Australia set for biggest overhaul of gun laws in decades

Australia is set for one of the biggest overhaul of gun laws in decades after a federal cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon in response to the Sydney Bondi Beach massacre that has claimed the lives of 15, including one of the alleged perpetrators

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that "strong, decisive and focused action was needed on gun law reform as an immediate action". Moreover, federal, state and territory governments leaders had commissioned police ministers and attorneys-general to develop options for extensive changes.

The measures are to include limiting the number of firearms to be held by any one individual, limiting open-ended firearms licensing and the types of guns that are legal, and allowing for additional use of criminal intelligence to underpin firearms licensing that can be used in administrative licensing regimes.

Australia already established a National Firearms Register after the Port Arthur massacre on April 28, 1996, in which 35 people were killed and many more injured in a mass shooting at the historic Port Arthur tourist precinct in south-east Tasmania.

However, analysts said the measures failed in Sydney. Gunman Sajid Akram was found "fit and proper" to hold an A/B category gun license 10 years ago before he and his son, Naveed, took the 50-year-old’s six firearms to a footbridge at Bondi Beach to shoot at beachgoers celebrating the first day of Jewish festival Hanukkah on Sunday.