The mass murder in Sydney’s Bondi Beach is one of the worst crimes in Australian history.
The country, for the most part, has managed to avoid the kind of shooting incidents that have plagued other Western nations, especially the United States. The two shooters, Pakistani father and son immigrants, targeted Jewish Australians celebrating Hannukah, making it by far the nation’s worst anti-semitic attack.
The political response has revealed the limits of what governments can do about such crimes. Prime Minster Anthony Albanese, head of the left wing Labor Party, blamed “right wing extremism” – whatever that is supposed to mean – and vowed to tighten gun laws by restricting gun ownership to Australian citizens. (The older gunman, who was killed, had lived in Australia since 1998 on a student visa, and became a permanent resident after marrying a local woman.) The state premiers also said they would impose stricter laws.