Australiacracks down on guns after Bonditerrorist massacre

Australia has enacted new laws for a national gun buyback, tighter background checks for gun licenses, and a crackdown on hate crimes in response to the country’s worst mass shooting in decades at a Jewish festival last month.Two bills for stricter gun control and anti-hate measures passed the House of Representatives and Senate late on Tuesday during a special sitting of parliament.The gun control laws were passed with the support of the Greens party despite opposition from the opposition conservative Liberal-National coalition.The anti-hate laws were passed with support from the Liberal Party.Introducing the gun reforms, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said individuals with “hate in their hearts and guns in their hands” carried out the December 14 attack at the famed Bondi Beach that killed 15 people.“The tragic events at Bondi demand a comprehensive response from government,” Burke said. “As a government, we must do everything we can to counter both the motivation and the method.”The father and son gunmen allegedly behind the attack on Jewish Hanukkah celebrations used powerful firearms that were legally obtained, despite the son being previously examined by Australia’s spy agency.PARLIAMENT RECALLED EARLY FOR SPECIAL SESSIONPrime Minister Anthony Albanese recalled parliament early from its summer break for this week’s special two-day session to toughen curbs after a shooting that shocked the nation and prompted calls for more action on gun control and antisemitism.The proposed gun control measures enable the largest national buyback scheme since a similar campaign after a 1996 massacre in Tasmania’s Port Arthur, in which a lone gunman killed 35 people.They also toughened firearm import laws as well as background checks for firearm licenses issued by Australian states, making use of information from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.Australia had a record 4.1 million firearms las...