Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national firearms buyback plan to “take more guns off our streets” in the wake of the Bondi Beach shooting.
Mr Albanese told a news conference in Canberra on Friday that the plan would involve purchasing surplus firearms and newly banned illegal firearms. He said the government would introduce legislation to help fund the scheme and share the cost with states and territories.
Mr Albanese also announced a day of remembrance for the victims on December 21, flags to be flown at half-staff at all government buildings in New South Wales and Australia, and a national day of remembrance in the new year.
He also said the National Intelligence Service had identified an online video feed from ISIS that “confirmed” that the shooting was inspired by ISIS.
Under the buyback system, states and territories would be responsible for collecting weapons and processing payments to individuals whose firearms have been surrendered, while federal police would be responsible for destroying the firearms.
“The tragic events in Bondi show we need to take more guns off our streets,” Ms Albanese said, calling the plan the largest gun buyback program since 1996.
“We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms to be collected and destroyed through this scheme,” the Prime Minister added.
Australia already has some of the strictest gun laws in the world and one of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world. Regulations were tightened about 30 years ago after a lone gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle killed 35 people in Tasmania’s historic tourist destination Port Arthur.
The massacre shocked the government of the day into action, and within two weeks new laws established strict rules about who could and could not own guns. At the time, authorities also launched a major gun amnesty and buyback program that removed more than 650,000 newly banned firearms from circulation.
But Albanese said there are now more than 4 million firearms in the country, more than at the time of the Port Arthur attack.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
