The attack at Bondi Beach that at this stage has claimed the lives of 15 innocent people and left 42 others in hospital has rocked the nation. Mass shootings are such a rarity here that any form of gun violence is big news and has the power to shake us as a nation to the core. The recent shooting of two police officers in Victoria left our community shocked, but this is a whole other scale. Hearing and reading the news on Sunday night left is all feeling devastated and empty as the safety of our community evaporated in an instant and now we are left to mourn.
What we know…
At 6.45 pm on Sunday, NSW police responded to reports of a shooter as two gunmen, Sajid Akram a 50 year old male and his 24 year old son Naveed Akram, targeted the Hanukkah celebration called Chanukah by the Sea taking place at Bondi. Positioned on a nearby bridge, the men had clear aim to target the event, and with the later discovery of three improvised explosive devices nearby, this was obviously a premeditated attack against the Jewish community. The pair were armed with a licenced bolt action long-range rife and shotguns. At this stage, 15 innocent people have lost their lives, including a 10 year old girl. Around 42 people have been taken to the hospital, including 2 police officers. One of the gunmen was killed in the exchange with police while the other remains in hospital under guard.
The investigation is currently still ongoing, and we will know more over the coming days and weeks. However, it has been revealed that the Sajid owned 6 licenced firearms, and his son had previously been investigated by the security services in 2019 due to an association with an individual with ties to Islamic State. At the time Naveed was deemed not to be an immediate threat. The presence of an Islamic State flag in the pairs car at the scene is still part of the investigation as their trip to the Philippines last month. Currently, authorities have raised the possibility that the shooters were not working alone and that further anti terrorism raids are expected. What we can definitely be certain about is that this was an organised attack targeting the Jewish community.
Moments of heroism
Amongst the heartache and shock, the world has been amazed by the actions of heroism shown by members of the public. Most notably, Ahmed Al-Ahmed, a 43 year old father and fruit shop owner that snuck up and disarmed one of the gunmen. A Syrian immigrant and practising Muslim, it was an act of selflessness that directly contradicts the Anti migrant narrative that people are trying to push. His act of bravery saved lives and has shown the world the strength of the Australian spirits where people will attempt to save others. Unfortunately, Mr. AL-Ahmed was wounded in the ongoing exchange of bullets and is currently recovering in hospital after surgery.
Al-Ahmed may have been the most amazing example of Auzzie heroism but there are plenty of others from the Melbourne grandfather Reuven Morrison who throw a break at the disarmed gunmen. His decision to take a stand and fight gave people valuable time to get away but sadly cost his own. The couple at the nearby bus stop that tried to stop the attack before the gunmen could the bridge. Then there is the police office Detective Cesar Barraza that took down both shooters with a handgun (no machine guns needed) and the other first responders that treated the injured and saved countless lives. Despite the horror on Sunday the strength of Australian values were clearly on display in all these acts and prove that when faced with the worst of humanity it can be answered by some of the best.
Communities in fear
The Jewish community around the country has been torn apart by these events. Morning the loss of so many members of their community and terrorised by this attack on their way of life. As a result, community leaders have cancelled other celebrations across the country out of fear of similar attacks. A reaction, which is as much about the recent history of Antisemitism in Australia over the last year, the appearances of Neo Nazis and the interface from Iran as the attack itself. These events have led to numerous calls for more action against Antisemitism and there is a clear belied that more should have been done to prevent the attack. Right now the community is in a state of shock and Jewish leaders warn that the country has been ‘fundamentally changed’ and that ‘things can’t go back to normal’. What this will mean for the community in the long term and Australian society as a whole is impossible to predict at this point and is likely to be influenced by the actions taken by government in the coming days.
However, the Islamic community is also living under a blanket of fear. Aware that the shooting will bring a new wave of islamophobia and potential retribution against their community. Already a target for those pushing anti-immigration messages, the events at Bondi sadly add more fuel to this dangerous discourse, one that is going to be amplified in the coming days by conservative politicians. Pre-empting this Islamic leaders have condemned the attacks and in Sydney refused to conduct burial rites for the deceased gunmen. Yet, it is extremely unlikely that such a response will do anything to sway those that condemn groups based on the actions of individuals so some form of retaliation against the communities is definitely a possibility.
It means that during this time, when we need to be uniting as Australians, we perhaps have never been more at risk of being divided. Out of fear, anger, and political opportunism. Both leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities have expressed the need for unity at this time and are taking steps to bring the country together. However, long-standing prejudices and the influences of politicians pushing anti-immigration messages are definitely working against these hopes. Hopefully, the holiday spirit can endure a little, and we can pull together through acts of support like the waves of Australian’s giving blood and support.
But didn’t Australia ban guns.
Sadly, there is a clear misconception about our gun laws overseas, especially in the USA, and there is a belief that we have a complete ban on firearms that has never been the case. Instead, we have restrictions and licensing, which was introduced after the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre, where 35 people were killed. The tragedy motivated Prime Minster John Howard to implement registration and storage requirements for gun owners as well as ban semi automatics and automatic weapons like those used by Martin Bryant. It means to legally own a gun in Australia, a person needs to apply for a licence, which includes stating a genuine reason to own firearms (personal protection is not considered a reason), a mandatory fire-arm safety course, back ground checks and a waiting period.
Despite our gun laws being some of the toughest in the world there have been a few areas where we have grown complacent. Firstly, the recent development of technology to allow for 3D printed weapons is something that was impossible to predicate in 1996. Secondly, gun permits once granted aren’t rigorously reviewed which doesn’t take into consideration the possible changes to mental health or the possibility of radicalisation later in life. Thirdly, the promised National Firearms Registry which was part of the Port Arthur reforms only started implementation in July last year. These delays and loop holes have allow for people with bad intentions or susceptible to influences to access firearms like those used in Sunday’s tragedy.
The Response
The Albanese government has flagged a potential tightening of gun laws in the coming days. A meeting of the national cabinet held on Monday with state and territory leaders saw a unanimous agreement to bolster gun regulations. Currently, we can only speculate what these will target, but potential limitations on the number of firearms as well as the danger of granting licenses in perpetuity have been mentioned by the PM. Additionally, there is the possibility of further restrictions on the types of firearms that remain legal and potential make ‘citizenship’ a condition for holding a licence. Exactly what is decided will be interesting to see, but it is like to relate in some way to the perpetrates of Sundays violence or the types of weapons used as reforms after Port Arthur targeted weapons used in the 1996 massacre. The NSW government have been the quickest to act with a proposed law to limit the amount of guns a person can legally obtain to be introduced to parliament next week. It will be the first of many.
In addition, after days of criticism over his response to Anti-Semitism, the Prime Minster has admitted that more should have been done and has announced the development of new hate speech legislation. These include reforms include creating an aggravated hate speech offence for preachers and leaders promoting violence as well increasing penalties for those promoting violence. A framework for listing organisations that promote hate speech will also be created. These are welcome reforms and will also hopefully protect other minorities, although the Albanese government did miss the opportunity to implement these previously and backflipped on a previous promise. In 2024 the government did proposing watered down hate speech laws which failed to include criminal offenses that were ultimately scraped. The promised laws failed to appease the Jewish community and LGBTQIA groups while still met with heavy opposition from the Australian Christian Lobby as well as other faith based organisations that viewed the proposal as “viewpoint suppression”. Now after such a tragic event there is a clear recognition that some viewpoints and ideologies don’t have a place in our society. It is too late to make any difference to those effected by Sunday’s events but hopefully will help prevent other actions of hate in the future.
While the governments is meeting to work out gun reform trying to make amends for their failures on hate speech, other members of the political futurity here in Australia have been quick to try and gain political capital out of the situation. Quick to blame the governments response to antisemitism despite there own opposition to hate speech legislation in the past or in the case of Pauline Hanson, blame the whole thing on the decrease in social unity caused by migration and hate. This is especially pathetic coming from her since her whole career has focused on creating division with dangerous racist rhetoric while trying to take money from the NRA to loosen gun laws in Australia. The reality is that the radicalisation of individuals has always been the problem, which can be an issue with any ethnic group as we have seen with the actions of Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch, a white Australian and right wing radical that killed 51 people in 2019. Breaking down the means that disenfranchised people can be manipulated and radicalised should be the focus alongside gun control, not irresponsibly blaming different groups.
The spread of misinformation online perpetrated from media outlets and even world leaders has definitely not helped. It has included nonsense from the Daily Mail claiming that we want Pauline Hanson as Prime Minster for her anti immigration stance, which is just ridiculous and impossible since she isn’t in the lower house of parliament. Even Netanyahu, whose main aim was to blame our recognition of Palestine, then claimed that Ahmed Al-Ahmed was Jewish, showing his overall grasp on the facts. Meanwhile, other sources are prematurely suggesting that the whole attack was orchestrated by Iran. By far the most frustrating response is out of the USA with pro gun voices suggesting that this wouldn’t have happened if Australian’s had more guns or that restrictions don’t work. These are all examples of the rubbish going around as people try to capitalise on events for their own political interests rather than showing any sign of respect for those killed.
Contrasting with the USA
The comments circling around social media attributed to JD Vance and other American commentators have angered Australian’s the most due to their ignorance and their overall stupidity considering the contrast between our two nations. Silly questions like ‘Didn’t Australia ban guns?’ highlights nothing but a lack of understanding for our laws while claims that we need ‘good guys with guns’ as justifications for a right to be armed is just ridiculous when we consider that this doesn’t achieve anything in the states. Realistically, the presence of an armed police force means that theoretically there are ‘good guys’ with guns that have been trained and have to go through proper checks and ongoing accountability. Yet, these pro gun nuts would use a tragedy to push their fanatical nonsense and Australian’s don’t stand for it with quickly pointing out on social media the stupidity and ignorance of suggesting gun control doesn’t work.
Let’s just compare the two countries to evaluate whether gun control works. Firstly Australia has had a single mass shooting this year compared to nearly 400. In these horrific events 15 innocent people have been killed in Australia compared to 390 in the the United States, the frightening thing about this statistic is that it looks likely that 2025 will see the lowest number of shootings in a calendar year since 2018. Overall Australia has a 0.1 rate of gun related deaths per 100 000 compared to the United Stated which is 4 per 100 000 people, on that basis for every on person shot and killed in Australia, approximately 40 people would be killed in the United states. In the decade before Port Arthur Australia recorded 11 mass shootings, since 1996 when we implemented our controls and restrictions on automatic weapons Australia has had 3 other mass shootings (more than four deaths) in the last 29 years. Even if you ignore the statistics the simple fact is that the reforms in 1996 and the restrictions on semi-automatic weapons in 1996 saved lives on Sunday as it would have been a lot worse if the Bondi shooters had access to AR-15s. I think it’s pretty clear which country is safer and ‘astonishingly’ it is not the one with a ridiculous 2nd Amendment which was conceived way back when people were using muskets and the US were concerned about the red coats coming back.
Even just the reactions from leaders shows just how crazy America is about guns. All the talk about hopes and prayers with the President simply concluding that “things happen” is just pathetic. It is sign of a nation that cares more about ‘guns’ than the lives of their people. Instead of taking action to stop shooters accessing weapons and therefore improve safety the US spend time traumatising children in schools with drills and parents live in constant fear. In contrast our government are taking immediate action by further tightening our laws in an attempt to make sure that these things don’t just happen because protecting people from harm is actually more important than all the other nonsense.
