The father and son accused in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in nearly 30 years had six licensed firearms at the scene, police said Monday, as emerging details about the attack spurred calls to strengthen the country’s gun laws.
The assault by two gunmen on a Hanukkah celebration Sunday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach killed 15 people and stunned a country with strict firearms regulations and little gun violence. Authorities described it as a terrorist attack on the Jewish community.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for tougher gun laws, saying Monday that leaders would discuss limits on the number of guns that can be licensed and a review of licenses over time.
“People can be radicalized over a period of time. Licenses should not be in perpetuity,” he said.
Authorities identified one suspect as a 50-year-old man, who was killed by police at the scene, and the other as his 24-year-old son, who was taken to a hospital under police custody. Officials haven’t named the suspects.
The father had six firearms licensed to him, which were found at the scene, according to police. He was eligible for a firearms license for recreational hunting and was a member of a gun club, said New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Mal Lanyon.
The son had been investigated by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency for six months starting in October 2019, according to Albanese.
He was examined because of his associations with others, but the agency didn’t find a threat of him engaging in violence, said Albanese, who didn’t share further details about the associations.
Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke said Monday that the younger suspect is an Australian-born citizen.
The older suspect arrived in 1998 on a student visa, according to Burke. In 2001, he received a partner visa, which is given to partners or spouses of Australian citizens or permanent residents; since then he was on visas for returning residents, Burke said.
At a meeting of Australia’s National Cabinet on Monday, leaders proposed tighter gun control measures including strengthening the use of intelligence in firearms licensing, limiting the types of guns that are legal and restricting licenses to citizens, according to the prime minister’s office.
Albanese called the shooting an act of antisemitism and of “pure evil.” He pledged to continue to respond to antisemitism and urged Australians to stand with the Jewish community.
Many Jewish Australians had warned of increasing antisemitic incidents. In two notable events last year, a Melbourne synagogue was firebombed in December, and there was a blaze at a kosher-food business in Bondi in October.
Tough gun controls were introduced in Australia after a 1996 shooting killed 35 people in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur. Australia banned most automatic and semiautomatic guns, introduced strict licensing requirements and implemented a gun buyback program.
The tighter gun laws have been credited for a significant reduction in firearm deaths.
However, there have been concerns recently that the number of firearms in the country is increasing. There are more than four million guns owned by Australian civilians, about 25% more than in 1996, before the overhaul of firearms laws, according to a January report by the Australia Institute, a think tank.
The Bondi Beach attack killed 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, according to police. Around 27 victims remained in hospitals with several in critical condition as of Monday afternoon, according to authorities.
Mourners gathered and laid flowers at Bondi Pavilion on Monday, paying tribute to the victims.
Write to Hannah Miao at hannah.miao@wsj.com