The man accused of carrying out Australia's deadliest mass shooting in nearly three decades faced a three-year delay in obtaining a firearm licence due to a bureaucratic failure, not because he was considered a threat, a state leader has confirmed.
Premier Confirms Systemic Failure in Licensing
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns stated on Tuesday that Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the antisemitic attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach on 14 December, applied for a licence in 2000 but did not receive it until 2003. The standard processing time is just six to ten weeks.
"The latest information that we have is that there was a real mess in relation to the bureaucracy when it comes to gun licenses and the delays related to that — not a specific threat," Minns told reporters. The attack, which occurred during a Hanukkah celebration, left 15 people dead and dozens wounded in the country's worst mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
Proposed Reforms and Immediate Fallout
In the wake of the tragedy, the New South Wales Parliament is being asked to pass what Premier Minns describes as Australia's toughest gun laws. The proposed reforms include several key changes that would have directly prevented the accused from legally owning firearms.
The new laws would make Australian citizenship a prerequisite for a gun licence, which would have excluded Sajid Akram, an Indian citizen with permanent residency. Furthermore, recreational shooters would be limited to owning a maximum of four guns, down from the current system in NSW which has no upper limit—one individual currently has 298 firearms registered in their name.
The proposed legislation also aims to ban straight-pull mechanism rifles, which experts say were used in the attack to enable rapid fire. Under the new rules, such weapons would not be available to recreational shooters like Akram.
Investigations and Ongoing Legal Proceedings
A powerful royal commission will examine the circumstances of the massacre and the surge of antisemitism in Australia since the 2023 Israel-Hamas war began. Meanwhile, the legal case against the surviving accused, Naveed Akram, continues.
Naveed Akram, the 24-year-old son of Sajid Akram, was shot by police during the attack and has since been charged with 59 offences. These include 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act. Court documents allege the father and son adhered to a "religiously motivated ideology linked to Islamic State."
Questions have been raised about why Sajid Akram was allowed to own six rifles and shotguns while sharing a home with his son, who was investigated in 2019 by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation over extremist links. Premier Minns expressed profound regret, stating, "I'd give anything to go back a week, month, two years, to ensure that didn't happen."
The proposed legal reforms would also remove the right to appeal a licence refusal based on security agency suspicions. As the community grieves—with funerals for victims like 82-year-old Marika Pogany ongoing—the health department confirmed that 12 people wounded remain in hospital, four of whom are in critical condition.
