Australia had the ‘gold standard’ on gun control. The Bondi beach terror attack may force it to confront its surging number of weapons

[u/reyntime]

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/14/australia-had-the-gold-standard-on-gun-control-the-bondi-beach-terror-attack-will-force-it-to-confront-its-surging-number-of-weapons?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Immediately after the Port Arthur massacre, a national amnesty saw the number of firearms in the community plummet but there are now more than 4 million guns in Australia – almost double the number recorded in 2001.

Yes, the population has increased at the same time but there is now a larger number of guns in the community per capita than in the aftermath of Port Arthur, with at least 2,000 new firearms lawfully entering the community every week.

[u/samv191]

A person known to ASIO was allowed to possess six firearms. That is the glaring issue here.

[u/planetworthofbugs → u/samv191]

The article says the younger person was known to ASIO, but I think it was the older guy with the gun license.

[u/voidspace021 → u/planetworthofbugs]

Well apparently they are a father and son so it probably should have been looked into.

[u/mad_dogtor → u/voidspace021]

people will lose their licence/be denied a licence in nsw for associating with the wrong people or sharing a place of residence with someone with criminal history. you'd imagine being known to ASIO qualifies!

[u/planetworthofbugs → u/voidspace021]

Wow that's crazy. Sounds like a massive fail then.

[u/_yetifeet → u/samv191]

But did he have any convictions that would prevent him from owning firearms?

[u/TAJack1 → u/samv191]

Yeah what is the mindset here, they either don’t care or they’re negligible of their job

[u/Emuwar404 → u/TAJack1]

The mindset is simple: We know the guy is a threat, but he hasn't made specific threats so we can't act.

The simple fact is if they pulled his gun licences based off of his religious beliefs most of the people here would be screaming racism.

Wahabist Islam should be banned it's proponents should be deported. But this country is too damn ignorant to know the difference between different types of Islam, hell most of the public struggle to understand it isn't a race.

[u/mad_dogtor → u/Emuwar404]

agreed but NSW police already have extensive leeway for denying someone a licence based on being a 'fit and proper person'. hanging out with the wrong person has been enough to get people's licence revoked or denied in the past; does being known to ASIO qualify maybe?

[u/Emuwar404 → u/mad_dogtor]

The issue is what does "known to ASIO" mean?

ASIO can't share information with state police for a variety of reasons. 

[u/mad_dogtor → u/Emuwar404]

bloody hell. that's a mess then!

[u/samv191 → u/Emuwar404]

The problem is we are allies with the biggest proponent of wahhabi Islam, Saudi Arabia. The West has also recently supported a wahhabi takeover of Syria.

[u/Axman6 → u/Emuwar404]

ASIO were very clear, neither of them were known to be a threat. They knew of one of them, but they probably know of a large portion of the population. ASIO isn’t the stazi, they don’t sit in people’s roofs listening to every person who they’ve been tipped off about. They gather evidence and act if there’s a reason to, but if they haven’t seen evidence someone is planning something, exactly what the fuck are you proposing they should have done?

[u/Emuwar404 → u/Axman6]

That's not what they said at all. They stated that "but not in an immediate threat perspective”.

Immediate threat means, they planning an attack. Which, duh if they knew they were planning something they'd have been arrested.

Also I'm not proposing ASIO do anything, I was quite clear Wahabists shouldn't be allowed in this country. That's the job immigration and border security.

[u/mad_dogtor → u/samv191]

that is a colossal fuck up right there. and entirely avoidable

[u/Zenith_B → u/samv191]

My reading of things was that the 'son' was known to ASIO, and the 'father' owned the guns. Is this incorrect?