Gun crackdown detailed as police ready Bondi charges
A snap sitting of parliament is expected to pass firearm caps and other urgent changes as emotions remain high in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
David Ossip speaks to media
The number of guns owned by one person will be restricted amid a snap crackdown on weapons after father-and-son terrorists used long-arms to kill 15 people at Bondi Beach.
As police prepared to lay charges on now-conscious gunman Naveed Akram and the first victims were laid to rest, Premier Chris Minns on Wednesday announced he would recall parliament from summer break to reduce the number of guns in the community.
More than one million firearms are registered in NSW, including more than 300 to one antique collector.
While the per-person cap on firearms was being determined, Mr Minns said five was too many.
Other changes would reclassify straight-pull-up and pump-action shotguns, reduce magazine capacity for shotguns, and change appeal rights once a police firearm licence is withdrawn.
“We will be pushing it through parliament in a short space of time,” Mr Minns said of the legislation which is still being drafted.
“It’s not necessarily the end of the reforms that we’re contemplating.”
The draft bill will be presented to the opposition before being introduced in parliament on Monday, which will also sit on Tuesday.
Labor was contemplating a royal commission into the shooting, Mr Minns said.
David Ossip, president of The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, commented: “The NSW Government’s first stage response is much needed and has our full support. We all hold dear the right to protest but activists have been using these street protests to inflame division and undermine the very fabric of our shared society.
The announcement came after Rabbi Eli Schlanger was laid to rest in the packed Sydney synagogue in which he worked.
The Chabad Bondi assistant rabbi and father-of-five was remembered for the tremendous lengths he went to help others, including the incarcerated.
“He … would drive three, four hours each way to visit one single prisoner,” his father-in-law Rabbi Yehoram Ulman told mourners.
Rabbi Yaakov Levitan is expected to be buried after another service on Wednesday afternoon
The religious leaders were among 15 killed when Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed, 24, fired at scores of people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday night as they celebrated the Jewish festival of lights.
Police shot dead the 50-year-old gunman while his son remains in hospital in a critical condition under police guard.
The younger Akram awoke from his coma on Tuesday afternoon.
Police await him regaining full mental fitness to interview him.
In further charged scenes at a growing floral tribute at the beach, a Jewish former federal treasurer demanded the prime minister accept personal responsibility for the Bondi attack.
In a half-hour speech, Josh Frydenberg – wearing a kippah – suggested the Jewish community had been abandoned and left alone by governments.
“It’s time for (Anthony Albanese) to accept personal responsibility for the death of 15 innocent people, including a 10-year-old child.”
Further funerals are expected to take place in the coming days as La Perouse Public School remembered 10-year-old victim Matilda as a “little ray of sunshine”.
The condition of the 42 people injured in the attack continues to improve.
One of them is 22-year-old probationary constable Jack Hibbert, who was shot in the head and shoulder and is starting his long road to recovery.
He had been part of the police force for only four months.
“Tragically, we know that he’s going to lose the sight in one eye as a result of his injuries,” Commissioner Mal Lanyon said after meeting the officer.
Twenty-one people remain in hospital with 16 of them in a stable condition and an injured survivor released.
Overnight, police in India confirmed the dead shooter was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, but had limited contact with his family who had “no knowledge of his radical mindset.”
Meanwhile, counter-terrorism investigators on state and federal levels are poring over swathes of seized material as they try to uncover how father-and-son shooters committed one of the worst mass shootings in recent history.
Officers found two home-made Islamic State flags in a car, registered to Naveed, where they also defused two improvised explosive devices.
He also confirmed the pair had travelled to the Philippines but noted the reasons for the trip were still being investigated.
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
