Australia is preparing to expand its gun buyback program to Canberra following a mass shooting at a Jewish festival on Sydney's Bondi Beach that claimed 15 lives, reaffirming its commitment to tighten gun controls to prevent repeat attacks.
The Australian government announced that the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), home to Canberra, will join the federal gun buyback program to enhance safety and reduce the number of firearms in the country after the December shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah festival on Bondi Beach in Sydney, which resulted in 15 deaths.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed this on Saturday, 22 August, stating that the ACT government has agreed to participate in the gun buyback program to jointly prevent attacks similar to the one at Bondi Beach from happening again.
Albanese thanked the ACT government for cooperating with the federal government to remove firearms from the streets and emphasized that the primary goal is to increase safety for all Australians.
Australian government data shows that the ACT has about 23,000 firearms and over 7,000 licensed gun owners.
However, no details have yet been released regarding when the ACT’s gun buyback program will start or how many firearms the government aims to buy back.
Meanwhile, New South Wales, Australia's most populous state and home to Sydney, became the first state to announce participation in the gun buyback program, with the initiative scheduled to begin on 2 November.
The federal government enacted new legislation in January to advance the gun buyback program, tighten licensing checks, and combat hate crimes.
These measures were introduced following the Hanukkah festival shooting at Bondi Beach on 14 December, identified by authorities as an anti-Semitic attack. The suspects, a father and son, were reportedly inspired by the Islamic State (IS) and used legally obtained firearms.
Australia has over 4.1 million firearms.
Government data indicates that Australia had approximately 4.1 million firearms in circulation last year, highlighting the large number of guns held by civilians despite the country’s strict gun control laws.
This new gun buyback program represents Australia's largest such effort since the nationwide initiative launched after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, where a gunman killed 35 people.
. Source:channelnewsasia
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