Former Prime Minister John Howard backed calls for stricter gun control in Australia just days before the deadly mass shooting at Bondi Beach.
Late last week, the 86-year-old ex-PM said a “sensible” strengthening of our gun laws should be considered in the wake of the Wieambilla police massacre, which occurred on December 12, 2022, and resulted in the deaths of two Queensland Police officers.
One of the key recommendations made in the wake of the Wieambilla shooting was to enforce mandatory mental health checks for gun license holders.
Asked about this recommendation, Mr Howard said his “general view is that there should be no weakening of existing laws and, where sensibly considered, they should be strengthened”.
“It would be a matter for individual state governments as to whether mental health checks should be strengthened in a way that does not weaken existing safeguards,” he added, according to The Courier Mail.
Just two days after Mr Howard made these comments, two men opened fire on a Bondi Beach Jewish festival, resulting in 16 deaths, including a girl, 10, and a man, 40, who both died in hospital.
A further 40 people are injured, including five people in a critical condition. Two injured police officers are in a serious but stable condition.
The alleged shooters have been identified as father and son Naveed Akram, 24, and Sajid Akram, 50.
The 50-year-old was shot and killed by police, while the 24-year-old was shot before being taken into custody in a critical condition.
This is the worst mass shooting Australia has seen since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, when Martin Bryant killed 35 and injured 23 others at the historic site in Tasmania.
His guns – a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle and a L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle battle rifle – were purchased legally.
At one point Bryant killed 12 people in 15 seconds.
The attack occurred just six weeks into Mr Howard’s first term as prime minister, with the incident putting into motion what would become a historical over haul of Australia’s gun laws.
National Firearms Agreement was adopted on May 10, 1996 between the Commonwealth, as well as all states and territories. This included a ban on all automatic and semiautomatic weapons, bar a small number of licensed permit holders.
Processes around obtaining a gun license were also strengthened, a national firearm registry was created, in addition to strict controls around firearm ownership.
The government also enacted a National Firearms Buyback Program, which was held between October 1996 and September 1997 and as a result more than 650,000 guns were returned and destroyed.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that there has been a sharp increase in the number of licensed gun owners across the country.
A report released by The Australia Institute in May revealed that there are now “more guns in Australia than ever before”.
There are over four million registered, privately-owned firearms in Australia and nearly one million firearm licenses, according to the report.
This is 800,000 more guns than before the 1996 buyback scheme.
This equates to least one licenced firearm for every seven Australians and about one in 30 Australians having a firearm licence.
NSW has the most guns, with 1.12 million registered firearms, followed by Queensland with 1.08 million.
“Australians needs gun laws that live up to the Howard Government’s bravery, and right now Australia does not have them,” the report stated.
