Australia gun buyback to start in November

Sydney [Australia], August 16: Australia's New South Wales state will start a gun buyback in November, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, part ​of the national response to a shooting spree that killed 15 a Jewish festival in Sydney, the state capital.
Albanese's centre-left government enacted laws in January for the gun buyback, tighter checks for gun licences and a crackdown on ​hate in the wake of the December 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 ⁠start on November 2 and that people returning rifles and handguns would be eligible for up to A$1,000 ($700) compensation per firearm.
"Australians are quite rightly proud of our gun laws, but the fact is there are ​more guns in ​Australia today than ⁠there were at the time of dealing with the Port Arthur gun buyback," Albanese said in televised remarks.
New ​South Wales now limits individuals to possession of ​four guns ⁠under its own reforms prompted by the Bondi Beach attack, which police say was carried out a father and son who police believe were ⁠inspired by ​the militant group Islamic State. x
The surviving ​suspect, Naveed Akram, 24, is yet to enter pleas to a raft of charges, including ​15 counts of murder.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation