Anthony Albanese must fix our broken gun laws. Anything less will fail to honour the lives of those lost at Bondi |
The Bondi shooting has guaranteed that formulation of new laws to control gun use will be urgently considered at state and federal levels. It is well overdue. New laws in Western Australia provide an excellent model for such laws, and it is time we had informed national oversight of gun ownership and use.
Anthony Albanese must now show the same leadership, determination and commitment John Howard showed after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, including a commitment to abolish recreational hunting licences. Anything less will fail to honour the lives of those lost at Bondi.
Port Arthur saw the adoption of the National Firearms Agreement (the NFA), which was an important step in sensible gun control in Australia. Those shootings, by a man armed with two semi-automatic military rifles, followed a decade of intransigence from the Tasmanian and Queensland governments at the notion of gun law reform.
The NFA – and the legislation that followed – introduced tougher licensing of guns, tighter gun storage conditions, bans on semi-automatic rifles and registration of all guns. It has been very effective at halting........