- The community gathers at a beach vigil and paddles in honor of the 15 dead.
- Police arrest seven men in a separate incident.
- The shooting appears to have been inspired by Daesh: officials.
SYDNEY: Australia will launch a national gun buyback plan following the mass shooting in Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, as hundreds of surfers and swimmers paddled out on Bondi Beach to honor the victims.
The buyback would be similar to gun reforms introduced shortly after the 1996 massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, after a gunman killed 35 people, prompting authorities to implement some of the world’s strictest gun laws.
“Australia’s gun laws were last substantially reformed in the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy. The terrible events in Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” Albanese said during a news conference.
Fifteen people were killed and dozens injured in Bondi on Sunday after two gunmen opened fire on people celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.
A 50-year-old gunman, who died at the scene, had a firearms license and six registered weapons, sparking criticism that Australia’s gun laws needed an overhaul.
There are currently an estimated four million firearms in the country, Albanese said. The government will focus on surplus, recently banned and illegal firearms, and the costs will be shared between the federal and state governments, he said.
Following the Port Arthur massacre, Australia announced a weapons buyback plan and secured the delivery of some 640,000 firearms banned nationwide. The total cost of compensation to owners was approximately A$304 million ($201 million).
Neighboring New Zealand announced sweeping gun reforms, including gun buyback plans, after the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack.
Seven men arrested
Albanese, under pressure from critics who say his center-left government has not done enough to curb the rise in anti-Semitism since the start of the Gaza war, has said the government would also strengthen hate laws.
The government said it has consistently denounced anti-Semitism over the past two years and passed laws to criminalize hate speech. He expelled the Iranian ambassador after accusing Tehran of directing two anti-Semitic arson attacks.
Authorities have said Sunday’s shooting appears to have been inspired by Daesh, and police have stepped up patrols and surveillance 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 they posed was unknown and that officers would continue to monitor them.
Lanyon said police were not prepared to take any risks after suspecting the group were planning to visit Bondi.
There was no “confirmed link” between the detainees and the two Bondi gunmen, but they probably had similar ideologies, he added.
Daesh called the Bondi mass shooting a “point of pride” in an article posted on the group’s Telegram channel, although it did not explicitly claim responsibility.
Additional police and security have been deployed to Sydney’s Lakemba mosque, one of Australia’s largest, ahead of Friday prayers, Australian media reported.
Australia’s Jewish community gathered at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Friday to pray, as hundreds of swimmers and surfers formed a huge circle in the beach’s waters to honor the victims.
Community leaders described the support as deeply moving amid heightened fears about a rise in anti-Semitic incidents.
“Over the last two years, there have been a lot of people who have been wondering if we are still welcome here in Australia because we were seeing people calling for our death on the streets on a weekly basis,” said Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt of Sydney Central Synagogue. ABC Newsafter attending the paddle-out event.
“It’s been very heartwarming to see the outpouring of love and support. It’s really very therapeutic.”
