Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national firearms ‘buyback’ program to get more guns off the country’s streets following the recent Bondi Beach terrorist attack in which 15 people were killed by two Islamic terrorists.Albanese told the press in Canberra on Friday that the program would buy newly banned, illegal, and surplus firearms..“We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme,” he said, adding that the government will introduce legislation to tighten gun laws and help fund the program and meet the cost in collaboration with Australian state and territorial governments.It is expected that new legislation will include gun licences being issued only to Australian citizens, as well as better background checks, limits on the timeframe licences can be issued for, and limits on the number of firearms individuals can own.Under the new program, states and territories will be tasked with collecting firearms and processing payments to individuals for the surrendered property. Federal police will then be charged with the task of destroying them.Albanese said the plan was the biggest gun “buyback” initiative since the 1996 Port Arthur attack, in which a lone gunman killed 35 people.The prime minister stated there are currently more than four million firearms in the country, which is more than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre..Bondi Beach shooting suspects visited Islamist militant hotbed prior to attack.“Further work is being done by the security agencies around motivation, and we’ll continue to meet and provide them with whatever support they need at this difficult time,” Albanese said.“The terrible events of Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets.”New South Wales Premier Chris Minns stated he will also pursue a complete ban on firearms that use belt-fed magazines, and reclassify straight-pull, pump-action, and button/lever-release firearms into a more restrictive licence category.“There is a very different world between where we are today and where we were before Sunday,” Minns said.“We have to change. We all have to change. What we had done is not working.”One of the two Bondi Beach attackers, Sajid Akram, 50, who was killed at the scene, held a firearm licence and had six guns registered.“We know that one of these terrorists held a firearm licence and had six guns in spite of living in the middle of Sydney’s suburbs. There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns,” Albanese said..This comes as Australian police have increased security around Ahmed Al-Ahmad, who neutralized one of the Bondi Beach terrorists, after terrorist organizations and their supporters began publishing threats against his life.Reaction to the idea of a new gun “buyback” was decidedly mixed online, with many commentators saying that a new “buyback” program will do little to combat Islamic extremism and will punish law-abiding gun owners..Canada’s National Firearms Association said, “And there you have it — a struggling Liberal government goes back to the old playbook. Well — more food for thought: imagine being a legal Australian Jewish gun owner right now... what an insult.”.“Australian PM announces massive gun grab program following terrorist attack in Bondi Beach. They imported radical Islamists, and now they’re further disarming their citizens. Defenceless victims waited nearly 20 minutes for police to respond to the attack,” Libs of TikTok stated..Breanna Morello added that the Australian government couldn’t ‘buy back’ guns that were not theirs in the first place.“This is a way to deceive the public with words because it’s really a gun grab,” she said.
