INTERVIEW: What needs to be done about our gun laws?

Australia Shooting

Police patrol in the early morning following the Bondi Beach shooting Source: AAP / Mark Baker/AP

The Bondi Beach shooting has seen state, territory and federal politicians agree that Australia's already stringent gun laws need to be reviewed and strengthened. The National Firearms Agreement was introduced after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre to standardise rules about who could own a gun - and why. But experts on firearms legislation say some holes in the rules have become apparent. In New South Wales, applications to have a firearms licence are handled by the Gun Registry - which came under intense scrutiny after a tragic murder suicide in 2018, when an estranged father, John Edwards, fatally shot his teenage children. He had a history of domestic violence which hadn't been flagged to the Gun Registry. Not all the changes recommended after the Edwards inquest have been implemented. Deborah Groarke spoke to Maya Arguello who's a law and criminology expert at the Swinburne University of Technology.


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