Australia PM Albanese launches gun ‘buyback’ plan after Bondi Beach attack

As the nation accepts the deadly attack on a Jewish holiday event in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left 15 people dead, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national gun buyback scheme.

The plan was described as the nation’s largest gun buyback since 1996, the year of the Port Arthur massacre on Tasmania, Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history, and as the nation’s largest gun buyback since 1996, according to Albanese. Authorities will now purchase surplus, newly-banned, and illegal firearms.

“As of right now, there are more firearms in Australia than there were prior to Port Arthur. There are currently more than four million firearms in the nation, according to Albanese, who spoke at a news conference on Friday.

“No one needs to own a gun,” declares the statement. And he claimed that someone in suburban Sydney doesn’t need to own six because the horrific events at Bondi demonstrate how necessary it is to remove more weapons from our streets.

According to Albanese, the scheme’s states and territories will have the authority to collect the weapons and process payments for surrendered firearms. Then, federal police will be in charge of their destruction.

“We anticipate that this scheme will result in the collection and destruction of hundreds of thousands of firearms,” said Albanese.

Australia has one of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world, thanks to some of the strictest gun laws in the world.

After a lone gunman, armed with semiautomatic weapons, nearly 30 years ago, killed 35 people at the tourist destination in Port Arthur, restrictions were tightened.

Authorities immediately immediately launched a significant gun amnesty and buyback scheme that removed more than 650, 000 newly-prohibited firearms from circulation following the massacre shocked the nation.

We must do more to combat this vile scourge, according to the statement.

The Sydney shooting that occurred on Sunday, when two attackers, identified as father and son Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram, carried out a shooting spree that killed 15 people, has had a similar harrowing effect on Australian society as the Port Arthur massacre, which prompted self-reflection.

According to Albanese, “Islamic State ideology” was used to inspire 50-year-old Sajid, who was shot dead at the scene, and 24-year-old Naveed, who were both charged with “terrorism” and murder after he awoke from a coma on Tuesday.

Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Albanese announced tougher hate speech laws on Thursday as he acknowledged the nation had experienced a rising tide of anti-Jewish hate.

One of the worst mass murders that this country has ever witnessed, according to Albanese, occurred on Sunday as a result of rising anti-Semitism in Australia.

He claimed that while it was an attack on the Jewish community, it also targeted the Australian way of life.

“Australians are shocked and enraged. I’m furious. It is obvious that we must do much, much more, to stop this evil plague, he continued.

One week after the mass shooting, the prime minister made an announcement on Friday that Australia will hold a national day of reflection on Sunday.

At 6:47 p.m. (07:47 GMT), Albanese advised Australians to “light candles” on December 21 for “exactly one week since the attack occurred.”

He told reporters, “It’s a moment to pause, reflect, and affirm that hatred and violence will never define who we are as Australians.”

In another act of condolence for the dead, hundreds of people plunged into the ocean off Bondi Beach earlier on Friday.

In the gentle morning swell, swimmers and surfers bobbed into a circle, splashing in the water and bursting with emotion.

Security consultant Jason Carr told the AFP news agency, “They slaughtered innocent victims, and today I’m swimming out there and being part of my community once more to bring back the light.”

“We’re still burying bodies,” the statement read. But “I just thought it was important,” the 53-year-old said.

He said, “I’m not going to let someone so evil, someone so dark, prevent me from doing what I enjoy doing.”