On Sunday evening, Bondi Beach was the scene of a mass shooting that has shocked Australia.
At the time of writing 16 people have been killed, including one of the gunmen, and another 40 people have been wounded.
The attack has been declared a terrorist act.
Many questions remain, including: how common are these types of attacks, did the police get their initial response right and what action needs to be taken to prevent another attack like this?
The initial response
At about 6.40pm, emergency services were notified of an active armed offender incident at Bondi Beach, near where a Jewish festival was taking place.
General duty and specialist police would have been confronted with a chaotic scene with multiple victims and a situation that was unpredictable and rapidly developing. Even with police present at the event, there would have been difficulties in identifying the threat and then engaging with it.
Police located two men using rifles and shotguns to shoot at nearby crowds. Multiple officers exchanged fire with the offenders and two police were shot and injured.
The attack was allegedly carried out by two gunmen, a father and son.
The 50-year-old father was shot dead by police at the scene. The son, 24, identified by police as Naveed Akram, was shot by authorities and is now under police guard at hospital.
Read more: Bondi Beach shooting: how it happened
Active armed offenders
Any active armed offender situation is fluid. Even more so when the incident occurs in a public space with large numbers of people present.
The Australia-New Zealand Counter Terrorism Committee provides guidelines for responses to incidents such as the Bondi shootings.
The committee defines an active armed offender as:
An armed offender who is actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people, and who demonstrated their intention to continue to do so while having access to additional potential victims.
In broad terms, the response to active armed offenders is to prioritise the evacuation of people from danger.
Another priority is to limit the offenders’ freedom of movement and restrict their access to potential victims.
Video of the shooting shows the offenders being restricted to a footbridge by police converging from both sides of the structure.
One of the offenders had been disarmed by a member of the public before retreating to this position.
Read more: Intervene or run and hide: what should you do during public violence like the attacks at Bondi?
The focus of the police would have been to minimise the duration of the incident, move people away from danger and then locate, isolate and neutralise the active armed offenders.
In 2014 the NSW Police updated their active armed offender responses in line with identified best practice in collaboration with university partners. The policy moved from a contain and negotiate focus to a more proactive, rapid and decisive engagement of the offender.
Mass shootings in Australia
Mass shootings in Australia are rare. The most notable was the rampage in 1996 at Port Arthur where 36 victims were shot and killed.
Following this, Australia introduced restrictive gun ownership laws which are credited with substantially reducing mass shooting events in Australia.
Despite this, several shootings involving multiple victims have taken place in Australia in recent years including the Wieambilla shootings in 2022 when two police officers and a civilian were shot and killed.
In 2019, a shooting attack in Darwin resulted in four victims being killed.
How accessible are firearms in Australia?
The 2023-24 national homicide report noted use of firearms in homicides has decreased since 1989-90.
Back then, firearms were involved in 17% of incidents. In 2023-24, firearms were used in 12% of these incidents.
A 2025 report indicated there were about four million firearms in Australia, with nearly one million firearm licences being issued.
New South Wales has more than one million registered firearms.
In NSW, people with a license can legally own multiple weapons. Each firearm needs to be registered after establishing a genuine reason for possessing it.
Akram is stated to own six firearms.
What happens now?
The shootings will now be the focus of ongoing police investigations led by the Counter Terrorism Command and assisted by the State Crime Command.
As the incident was declared a terrorist attack, special investigative powers have been granted while there will be multiple agencies involved in the investigation in the form of a joint counter terrorism team.
These teams, established in each state and territory, comprise of the Australian Federal Police, state and territory law enforcement, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and other government agencies.
This ensures a coordinated response to terrorism within and across jurisdictions in accordance with the National Counter Terrorism Plan.
One of the key aspects of this team will be the coordination of intelligence to assess the motives of the attack and identify any potential co-offenders.
In essence the investigation will have two facets: the investigation of the homicides and then investigating the terrorism aspects. The investigations will focus on the weapons used, where the weapons came from and how the offenders came to possess them.
In practical terms there will be substantial resources required to process the primary crime scene due to the sheer number of victims and the size of the scene.
There will also be likely multiple secondary crime scenes that will need to be processed as the investigation proceeds.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has already flagged there will be a full inquiry into the events that occurred in the lead-up and the response.
Terry Goldsworthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
