Australia may tighten its gun laws once again following the country’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years.
Two shooters, a father and son allegedly linked to the Islamic State group, killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, Sydney. Bondi has a large Jewish community, and Australia had been a “refuge from political violence” for Jews, a Bloomberg columnist argued.
Sunday’s killings shattered that image, and that of Australia’s stringent gun laws, which came into force in 1996 in the wake of another mass shooting.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said ownership laws could be updated, and praised the actions of Ahmed al-Ahmed, a shopkeeper who wrestled the gun off one attacker and was injured by gunfire.