Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that Australia would move to strengthen the country’s strict gun laws in the wake of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, the country’s deadliest mass shooting in almost three decades.
“Leaders agreed that strong, decisive and focused action was needed on gun law reform as an immediate action,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement after a meeting of the National Cabinet, which includes the leaders of the country’s states and territories.
Potential measures could include only allowing Australian citizens to hold gun licenses, his office said.
That would have excluded the older gunman at the Bondi Beach attack from getting a gun license. He arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, Australia’s home affairs minister said, then transferred to a partner visa in 2001 and has been living legally in the country on a resident visa.
The older gunman, who was killed on Sunday at the age of 50, had held a gun license for about 10 years, police said. Six weapons were registered in his name, the police said, adding that they discovered six firearms at the crime scene.
Other possible measures include limiting the number of firearms a person can own and allowing for the “additional use of criminal intelligence” as part of gun licensing.
Mr. Albanese also said that there would be a review of gun licenses over time.
“People’s circumstances change, people can be radicalized over a period of time,” he said during a news conference on Monday. “Licenses should not be in perpetuity.”
“The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary,” he said.
Australia has a history of taking quick and decisive action after mass shootings.
After 35 people were killed in a 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, Australian leaders overhauled the country’s gun laws, essentially banning assault rifles and many other semiautomatic rifles, as well as shotguns.
Australia also imposed mandatory gun buybacks that took as many as one in three privately held guns out of circulation, and, according to some estimates, melted down as many as one million guns. They also imposed new registration requirements and restrictions on gun purchases.
A lot has changed in the nearly three decades since the landmark deal.
The technology is different. People without gun licenses can use 3D-printed guns and avoid regulation, for instance. The threats have changed, too. Attackers can be influenced by ideologies ranging from right-wing extremism to a growing interest in violence.
Mr. Albanese’s office said that Australian leaders had agreed that they needed to renegotiate the law “to ensure it remains as robust as possible in today’s changing security environment.”
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he wanted “to introduce the toughest gun legislation in the country,” which could include making gun owners renew their licenses after a defined period of time and restricting what types of firearms people can access.
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
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