers were draped in the Israeli flag while news crews descended on the scene.
At the Bondi Pavilion, halfway along the beach, more than 100 people gathered at the closed front gates. Most stood or sat in silence or quiet conversation. Flowers were already piled up on the concrete slabs between the grass and the pavilion.
Noah Koncepolski said he was a close friend of the rabbi killed in Sunday’s attack and had come to Bondi to honor him. “This is no time for feelings, only good deeds,” he said.
Australia’s Jewish population was estimated to be 116,967 in 2021, one of the world’s 10 largest. Bondi, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is among key Jewish communities in the nation.
The gunmen opened fire just after 6:45 p.m. local time as more than 1,000 people attended the Chanukah by the Sea event on a warm summer evening.
“At this time, we need to wrap our arms around members of the Jewish community who are going through an extraordinarily difficult period,” Albanese said. “This has been an extraordinarily traumatic 24 hours.”
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(With assistance from Ainslie Chandler.)
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