Name: Australias gun laws have loopholes and workarounds, experts say
Uploaded: 2025-12-17T18:11:44.786Z
Duration: 3 min 3 s
Description: Australia is reconsidering its gun laws in the wake of the shooting attack in Bondi in which two suspects killed 15 people. The country typically has fewer gun deaths per year than the U.S. has in a day, but tweaks by some states have relaxed oversight over firearms ownership, say gun control experts.

Australia is reconsidering its gun laws in the wake of the shooting attack in Bondi in which two suspects killed 15 people. The country typically has fewer gun deaths per year than the U.S. has in a day, but tweaks by some states have relaxed oversight over firearms ownership, say gun control experts.

Council of the City of Sydney

In response to the Bondi mass shooting, Australia’s federal government is proposing changes to gun laws, such as limiting the number of firearms per licence holder and ending perpetual licences. Experts have raised concerns about complacency in background checks and the ease with which individuals can legally obtain high-powered weapons, despite Australia’s reputation for strict gun regulations.

Authorities revealed that the Bondi shooter legally owned six firearms and that intelligence linking one suspect to extremist groups was not considered in the licensing process. The number of legally owned guns in Australia has increased over the past two decades, prompting both federal and state governments to consider urgent legislative reforms to strengthen public safety.

Australia's gun laws have loopholes and workarounds, experts say

In the wake of the Bondi mass shooting, Australia's federal government is proposing changes to the gun laws, including setting a limit on how many guns a licence holder can own and an end to granting licences in perpetuity. But complacency around background checks and loosening of the laws may have made it too easy for shooters to get weapons, says Roland Brown, Vice President of Gun Control Australia. The fact that this shooter had a recreational shooting licence and having six guns, at least one of which was a high-powered rifle with a magazine taking a military style of ammunition, having that kind of firepower in suburban Sydney is really mad. The country already has some of the world's toughest laws, including mandatory licensing and background checks, as well as registration of every firearm introduced after the mass shooting of 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996. Fifty-year-old Sajid Akram, who was shot dead by police at the scene, received his gun licence in 2023 and had six legally owned weapons that he and his son allegedly used in the attack. Twenty-four-year-old Naveed Akram, who has emerged from a coma after also being shot by police, had been linked by intelligence with a group suspected of association with Islamic State, but the use of intelligence in adjudicating a firearms licence is not currently required by the Firearms Act, according to New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon. Most people with guns in the state of New South Wales got clearance by proving they were in a target shooting or hunting club, according to published police data. These clubs require training and report to the police, but about half of the 220 government-accredited gun clubs in the state had no published physical address and a mandatory 28-day cooling-off period when a person with one gun once more was removed in 2008. Sporting Shooters Association of Australia CEO Tom Kenyon said some gun clubs arranged training at central locations so don't need physical addresses and no training could have prevented the Bondi attack. The real issue is the radicalisation of individuals to the point that they thought it was okay to kill their fellow citizens. They also know that there was a failure of intelligence sharing between the federal government and the state governments and that, you know, in hindsight it's screamingly obvious that these people should have been stopped and they should have had zero guns, not six. The number of guns in Australia has risen for more than two decades, with more than four million legally owned guns in circulation, says think tank the Australia Institute. A report in January showed two-thirds of Australians supported stronger gun laws. As the federal government is considering gun law changes, New South Wales Premier Chris Minn said on Wednesday the state parliament will also reconvene next week to discuss urgent legislation on gun control. The government will call back the New South Wales parliament to deal with urgent legislation that we believe is required pre-Christmas to keep the community safe and ensure there's unambiguous laws in place when it comes to public safety.

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