Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national gun buyback scheme, labelling it the largest such measure since John Howard established a similar plan in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre.<\/p>\n
The buyback initiative would be consistent with the 1996 approach, Mr Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Friday, and target surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms.<\/p>\n
Strengthening gun laws was the government’s first major commitment in the immediate aftermath of the deadly terror attack on Sydney’s Jewish community, in which 15 people including a 10-year-old girl were killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese said the government would introduce legislation to provide the funding for the buyback initiative and that the Commonwealth would split the cost with the states and territories on a 50:50 basis.<\/p>\n
The states and territories would also be responsible for the collection, processing and payments under the prime minister’s proposal, while the Australian Federal Police would manage the destruction of the weapons.<\/p>\n
Read more on the Bondi Beach shooting:<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese said there were more than four million firearms in Australia, which is more than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” he said.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns.”<\/p>\n
National cabinet \u2014 which is made up of the prime minister and state and territory leaders \u2014 unanimously agreed to look at ways to bolster gun laws<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n Accelerating the launch of a national firearms register, limiting the number of guns a single person can own, making Australian citizenship a condition of holding a gun licence, and further restricting the types of weapons that are legal are among the options being explored.<\/p>\n Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the buyback scheme “makes everything else possible”, flagging that if limits were imposed on the number of guns permitted per person, Australians would be forced to forfeit their surplus weapons via the scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n “In 1996, the then-Howard government did the right thing \u2014 intervened to have a scheme which Australians have been rightly proud of. We need to go further,” Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n