Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference on Monday, a day after a mass shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia. Photo by Steven Markham/EPA
Dec. 15 (UPI) — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday that his government will seek to strengthen Australia’s already stringent gun laws after a father-and-son duo killed 15 people and injured 40 others on Sunday in one of the country’s worst-ever shootings.
“People’s circumstances change. People can be radicalized over a period of time. Licenses should not be in perpetuity,” he told reporters during a Monday press conference.
The shooters have not been identified, although authorities have said the father was 50 years old and the son 24.
They are alleged to have opened fire late Sunday afternoon into crowds of people at the iconic Australian tourist destination. The 50-year-old father was shot and killed by police at the scene. The 24-year-old son has been hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
Authorities are investigating the shooting as a terrorist attack targeting Australia’s Jewish community during Hanukkah celebrations.
Six firearms have been confiscated by the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which is investigating the shooting.
The NSW Police Force said in a statement Monday that three firearms and two improvised explosive devices were located at the scene following the shooting and are undergoing forensic examination.
Search warrants executed Sunday night at two homes, one in Bonnyrigg and another in Campsie, uncovered two additional firearms.
A sixth firearm and a third improvised explosive device were discovered Monday at the Bondi crime scene, NSW Police Force said.
Authorities said earlier Monday that the 50-year-old alleged shooter is a licensed firearms holder and that they are investigating to confirm that the six firearms confiscated are the six he is licensed to have.
Albanese said Monday that he will take to the National Cabinet later that afternoon a proposal to empower agencies to examine what can be done to strengthen Australia’s gun laws.
“If we need to toughen these up, if there’s anything we can do, I’m certainly up for it,” he said.
The identities of the alleged shooters have not been made public. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters that the 24-year-old son is an Australian-born citizen, and that the father had arrived in the country in 1998 on a student visa, which was then transferred to a partner visa in 2001. He has been on resident return visas since.
Asked what country the father was a native of, Burke declined to answer, saying he has not been cleared by police to make that information public.
Albanese said the son was known to police, and first came to their attention in October 2019.
“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” he said.
The probing of the son was the product of those he was associated with rather than anything he had done, he said, adding that the investigation was conducted over a six-month period.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon earlier Monday told reporters that “there was very little knowledge of either of these men by the authorities.”
“The person had a firearms license for a number of years for which there were no incidents,” he said.