Australia Must Strengthen Gun Laws After ‘Evil’ Bondi Beach Shooting Kills 15, PM Says
By Gavin Butler and Joel Guinto, with Tiffanie Turnbull, Tessa Wong and Katy Watson reporting from Bondi Beach
Summary
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will push for tougher gun laws after 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed in a shooting at Bondi Beach on Sunday
- Mourners have gathered at beachside memorials to lay flowers and pay their respects to those who perished in the attack that targeted a Hanukkah event
- Police say the two gunmen were a 50-year-old father, who died on the scene, and his 24-year-old son, who remains in hospital in critical condition. The man has a firearms licence for recreational hunting
- Verified footage of the incident pieced together by World news correspondent Joe Inwood shows how the shooting unfolded minute by minute
- British-born Rabbi Eli Schlanger was among those killed in the attack, his family tells the BBC
- An eyewitness tells the BBC he lost “a very dear friend” who’d just become a father again, while a young man says it felt like the shots went on for “an eternity”
‘A wake-up call to Australia’ – local MP
“I think we’re all still trying to process this. This is something I never dreamed in my lifetime I would see,” said Allegra Spender, the independent MP for the electoral district of Wentworth which includes Bondi Beach.
She was speaking earlier to the BBC’s Newhour radio programme on Monday.
Spender said the members of the Jewish community whom she has spoken to in the wake of the shooting were “going to bed in many cases scared”.
“They’re scared for their families,” she said, adding that one person she had spoken to was taking down their mezuzah – a small scroll of parchment that Jewish people sometimes fix to the doorpost of their homes – for fear of being targeted.
“I think this is a night that we will remember in Australian history for many, many years,” she said.
“And I think this is a wake-up call to Australia to say ‘we cannot stand for this’.”
Blood donors crash website, queue for six hours to help
Tiffanie Turnbull – BBC News, Sydney
Officials earlier today put out an urgent call for blood to help treat those injured in last night’s shooting, and Sydney has responded in droves.
The blood donations website crashed under the weight of demand, so Lifeblood – the agency which manages them – appealed for people to show up at blood banks anyway.
Here at Town Hall, in the heart of Sydney, the wait to donate is over six hours.
Colt has already spent two hours in line but isn’t leaving. “We can keep [the victims] in our thoughts and our prayers, but as far as tangible impacts, this is all we can do,” the 21-year-old explains.
Colt is among the donors who have overwhelmed blood banks
A little further down the line, 52-year-old Jim says the shooters’ “cowardly” act had kept him up last night, and by morning he was resolved to help.
“I don’t necessarily agree with what is happening overseas, but that doesn’t mean that you open fire on innocent people here,” he said. “They cannot justify [it] by saying there are dead children over there, so a… little girl should die here on the beach.”
Gesturing to the line stretching out in the sun behind him, 21-year-old Alex Gilders said he hoped the city’s reaction was a comfort to the Jewish community.
“Australia has your back.”
Details from gunmen’s short-term rental property
Simon Atkinson – Australia producer, BBC News
About a 30-minute drive from Bondi Beach, an unremarkable, single-storey grey building with white window grilles is one of the main focuses of the police investigation.
This is the short-term rental property on Brighton Street in Campsie where police believe the two gunmen had been staying for the last fortnight or so, and where they prepared Sunday’s attack.
Within half an hour we saw at least ten officers from the Australian Federal Police and New South Wales Police going in and out.
So far I’ve spotted a black suitcase, several items wrapped in brown packaging and a full black plastic bin bag being removed and loaded into unmarked vehicles.
Several Muslim communities in Australia have issued condemnations of the Bondi attack.
Australian National Imams Council, a body representing imams and Muslims in the country, said in a statement: “While this attack has targeted the Jewish community, it is in reality an attack on all of us, including the Muslim community. This violent terrorist act constitutes an attack on all Australians.”
“Antisemitism, expressed through hate, harassment, and violence directed at the Jewish community, has no place in our society,” it added.
“We urge the community and representatives to reach out to their Jewish neighbours, friends, and colleagues to offer support and comfort during this difficult time.”
The Alliance of Australian Muslims, which consists of Muslim organisations across the country, said in a statement that “those responsible must be held fully accountable and face the full force of the law”.
10:24
Another victim confirmed as former policeman and rugby club volunteer
Peter “Marzo” Meagher has been identified as one of the victims of the shooting, in a statement from the Randwick Rugby Club where he was a “much loved First Grade Manager and loyal club volunteer”.
The statement, published about an hour ago, said that Meagher had served nearly 40 years in the NSW Police Force before retiring as a Detective Sergeant.
He was working as a freelance photographer at the Hanukkah event on Sunday when the shooting happened, the rugby club said.
“The tragic irony is that he spent so long in the dangerous front line as a Police Officer and was struck down in retirement while taking photos in his passion role” the statement said.
The club said that Meagher’s death was “really hard to comprehend”, and had “hit our players, coaches, managers, volunteers and supporters extremely hard”.
If you’re just joining our live coverage of the aftermath of the shooting at Bondi Beach, here’s what you need to know:
- Fifteen people were killed in an attack by two gunmen on Sunday, including a 10-year-old girl. More than 40 have been taken to hospital, as people in Sydney are urged to donate blood
- Here’s a minute-by-minute breakdown of how the shooting unfolded
- Authorities on Monday revealed more details about the shooters, who were father and son. The 50-year-old father, who was shot dead by police, had arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa. His 24-year-old son, who’s in hospital, is an Australian-born citizen
- Police raided the family gunmen’s home last night. One of their former neighbours told the BBC that when she saw the news of the shooting, “I thought oh my goodness, it can’t be them”
- Albanese described the shooting as “an act of pure evil” and pledged to discuss tougher gun laws in parliament. For context, here’s a look at Australia’s gun laws
- Officials are hailing bystanders who had saved the lives of others during the attack, as well as the off-duty police officers who flocked to Bondi to help out when news of the shooting broke
We’ll continue to bring you the latest updates as we get them. Stay with us.
Tiffanie Turnbull – BBC News, Sydney
In front of a cluster of bouquets, a young woman kneels, eyes closed, palms up – praying.
Katherine Pierce, 26, tell me she’s driven from Tahmoor, about 1.5 hours away, to pay her respects to those who have been injured or killed.
“There’s no words really to explain… I just feel concern for our country.”
“I think Australia needs to wake up to be honest,” she says, pointing to consistent concerns from Jewish leaders about rising antisemitism here.
The Bondi Beach shooting marked a “dark day in Australia’s history on what should have been a day of light,” Albanese told a recent press briefing, where he talked about his visit to the scene at Bondi this morning.
Katy Watson – Australia correspondent
Bonnyrigg, in southwestern Sydney, is an hour’s drive inland from Bondi.
It’s here that the two gunmen lived – in a single-storey brick house with a cream fence across the front yard.
This is the home where both father and son were registered as living – that is, until the two decamped to a short-term rental property in Campsie. It’s there police believe they prepared the attack.
In Bonnyrigg, neighbours are shocked. “My daughter was yelling at me, ‘mum look outside’ and I saw lots of police, lots of cars, sirens and loudspeakers calling them to come out,” Lemanatua Fatu, who lives opposite, told me.
Lemanatua Fatu lived near the home belonging to the two gunmen in Bonnyrigg
“Then I saw the news – I thought oh my goodness, it can’t be them.”
She said she often saw the young man put the rubbish out.
“We live here as normal people, this is a good neighbourhood,” she said.
The 24-year-old shooter – the younger of the pair – first came to authorities’ attention in October 2019, Albanese revealed in his press conference.
He added that the man was “examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says “the need for tougher gun laws” will be on the agenda for a national cabinet meeting at 16:00 local time (05:00 GMT).
“This afternoon, at four o’clock, I will put on the agenda of the national cabinet tougher gun laws, including limits on the number of guns that can be used or licensed by individuals, a review of licences over a period of time,” Albanese told the media.
“People’s circumstances change. People can be radicalised over a period of time. Licences should not be in perpetuity.”
Albanese says the Australian government will “take to national Cabinet this afternoon a proposal to empower agencies to examine what can be done in this area”.
We’re now learning more from authorities about the two shooters, who were father and son.
The son is an Australian-born citizen, while the father arrived in 1998 on a student visa, which was transferred in 2001 to a partner visa and later resident return visas, home minister Tony Burke says.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese has just given a few updates at a press briefing. Here are the main things he said:
The government is providing support for funerals of the victims, including facilitating relatives who are visiting from abroad for the funerals, Albanese said.
This morning he met with police who had been at the scene last night. “Some of them had been up all night,” he said. Many of them had been off-duty police who arrived at Bondi from as far away as Newcastle city and the Central Coast.
“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of terror and an act of antisemitism,” Albanese said.
Visiting the scene at Bondi this morning, it was “a very physical reminder of the iconic status” of the beach, he said, adding that the fact that this was a venue for the shooting was an “outrage”.
He also said that authorities would be reviewing the country’s gun laws and licences.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a phone call with Australian foreign minister Penny Wong on Monday to “discuss the antisemitic terrorist attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach”, the US State Department’s spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
The statement also said the US “strongly condemns the heinous terrorist attack”.
“As Jews around the world light Hanukkah candles tonight, they commemorate the triumph of light over darkness and the long history of Jewish resilience in the face of oppression,” the statement said.
“No community should have to fear publicly celebrating their faith and traditions due to the threat of extremist violence and terror.”
“There can be no compromise with antisemitism – this scourge must be confronted and defeated.”
As we reported earlier from the press conference, the older Bondi Beach gunman met the eligibility for a firearms licence for recreational hunting.
The man had a “category AB licence that entitled him to have the long arms he had,” NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon explained.
“In terms of a firearms licence, the firearms registry conducts a thorough examination of all applications to ensure a person is fit and proper to hold a firearms licence,” he said.
Eligibility for a game hunting licence in NSW depends on the land you wish to hunt on, the type of animal you wish to hunt, and the reason for hunting the animals, as per the Service NSW website.
One of the reasons for hunting includes “recreation or personal consumption”, Service NSW says.
Australia prides itself on being a safe country with some of the world’s most stringent gun laws.
Following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, when 35 people were killed in Tasmania, swift and critical changes were made regarding private ownership of guns, particularly automated weapons.
According to the Firearms Act 1996, a person “must not possess or use a firearm, prohibited firearm or pistol unless the person is authorised to do so by a licence or permit”.
All persons who own a firearm through a permit or licence must be registered, the NSW Police and Government say on their website about obtaining firearms and ammunition.
Yasmin Catley, the New South Wales Minister for Police, said that off-duty police officers, as well as those working in areas outside of Bondi, had arrived at Bondi police station to help out amid the shooting.
Catley saw 50-60 police officers at the station, she told a recent press conference. “Most of them weren’t on duty. They just heard the event, put their uniform on, got in their car and drove to Bondi police station because they knew they’d be needed.”
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the acts of bravery by police in response to yesterday’s attack should be celebrated. “It would have been an incredibly chaotic and terrifying scene. Even for well trained police officers,” he said.
The NSW police’s press conference has ended.
As a quick recap, police commissioner Mal Lanyon said the 50-year-old gunman had a firearms licence for recreational hunting because he was a member of a gun club. NSW Premier Chris Minns acknowledged “it’s time [for a change] to the state’s gun laws”, but did not give further details.
We’ll bring you more updates as we get them. Stay with us.
NSW Premier Chris Minns is encouraging members of the community to continue laying flowers at a memorial site which has been established at the rear of the Bondi pavilion.
“I noticed people are already laying flowers at that site. We encourage members of the community to do that,” Minns says at the news conference.
The premier has welcomed the record numbers of people and massive lines at blood donation services across New South Wales.
“Please be patient if you’d like to make that act of civic duty, but it’s warmly welcomed and it will go to a good cause,” he says.
Reporters are continuing to grill the NSW Premier on firearms licences, and he acknowledges again that change is needed.
“It does require legislation. It means introducing a bill to Parliament to – to be really blunt, making it more difficult to get these horrifying weapons that have no practical use in our community,” Chris Minns says.
“If you’re not a farmer, you’re not involved in agriculture, why do you need these massive weapons to put the public in danger?”
Minns adds it will take time to bring in appropriate legislation, though.
“We’re less than than 24 hours into this horrifying crime,” he says. “I want to make sure that legislation and reform that we bring to Parliament makes a big difference, but that’s entirely my intention and my colleagues feel the same way.”
