Australia tightens gun laws after Bondi Beach shooting
Australia is set to introduce broad gun reforms after its parliament passed a comprehensive package of gun laws on Tuesday, following the Bondi Beach shooting last month.
Reforms include a plan for a national gun buyback program, more stringent background checks and limits on imports of firearms, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Australia undertook legislation to tighten its gun laws after 15 people were killed in a shooting at a Hanukkah festival at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
Australia's House of Representatives passed the gun reform package by a 96 to 45 vote. The package then passed the Senate.
Lawmakers returned to session two weeks early to discuss gun reform.
The shooters, 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram, 24, owned the guns used in the shooting legally. Officials say they were motivated by anti-Semitism.
Tony Burke, Australia's Minister of Home Affairs, said the new laws passed by Parliament would have prevented the shooting.
There are about 4 million registered firearms in Australia. The new buyback program seeks to reduce that number.
Along with gun reform, Parliament passed a bill meant to curb hate speech. Critics of the bill say it could have a chilling effect on free speech.
"This bill will have a chilling and draconian effect on political debate, on protest, on civil rights and on people speaking up against human rights abuses perpetrated by Israel or any other nation-state," Sen. Mehreen Faruqi, deputy leader of the Greens party, said
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