Australia gun buyback to start in November in clampdown after Bondi Beach shooting

Australia’s New South Wales state will start ​a gun buyback in November, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday, part of the national response to a shooting spree that killed 15 at a Jewish ⁠festival in Sydney, the state capital.

SYDNEY — Australia’s New South Wales state will start ​a gun buyback in November, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday, part of the national response to a shooting spree that killed 15 at a Jewish ⁠festival in Sydney, the state capital.

Albanese’s center-left government enacted laws in January for the gun buyback, tighter checks for gun licenses and a crackdown on hate in the wake of the Dec. 14 gun ⁠attack at a Bondi Beach Hanukkah ​celebration ⁠in Australia’s most populous city.

The alleged gunmen used powerful firearms that were legally obtained. Australia had a record ⁠4.1 million firearms last year, the government has said, with more ​than 1.1 million of those ‌in New South Wales, its most populous state.

The buyback is to be Australia’s largest since a similar campaign after a ‌1996 massacre in Tasmania’s Port Arthur, in which ‌a gunman killed 35 people.

Albanese and New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said in a statement the scheme would start on Nov. 2 ⁠and that people returning rifles and handguns would be eligible for up to 1,000 Australian dollars ($700) in compensation per firearm.