{"id":185299,"date":"2025-12-15T20:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T20:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/185299\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T20:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T20:01:07","slug":"albanese-moves-on-gun-laws-police-defend-shooting-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/185299\/","title":{"rendered":"Albanese moves on gun laws \u2013 police defend shooting response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tighter rules around gun ownership could be rapidly rolled out in Australia after a licensed firearm user and his son killed at least 15 people<\/a> in a terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

Police have revealed Sajid Akram, 50, legally owned six weapons, which he and 24-year-old son Naveed used during the Sunday night attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n

Follow 1News’ live updates here<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would on Monday afternoon put forward a plan to put a stricter limit on the number of guns people could own and introduce periodic licence reviews.<\/p>\n

“People’s circumstances can change, people can be radicalised over a period of time, licences should not be in perpetuity,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

The proposal will be put to state and territory leaders at an emergency national cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n

NSW Police have defended their response to the terrorist attack as they investigate the gunmen’s motives, including whether they were driven by Islamic State sympathies.<\/p>\n

The pair sprayed bullets into a crowd at the Chanukah by the Sea event at Archer Park from about 6.47pm on Sunday (local time), leaving 15 people dead, including a child, and dozens injured.<\/p>\n

Sajid Akram died after being shot by police, taking the death toll to 16.<\/p>\n

He held a gun licence for a decade for the purported purpose of recreational hunting, with the right to own the long-arm weapons used in the attack, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said.<\/p>\n

“He was a member of a gun club and was entitled … to have a firearms licence issued,” he said, adding Akram would have been closely scrutinised by the firearms registry.<\/p>\n

Premier Chris Minns said a review of the state’s gun laws was already under way and he would recall parliament to make changes.<\/p>\n

“If you’re not a farmer, if you’re not involved in agriculture, why do you need these massive weapons that put the public in danger and make life dangerous and difficult for NSW Police?,” he said.<\/p>\n

The changes could include an audit of all gun licence holders as police had long flagged the current system as unfit.<\/p>\n

The commissioner also defended the police response to the shooting, despite witnesses describing waiting for up to 10 minutes for help to arrive.<\/p>\n

Officers were tasked to be at the event, part of the force’s collaboration with Jewish security groups, Lanyon said.<\/p>\n

“There were police at the scene at the time, police responded promptly,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

“We have seen very clearly on footage the bravery of officers and members of the public, who took very prompt action to resolve this matter.”<\/p>\n

Operation Shelter had immediately mobilised to protect and comfort to the Jewish community, with more than 300 police on Sydney streets on Monday.<\/p>\n

They would be highly visible at places of worship and gatherings, Lanyon said.<\/p>\n

“Police understand the fear that is currently within that community,” he said.<\/p>\n

Other states were also ramping-up efforts to protect Jewish communities, including for planned Hanukkah celebrations and other major events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tighter rules around gun ownership could be rapidly rolled out in Australia after a licensed firearm user and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-185299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}