Hanukkah, the annual eight-day “Festival of Lights”, commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE after Jewish resistance fighters, the Maccabees, wrested back control from the occupying Syrian -Greek Seleucids. It is meant to be a joyous occasion in the Jewish calendar. A “Chanukah by the Sea” event at Archer Park, near the northern end of iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney, has turned out otherwise as two black-clad armed men went on a rampage, from around 6: 40 PM local time on Sunday 14 December 2025, killing 15 innocent people, aged between 10 and 87, and wounding 42 others. Around two thousand people had gathered for the event, organised by the Chabad of Bondi synagogue, to light the first candles of Hanukkah. It soon emerged that a father-and-son team were responsible for the murderous attack and that the father was a licensed gun owner, with six legally acquired firearms for recreational hunting in his possession. The duo was identified as 50-year-old Sajid Akram, initially thought to be of Pakistani heritage but since identified as a former Indian national , who was killed on the spot, and his 24-year-old Australian-born son, Naveed Akram. Of note, Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old Muslim fruit-stall owner, stepped up on the occasion and helped limit the carnage by disarming the older of the two shooters, only to be shot at for his troubles. In response to the tragedy at Bondi Beach, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised “tougher gun laws, including limits on the number of guns that can be used or licensed by individuals, a review of licences over a period of time” and also to “stand together in solidarity with Jewish Australians and with one another.”
The Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania on 28 April 1996 was a defining moment for gun control in Australia. On that day, Martin Bryant, armed with a legally acquired Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, killed 35 people and wounded 23 others in the historic tourist town of Port Arthur. John Howard’s federal government was quick to respond, and it took just twelve days for the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) to be ratified by Federal Parliament, with bipartisan support, on 10 May 1996. Nationwide implementation was completed by the end of 1997. The NFA prohibited fully automatic weapons, semi-automatic rifles, and semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, with exceptions being made for the military, the police, and occupational categories of shooters licensed for a specific purpose. Over 659,000 newly proscribed firearms were subsequently handed in under a government-funded voluntary compensatory buyback scheme, as of 2001, and then destroyed. Mandatory registration of all firearms was introduced, and a national firearm registry was proposed. The licensing system was tightened up and “personal protection” was no longer considered a genuine reason for firearm ownership. Satisfactory completion of a recognised safety training course was made a prerequisite for a licence to be issued. A 28-day waiting period for firearm sales, with restriction of ownership to those aged 18 or over, having a genuine reason for possession, and able to securely store firearms at their properties have all served to control gun ownership. The NFA has been linked to a decline in firearm suicides, mass shootings, and female homicide victims, although a direct cause-and-effect relationship cannot be confirmed in all instances.
In recent years, despite the NFA, firearm ownership has been on the rise. The firearms registry has yet to be set up, although the murders of two Queensland Police constables in Wieambilla in December 2022 provided renewed impetus for a nationwide firearms register. The federal government’s role is restricted to control of importation of firearms, while individual states and territories have different licensing laws, with varying degrees of regulatory oversight. At least 2,000 new firearms legally come into circulation every week. The pro-gun lobby in Australia has become increasingly vocal in recent years as it fights the “misinformation, misrepresentations and untruths spread by the anti-gun lobby and reported by the media.” The Shooters Union Australia describes itself as “the leading national advocate in support of the legitimate use of firearms for sporting, recreational, and occupational purposes in Australia.” There is also a growing sovereign citizen movement, which rejects government control over their lives. Many sovereign citizens have been busy arming themselves against various perceived threats from wider society. Adding to all this, organised criminal gangs, a black market in smuggled weapons, and 3D-printed weapons have raised the profile of gun-related crime in urban Australia.
Some opponents of gun control in Australia used to cite the example of New Zealand, where there has been less emphasis on the type of firearm alongside more stringent regulations on who can possess firearms. This means that certain types of semi-automatic weapons can still be legally owned in New Zealand, although some recent changes have come about following yet another terrorist incident. The fatal mass shootings of 51 people at two Christchurch mosques in March 2019, ironically by an Australian citizen, prompted amendments to the Arms Act 1983 whereby “military style semi-automatics”, pump-action shotguns, and high-capacity magazines were prohibited. Looking farther afield, there is nothing useful to be learned from America’s permissive gun laws.
A lethal cocktail of militant anti-Semitism and radical Islamism, coupled with access to a mini-arsenal of legally acquired firearms, appears to have led to the massacre in Bondi Beach. While tackling widespread and growing anti-Semitism must remain the top priority, a reduction in the number of potentially lethal firearms in circulation in Australia may not be such a bad thing after all, given all the unsavoury characters around. Prevention is always better than cure.
Ashis Banerjee