Gun shops at odds with shooting survivor over crackdown
Catherine Bouris |
A survivor of Australia’s worst terrorist incident is backing tighter firearm laws as gun store owners argue for their repeal.
After the Bondi Beach massacre on December 14, 2025 when 15 people died, NSW Premier Chris Minns introduced tough restrictions on gun ownership, including a cap on the number of firearms an individual can own.
Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry into legislation that would repeal those reforms, Bondi survivor Leon Elski said he backed the crackdown.
Mr Elski was attending the Chanukah festivities with 10 members of his immediate family when two men opened fire.
He described lying on top of his eight-year-old daughter to shield her while his wife and 10-year-old daughter hid under a plastic table.
“Many bullets passed within centimetres of my head, the heavy sound of large calibre rounds passing through the air is something I will never forget,” he told the inquiry on Friday.
“There’s obviously quite decent layers of checks in place, but with all of that said, something has failed.”
Mr Elski backed stronger checks determining if a person is seeking a firearms licence for legitimate purposes.
Gun enthusiasts disagreed with Mr Elski’s perspective, including Shooters Union president Graham Park and several store owners.
Gun sellers revealed the impact the crackdown has had on their businesses, with Safari Firearms’ Gary Georgiou arguing the second-hand market had disappeared.
Badlands gun store owner Zac Kirwan said it had been “catastrophic for business”.
“We had literally everything ripped out from underneath us straight after Bondi happened,” he said.
They also pushed back against what they felt was vilification from the government since the attack.
“The animosity we have felt since Bondi, and coming from the highest levels of our government, it’s despicable,” UsedGuns.com.au operator Joshua Pracy said.
Mr Pracy described the government’s gun buyback scheme as a deliberate attempt to destroy businesses, because they were not eligible for remuneration through the scheme.
Mr Park lashed the government for failing to consult the public before pushing the legislation through, supporting the repeal bill and pleading future changes go through a public inquiry.
“The hard conversation about radicalisation and extremism is one the state needs to have,” Mr Park told the inquiry.
“Instead, within hours, politicians were having ideas about banning things, and within days, the government picked an easy target and an easy answer.”
Mr Park argued licensed shooters were among the most vetted people in NSW and had nothing to do with the Bondi attack.
The concerns around licensing arose in response to revelations Sajid Akram, one of the men allegedly responsible for the Bondi attack, was able to legally buy six guns despite son Naveed being on the radar of counter-terrorism authorities.
Representatives for the Australian Jewish Association also appeared before the inquiry and expressed their support for the repeal bill.
“Why should a farmer, a sporting shooter, or a recreational hunter who has complied with the law be penalised because two Islamic terrorists committed an atrocity?” chief executive Robert Gregory said.
AAP