1996 Massacre Made Australia Toughen Gun Laws, Sydney Attack Prompts Relook

Gun licences cannot be in perpetuity, as people can be radicalised over time, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said amid the conversation around arms control after two gunmen shot 15 people dead at a Jewish religious gathering on Sydney's Bondi Beach.

Speaking to the media, Albanese said he would propose new restrictions, including a cap on the number of guns a licensed owner can obtain.

Investigators have found that Sajid Akram (50), one of the shooters, was associated with a gun recreation club and had six licensed guns. The other shooter is Sajid's 24-year-old son, Naveed. "The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary. Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws," said Albanese. "People's circumstances can change. People can be radicalised over a period of time. Licenses should not be in perpetuity," he added.

The Prime Minister said some gun control laws are commonwealth and some are implemented by the states. "What we want to do is to make sure that we're all completely on the same page."

One Massacre To Another

On April 28, 1996, lone gunman Martin Bryant shot dead 35 people in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, a popular tourist destination. The shooter, Martin Bryant, was carrying two licensed semi-automatic rifles. Nine years before the Port Arthur shooting, then premier of New South Wales Barry Unsworth walked out of a national gun summit after Tasmania resisted tighter gun control laws. "It will take a massacre in Tasmania before we get gun reform in Australia." It did.

Within two weeks after the Port Arthur shooting, the then Prime Minister John Howard tightened gun control laws, starting a gun buyback scheme and a licensing system to weed out people considered unfit to carry a weapon.

A Shaken Nation

After the 1996 revamp, Australia's gun ownership system became one with the lowest gun homicide rates per capita. But over the years, the number of legal firearms has risen steadily and now exceeds the number before the crackdown, a Reuters report attributed to the Australia Institute think tank has said.

Sajid Akram, the 50-year-old shooter killed in police action at Bondi Beach, owned six licensed firearms and was also a gun club member. He came to Australia in 1998 on a student visa. Thirteen years later, in 2001, he obtained a visa granted to the partners of Australian citizens or permanent residents.

The gun licence Sajid held entitled an adult with a "genuine reason" to own up to six rifles or shotguns. Among the accepted reasons are target shooting, recreational hunting and vermin control.

Sajid was accompanied by his Naveed, 24, during the shooting and the two targeted a Jewish religious gathering at Bondi Beach to mark the first day of the Hanukkah festival. The incident has shaken the country's belief in the adequacy of its gun control laws.