The Australian government will launch a gun buyback program to take hundreds of thousands of firearms off the streets, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, following a shooting rampage at a Jewish holiday festival that killed 15 people.
Speaking at a news conference, Mr. Albanese also declared that Sunday will be a national day of reflection when Australians will pause for a minute of silence to honor the victims of the attack at a popular beach in Sydney.
The focus on firearms comes as the authorities have said the two gunmen accused of carrying out the attack, a father and son, were motivated by the Islamic State. The terrorist group has posted a video claiming credit for inspiring the attack, Mr. Albanese said.
One of the gunmen held a firearm license and had six guns “in spite of living in the middle of Sydney’s suburbs,” Mr. Albanese said. “There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns.”
The government has said that it will tighten laws around gun ownership, and new measures are under consideration that could include a cap on the number of firearms that can be owned by an individual, and tighter limits on the types of guns permitted.
Australia launched an even larger gun buyback scheme after a 1996 mass shooting that killed 35 people on the southern island of Tasmania. By some estimates, that program melted down as many as one million guns.
On Sunday, Australians will be encouraged to observe the moment of silence and light a candle at 6:47 p.m., exactly one week after the attack, Mr. Albanese said. Flags across the state of New South Wales and on Australian government buildings nationwide will be flown at half-staff. A national day of mourning will also be held in January, he added.
On Friday, Bondi Beach park in Sydney, where the shooters killed Hanukkah festival participants, reopened to the public as funerals for the victims continued.
The authorities are continuing to investigate the shooters, who they believe acted alone. Police also reported that they detained seven men on Thursday who had “extremist Islamic ideology” and may have been planning to visit Bondi Beach.
The police described the detentions as a precautionary measure, saying that there was no apparent link between those seven and the two suspected gunmen. Mal Lanyon, the New South Wales police commissioner, said at a news conference that while the men appeared to pose no specific risk, police acted to prevent a violent offense being committed.
“We were not prepared to take any risk,” he said.
Bondi Beach was one of a number of locations that the seven men may have been traveling to, Mr. Lanyon said. However, he said their intent was not clear and police did not have enough evidence to keep holding them, suggesting the men would soon be released.
The detentions reflect a country that is still on edge, grieving while also trying to recover, bit by bit.
That effort was on full display at Bondi Beach, where the crime scene tape and crowd-control barriers have been removed. At sunrise, around 700 surfers participated in a paddle out, riding their boards onto the waves to pay joint tribute to the 15 lives lost. Afterward, a smaller group of surfers and residents, some wearing Jewish prayer shawls, encircled a rabbi offering remembrances, songs and words of encouragement.
“We can be the ones that translate this nightmare into something positive and glorious in our future,” said the rabbi, Yossi Friedman. “For three and a half thousand years, they have tried to wipe us out, and they’ve never been successful — and they will not be successful now.”
Together, they sang the national anthem of Australia before departing.
The attack has fueled growing calls for action to combat antisemitism. On Friday, opposition leader Sussan Ley called on Mr. Albanese to recall Parliament before the Christmas holiday to get such a bill passed.
Mr. Albanese has said that his government would draft legislation for stronger penalties to combat hate speech and those who spread hate. The proposed measures would also target preachers who promote violence, and list organizations whose leaders promote violence or racial hatred.
Ms. Ley said the prime minister was offering “too little, too late” as Jews in Australia had faced threats including arson and graffiti even before Sunday’s shooting. She also repeated an earlier call for noncitizens who preach “radical Islam” to have their visas canceled.
“My message is if you preach hatred, if you preach radical Islam in a way that hurts or harms your fellow man or woman, if you incite, if you glorify terrorism, if you are not an Australian citizen, you will be deported,” she said in a television interview.
Yan Zhuang is a Times reporter in Seoul who covers breaking news.
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