Weapons experts worked Monday to trace firearms used in the Bondi Beach shooting that killed 15 at a Hanukkah celebration, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemning the antisemitic terrorism. The prime minister laid flowers at the site as flags flew at half-mast following Australia’s deadliest gun violence in decades.
Ballistic specialists examined weapons used by father-son shooters Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, during Sunday evening’s attack on approximately 1,000 Jewish community members. The roughly ten-minute assault utilized firearms that experts worked to trace through serial numbers, manufacturing records, and sales history. Security forces killed the elder and critically wounded the younger, bringing total deaths to sixteen.
Determining how the attackers obtained weapons in a country with strict gun control could reveal whether they exploited loopholes, accessed illegal markets, or used stolen firearms. Each scenario presented different policy implications for preventing future attacks. One weapon wrestled away by hero Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, who sustained gunshot wounds, provided particularly clear evidence given his direct interaction with it during the struggle.
Forty people remained hospitalized including two police officers whose experience confronting armed attackers informed discussions about firearms accessibility. Victims aged ten to 87 had been shot with weapons that tracing experts hoped to connect to specific sources, potentially identifying networks supplying firearms to criminals or terrorists. International cooperation assisted tracing if weapons originated overseas.
This incident marks Australia’s worst shooting in nearly three decades and will influence firearms policy debates. Weapons experts emphasized that tracing provided factual foundation for discussions otherwise dominated by ideology. As technical analysis proceeded, investigators balanced public interest in understanding how attackers obtained weapons with protecting investigative details that might compromise the prosecution of surviving shooter Naveed Akram, recognizing that weapons tracing served both immediate justice and long-term prevention goals.
