Australia to launch gun buyback scheme after Bondi attack

SYDNEY - Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme following the mass shooting in Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, as hundreds of surfers and swimmers paddled out at Bondi Beach to honour victims.

The buyback would be similar to gun reforms introduced soon after the massacre in 1996 in Tasmania's Port Arthur after a lone gunman killed 35 people, which prompted authorities to implement some of the world's toughest gun laws.

"Australia's gun laws were last substantially reformed in the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy. The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets," Albanese said during a media briefing.

Fifteen people were killed and dozens wounded on Sunday in Bondi after two gunmen opened fire at people celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.

A 50-year-old gunman, who was killed at the scene, held a firearm license and had six guns registered, drawing criticisms that Australia's gun laws needed an overhaul.

An estimated four million firearms are currently in the country, Albanese said. The government would target surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms, with the costs to be shared between the federal and state governments, he said.

Following the Port Arthur massacre, Australia announced a gun buy-back scheme and secured the surrender of about 640,000 prohibited firearms nationwide. The total cost of compensation to owners was about A$304 million ($201 million).

Neighboring New Zealand announced sweeping gun reforms, including gun buyback schemes, after the Christchurch terror attack in 2019.

SEVEN MEN DETAINED

Albanese, under pressure from critics who say his center-left government has not done enough to curb a surge in antisemitism since the start of the Gaza war, has said the government would also strengthen hate laws.

The government said it has consistently denounced antisemitism over the last two years and passed legislation to criminalise hate speech. It expelled the Iranian ambassador after accusing Tehran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks.

Authorities have said Sunday's shooting appears to have been inspired by the Islamic State, and police have ramped up patrols and policing in an effort to prevent further violence.

Late on Thursday, police said they had intercepted two cars and detained seven men in Sydney's southwest after receiving information that "a violent act was possibly being planned."

New South Wales state Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the men could be released soon after assessing that the specific threat posed by them was unknown, and officials would continue to monitor them.

Lanyon said police were not prepared to take any risks after suspecting the group was planning to visit Bondi.

There was no "confirmed link" between the detained men and the two Bondi gunmen, but they likely had similar ideologies, he added.

Islamic State has called the Bondi mass shooting a "source of pride", in an article published on the group's Telegram channel, though it did not explicitly claim responsibility.

Police and additional security have been deployed at Sydney's Lakemba mosque, one of the largest in Australia, ahead of Friday prayers, Australian media reported.

Australia's Jewish community gathered at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Friday for prayers, while hundreds of swimmers and surfers formed a huge circle in the waters off the beach to honor victims.

Community leaders described the support as deeply moving amid heightened fears over a surge in antisemitic incidents.

"Over the past two years, there's been a lot of people who have been questioning whether we're still welcome here in Australia because we saw people calling for our death on the streets on a weekly basis," Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt from Sydney's Central Synagogue told ABC News, after attending the paddle-out event.

"So it's been so heart-warming to see the outpouring of love and support. It's really so therapeutic."

($1 = 1.5117 Australian dollars)

Renju Jose in Sydney/Reuters