Bondi Beach shooting: How tough are Australia’s gun laws?

The shooter responsible for the Bondi Beach attack was a licensed firearms holder who owned six firearms, police say.

The murder of at least 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach by two gunmen on Sunday was a rare occurrence in a country that is known for its strict gun laws.

The incident, which police describe as a “terrorist” attack, was the worst mass shooting in the country since 1996, when gunman Martin Bryant shot and killed 35 people and injured nearly two dozen others at Port Arthur, a tourist site in the southern island state of Tasmania. Bryant received 35 life sentences, but his motive for the shooting, which prompted a raft of new anti-gun legislation, was never made clear.

Who were the shooters?

During a news conference on Monday, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the suspects were a 50-year-old man, who was shot dead by police at the scene, and his 24-year-old son, who was also shot but remains in hospital in critical, but stable, condition.

Lanyon said the father “is a licensed firearms holder who had six firearms licensed to him”, emphasising that he “met the eligibility criteria for a firearms licence”.

The police confirmed that the 50-year-old suspect lived in a Sydney suburb and held a New South Wales firearms licence.