Australian PM announces gun buy-back plan, day of reflection following Bondi Beach shooting
By Hira Humayun, Laura Sharman, CNN
(CNN) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national buy-back scheme for firearms to “get more guns off our streets” following the Bondi Beach massacre.
Speaking at a press conference in Canberra on Friday, Albanese said the scheme would buy surplus, newly banned, and illegal firearms. The government would introduce legislation to help with the funding of the scheme and meet the cost with states and territories, he said.
“We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme,” the prime minister added.
Albanese also announced there would be a day of reflection for the victims on December 21, when flags on all New South Wales and Australian government buildings would be flown at half-staff, and a national day of mourning in the new year.
Meanwhile hundreds of surfers took to the waves from Bondi Beach on Friday morning, joining a paddle-out in a powerful show of unity with the victims of Sunday’s attack and a stand against fear and hatred.
Lifeguards Jimmy and Rupert, who aided in the rescue efforts, spoke at the event, sharing their stories of trauma and the community’s journey toward healing, CNN affiliate 7News reported.
Albanese said efforts to establish the motivation and methods behind the antisemitic attack are ongoing, with the National Security Committee having met six times since the attack.
“Today, we’ve been informed that the office of national intelligence has identified a regular online video feed from ISIS that reinforces that this was an ISIS-inspired attack,” Albanese said.
“Further work is being done by the security agencies around motivation and we’ll continue to meet and provide them with whatever support they need at this difficult time.”
Under the buy-back scheme, states and territories will be tasked with collecting the weapons and processing payments to individuals for surrendered firearms, while federal police will be responsible for destroying them.
“The terrible events of Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” Albanese said, calling the plan the biggest gun buy-back since 1996.
Australia already has some of the world’s toughest gun restrictions and lowest gun homicide rates. Restrictions were tightened almost 30 years ago after a lone gunman armed with semiautomatic weapons killed 35 people at the Port Arthur historic tourist site in the inland state of Tasmania.
The massacre shocked the government of the day into action, and within two weeks, new laws dictated tough rules on who could and couldn’t own a gun. Authorities also launched a major gun amnesty and buy-back scheme at the time that removed more than 650,000 newly prohibited firearms from circulation.
However, Albanese said there are currently more than four million firearms in the country, more than at the time of the Port Arthur attack.
In remembrance
Friday also marked the funeral of Bondi victims Boris Tetleroyd and Edith Brutman, as well as married couple Boris and Sofia Gurman.
As the morning light filtered into Chevra Kadisha Memorial Hall, in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, mourners gathered to farewell the Gurmans, who were caught on dashcam video confronting one of the suspected Bondi shooters, 7News reports.
The pair, aged 69 and 61 respectively, were set to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary in January and were described by family friends as “longtime Bondi locals who loved their community and the life they had built there,” according to a GoFundMe campaign.
Tetleroyd, described by his niece as a “beloved husband and father,” was attending the Hanukkah event with his son when the gunmen opened fire.
Brutman was committed to fighting discrimination, her family and friends told Australian media, with a colleague adding she was a “decent hard-working friend and associate with a big heart and with lots of passion.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
