After Australia’s worst mass shooting in 1996, it took the government 12 days to ban semi-automatic weapons, organise a gun buyback scheme and introduce a licensing system to weed out people considered unfit to carry a weapon.

Sunday’s shooting at a Jewish celebration in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left 15 people dead as well as one of the two gunmen, raised questions about whether Australia’s gun laws, already among the toughest in the world, remain fit for purpose.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would ask Cabinet to consider limits on the number of weapons permitted by a gun licence, and how long a licence should last.

“People’s circumstances can change,” he told reporters on Monday as police investigated what they called the terrorist attack on Sydney’s waterfront.

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“People can be radicalised over a period of time. Licences should not be in perpetuity.”

Australia’s gun ownership system has been widely credited with one of the lowest per capita gun homicide rates.

The victims at Bondi Beach massacre

RABBI ELI SCHLANGER

Schlanger, 41, was assistant rabbi at Chabad Bondi, which put on the event.

Chabad is a global Jewish organisation whose mission is to foster Jewish identity and connection. Schlanger was British-born but had lived in Sydney for the past 18 years, and had recently become a father for the fifth time.

“Nothing was too big for him,” said friend Alex Ryvchin, who is also Co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

“He would drive out to regional parts of the state and sit with prisoners in our jails and listen to their stories. He would go to Waterloo and Redfern and to the public housing and sit with the elderly, he would listen to their stories and feed them and make sure they had meals and kosher products. He was the sort of person who illuminated our lives with kindness, his grace and generosity.”

Schlanger’s brother-in-law, Rabbi Mendel Kastel, said the family was “broken”.

“They have fallen apart,” Kastel told Reuters. He said that for the rabbi’s wife, her best friend’s husband was also killed in the shootings.

“They were best friends through school and both lost their husbands here. The rabbi has a baby only a few months old. It’s very, very difficult, it’s too early to tell how they will be feeling, how it will land, they are in shock.”

PETER MEAGHER

A retired policeman and long-time rugby volunteer, Meagher was struck down while working as a freelance photographer at the event, Randwick Rugby Club said in a statement.

“‘Marzo’ as he was universally known, was a much loved figure and absolute legend in our club, with decades of voluntary involvement, he was one of the heart and soul figures of Randwick Rugby,” the club said.

“The tragic irony is that he spent so long in the dangerous front line as a Police Officer and was struck down in retirement while taking photos in his passion role is really hard to comprehend,” it said.

“For him it was simply a catastrophic case of being in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”

DAN ELKAYAM

French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that French national, Dan Elkayam, was killed in the shootings.

Elkayam, who local media reported was in his late twenties and had gone down to celebrate at the festival, had been providing technical support to global media company NBC Universal in Sydney since last December, according to his LinkedIn page.

He played soccer with the Rockdale Ilinden Football Club premier league squad where he was “an extremely talented and popular figure,” the club said on social media.

MATILDA

A primary school student, 10-year-old Matilda, died on Sunday night, her aunt confirmed on social media, according to local media.

She was a former student at Harmony Russian School of Sydney. She has been described as a “bright, joyful, and spirited child who brought light to those around her”, local media reported.

REUVEN MORRISON

According to a report by Chabad, another victim was identified as Reuven Morrison, described as “a member of the Chabad community who divided his time between Melbourne and Sydney”.

ALEX KLEYTMAN

Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, 87, attended the event with his wife Larisa, his children and grandchildren, Chabad and local media reported.

The couple were both Holocaust survivors and had recounted their experiences to aged-care provider JewishCare, which referred to Alex’s harrowing memories of the “dreadful conditions in Siberia, where he, along with his mother and younger brother, struggled for survival.”

The “scars of the past” did not deter them from seeking a brighter future in Australia, immigrating from Ukraine, the provider wrote in its 2022/2023 annual report.

RABBI YAAKOV LEVITAN

Rabbi Yaakov Levitan served as secretary of the Sydney Jewish religious organisation Beth Din, Chabad said.

TIBOR WEITZEN

Father and husband Tibor Weitzen has been identified as one of the victims after he was fatally wounded while shielding his wife from the gunfire, who survived the attack, the Daily Mail reported.

But the number of guns held legally has risen steadily for more than two decades and now, at four million, exceeds the number before the 1996 crackdown, think tank the Australia Institute said earlier this year.

“Events like this feel unimaginable here, which is a testament to the strength of our gun laws,” said Gun Control Australia president Tim Quinn in a blog post about Sunday’s attack.

“It is essential that we ask careful, evidence-based questions about how this attack occurred, including how any weapons were obtained and whether our current laws and enforcement mechanisms are keeping pace with changing risks and technologies.”

Chris Minns, New South Wales state premier, whose jurisdiction includes Sydney, said he would consider recalling state parliament to fast-track new gun legislation.

“It’s time we have a change to the law in relation to the firearms legislation … but I am not ready to announce it today. You can expect action soon,” Minns told reporters, without going into detail.

As things stood, the licence held by one of the suspects entitled him to own the weapons he had, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters.

Maya Gomez, a lecturer in criminology at Swinburne University of Technology, said NSW gun licence holders must first prove a genuine reason for needing a weapon.

In the aftermath of the Bondi shooting, “questions may turn on the genuine reason provided in terms of the amount, as well as the reasons linked to the types of guns registered and used in the attack”, Gomez said in an email.

Although Australia’s gun numbers are rising, gun-related crime remains low by global standards. In the year to June 2024, 33 Australians died in gun homicides, according to the latest published data from the Australian Institute of Criminology.

That compares with 49 gun homicides per day in the United States through 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.