Albanese said Australia has more guns now than 30 years ago, when the country\u2019s deadliest-ever mass shooting took place.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced, as the country continues to come to terms with the deadly attack on a Jewish holiday event at Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead.<\/p>\n Albanese called the plan the country\u2019s biggest gun buyback since 1996 \u2013 the year of Australia\u2019s deadliest mass shooting in modern history, the Port Arthur massacre in the island state of Tasmania \u2013 and said authorities will purchase surplus, newly-banned and illegal firearms.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cRight now, there are more guns in Australia than there were during Port Arthur. We can\u2019t allow that to continue,\u201d Albanese told a news conference on Friday, adding that there are currently more than four million firearms in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cNon-citizens have no need to own a gun. And someone in suburban Sydney has no need to own six \u2026 The terrible events of Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Albanese added that authorities in Australia\u2019s states and territories will be tasked with collecting the weapons and processing payments for surrendered firearms under the scheme. Federal police will then be responsible for destroying them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme,\u201d Albanese added.<\/p>\n Aided by some of the toughest gun restrictions globally, Australia has one of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world.<\/p>\n Restrictions were tightened after a lone gunman, armed with semiautomatic weapons, killed 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site almost 30 years ago.<\/p>\n The massacre shocked the country, with authorities soon after launching a major gun amnesty and buyback scheme that removed more than 650,000 newly-prohibited firearms from circulation.<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s shooting in Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach area \u2013 in which two attackers, named as father and son Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram, went on a shooting spree and killed 15 people \u2013 has had a similarly jolting impact on Australian society as the Port Arthur massacre and prompted self-reflection.<\/p>\n Albanese\u00a0said 50-year-old Sajid \u2013 who was shot dead at the scene \u2013 and 24-year-old Naveed \u2013 who was charged with \u201cterrorism\u201d and murder offences after he awoke from a coma on Tuesday \u2013 were inspired by \u201cIslamic State ideology\u201d.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Albanese announced tougher hate speech laws as he acknowledged the country had experienced a rising tide of anti-Jewish hate\u00a0since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n Albanese said rising anti-Semitism in Australia \u201cculminated on Sunday in one of the worst acts of mass murder that this country has ever seen\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an attack on our Jewish community \u2013 but it was also an attack on the Australian way of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAustralians are shocked and angry. I am angry. It is clear we need to do more to combat this evil scourge, much more,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The prime minister also announced on Friday that Australia will hold a national day of reflection this Sunday \u2013 one week after the mass shooting.<\/p>\n Albanese urged Australians to light candles at 6:47pm (07:47 GMT) on Sunday, December 21 \u2013 \u201cexactly one week since the attack unfolded\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a moment to pause, reflect, and affirm that hatred and violence will never define who we are as Australians,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people plunged into the ocean off Bondi Beach in another gesture to honour the dead.<\/p>\n Swimmers and surfers paddled into a circle as they bobbed in the gentle morning swell, splashing water and roaring with emotion.<\/p>\n \u201cThey slaughtered innocent victims, and today I\u2019m swimming out there and being part of my community again to bring back the light,\u201d security consultant Jason Carr told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still burying bodies. But I just felt it was important,\u201d the 53-year-old said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to let someone so evil, someone so dark, stop me from doing what I do and what I enjoy doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Albanese said Australia has more guns now than 30 years ago, when the country\u2019s deadliest-ever mass shooting took place. Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced, as the country continues to come to terms with the deadly attack on a Jewish holiday event at Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018We need to do more to combat this evil scourge\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Surfers](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AFP__20251218__88L86CR__v1__HighRes__AustraliaAttackBondi-1766114530.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"