Why Australia's 1996 Gun Ban Failed: Bondi Beach Terror Attack Killed 15 Defenseless Jews

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Good Tuesday morning, Patriots. Welcome back to O'Connor's Right Stand. I'm your host, John O'Connor, software programmer by day, concerto truth teller by night. Yesterday on O'Connor's Quick Strike, we covered the horrific terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Two Islamic terrorists, a father and son, opened fire on over a thousand Jews celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. 15 people are dead, 43 are wounded, ages...

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10-87. But that story got me thinking about something personal. Something I haven't talked about on this show before. When I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for about a year and a half, I had a good friend named Chad who was from Australia. We almost started a podcast together, but time constraints killed that plan before it could happen. Chad and I would grab drinks, sit down, and have real conversations about politics. They were civil.

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friendly, using critical thinking, the kind of discussions America desperately needs more of. Now, on a scale from 0 to 10, 0 being ultra conservative, 10 being ultra liberal, I'd put Chad around a 7, maybe 7.5. And one of his favorite talking points was how backwards America was with our gun laws. He'd lecture me, well, not lecture, bad choice of words. We'd discuss about how Australia had it figured out.

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how they banned guns in 1996 and magically solved their violence problem. Well, Chad, if you are listening, and you might be, I want you to reach out, because after what happened Sunday night at Bondi Beach, we should have another conversation. Because your country's gun ban didn't work. Criminals still got guns, and now 15 Jews are dead because law-abiding Australians had nothing to defend themselves with while they waited.

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10 minutes for police to engage the shooters. Here's the question I want you thinking about. If gun control worked the way they promise, why did those people die defenseless on that beach? The right stand starts now.

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Let me take you back to April 28th, 1996, Port Arthur, Tasmania. A man with no criminal record walks into a cafe at a historic former prison site. He's carrying military style weapons, semi-automatic rifles. Over the next hours, he murders 35 people. It's Australia's deadliest mass shooting. The Australian government's response was swift and massive. Within months, they passed the National Firearms Agreement.

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They banned all semi-automatic rifles. They banned all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns. They created strict licensing requirements, mandatory safety courses, registration databases. And then came what they called the Gun Buyback Program. I put that in quotes in my head or in hands here because let's be clear about what it actually was. A forced confiscation with government compensation.

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The government didn't sell you those guns, so how is it exactly a buyback? It's Orwellian language designed to make tyranny sound voluntary. Between 1996 and 1997, Australians surrendered approximately 660,000 firearms. That's not a typo. 660,000 guns gone. The promise was simple. Get rid of guns, end mass shootings, reduce violent crime,

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make Australia safer. And you know what? The gun control advocates will tell you it worked. They will point to the data showing gun homicides dropped. They'll say, see, fewer guns equals fewer deaths. America should follow Australia's lead. But here's what they don't tell you. Here's what Chad never mentioned during our debates in Tulsa. Violence didn't disappear. It just switched weapons.

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Let me give you the numbers the media won't report. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, in the five years before the 1996 gun ban, knife homicides accounted for 34 % of all homicides in Australia. In the five years ending in 2021, the most recent data available, knife homicides accounted for 43 % of all homicides. Let me say that one more time. After banning guns, the...

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portion of people killed with knives went up, from 34 % to 43%. In 2007 and 2008 knives were involved in 43 % of all Australian homicides. By comparison in the year 2000, just four years after the gun ban, knives only accounted for 30%. What does that tell you, Patriots? It tells you that evil doesn't need a gun. Evil will find a way.

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And here's the kicker. Overall crime in Australia has been declining since 2009. Violent crime has been falling. That sounds great, right? Except that decline started more than a decade after the gun ban. You can't credit gun control for a crime drop that didn't happen until 13 years later. Australia experienced what criminologists called a great crime drop.

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A global phenomenon where violent crime fell across developed nations starting in the 1990s and continuing through the 2000s. Countries with strict gun control saw it. Countries without strict gun control saw it. America saw the same drop while our gun ownership increased. So when Australian politicians claim their gun ban reduced violence, they are taking credit for a worldwide trend that had nothing to do with their policies.

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But here's what it did change. Law abiding Australians lost their ability to defend themselves. Let me walk you through what happened Sunday, December 14th, 2025. It's 6 45 PM local time. Over a thousand people gather at Archer Park near Bondi beach for Hanukkah by the sea. Families, kids climbing a rock wall, people eating donuts, dancing, celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. Then

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At 6.47pm, two men dressed in black, standing on a pedestrian footbridge overlooking the park, opened fire with a bolt-action rifle and a shotgun. Witness described 10 minutes of sustained gunfire. Over 100 rounds fired into the crowd. People running, screaming, hiding under cars. Parents covering their children. One witness, a father hiding under a vehicle with his wife and four kids,

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yelled during a TV interview, they were shooting for 10 minutes, where were the police, where was the help? Think about that, 10 minutes, this man is lying under a car, watching people being murdered around him, his infant in his arms, his 2 year old and 11 year old terrified beside him, not knowing where his 14 year old son is and nobody with a gun can stop it. Why?

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because Australia banned guns. Law-abiding citizens had nothing. No concealed carry, no way to fight back. They could run or hide. But here's where the story gets really disturbing. According to CNN's reporting, there was a police detective on the scene. A detective taking cover behind a pine tree on that footbridge while the terrorists fired into the crowd. Let me say that again.

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A police officer was hiding behind a tree while innocent people were being slaughtered below. Now before you jump on me, I'm not saying this officer was a coward. I don't know what orders he had. I don't know what restrictions he was operating under. But what I do know is this. For 10 minutes those terrorists had free reign to murder families and a police detective with a gun was on that bridge taking cover.

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What kind of rules of engagement create that situation? Here's what finally stopped the massacre. Not police, civilians. First, there's Ahmed Al Ahmed, a 43-year-old Syrian refugee and fruit shop owner. He tackled one of the shooters, unarmed, wrestled a rifle away from a terrorist, got shot four or five times in the shoulder doing it.

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But there's another hero the media isn't talking about as much. His lawyer identifies him only as AB, a Middle Eastern refugee, father of two, whose wife is pregnant. He doesn't even have permanent legal status in Australia yet. When AB arrived at Bondi Beach by taxi and heard gunshots, you know what he did? He ran toward the gunfire. His lawyer told CNN,

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He comes from a country where you know when there is gunfire. He just knew he needed to run towards it to help stop it. AB made his way to the footbridge. And here's the key detail. He took cover behind that same pine tree with the detective. They were both there. The detective and this unarmed refugee. When police finally shot one of the terrorists and he went down, AB ran up the stairs. The shooter was still holding his gun.

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and AB with his bare hands kicked the gun away. And you know what happened next? The police almost shot him because they didn't know if the shooter was properly down. And they confused AB for one of the terrorists. Let me make sure you heard that. The hero who kicked the gun away from the terrorist almost got killed by friendly fire because police didn't have proper situational awareness. Two unarmed refugees saved lives that day.

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while a detective with a gun hid behind a tree. Now, I want to be clear here, I'm not attacking individual police officers. These men and women put their lives on the line. Two officers were shot during that attack and are in serious condition. But I am questioning the system. I am questioning the rules of engagement that put police in a position where they are taking cover while civilians charge suitors with their bare hands. So let's talk about why this happened.

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Why were police unseen, including a detective, but not immediately engaging active shooters firing into a crowd? Here's what I found out researching Australian police use of force policies. In New South Wales, police can only use firearms when there is an immediate threat to life or serious injury. They must justify force as reasonable, necessary, proportionate, and appropriate. Officers must engage in

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dynamic risk assessment. They must assess and reassess. Firearms are last resort after all other non-lethal methods. Patriots, let me ask you something. When two terrorists are firing between 50 and over 100 rounds into families celebrating a religious holiday, what exactly needs to be assessed? What non-lethal methods are you supposed to try first when someone is actively committing mass murder?

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Now Australia did pass a law in 2017 allowing NSW police to use lethal force against suspected terrorists even without an imminent threat. That law was specifically designed for terrorism scenarios. But clearly something went wrong because a detective was on that footbridge taking cover and it took an unarmed refugee charging the shooter to end it. Here's my theory and I can't prove this but the evidence

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suggests it. Australian police are so hamstrung by bureaucracy, so terrified of using their firearms, so worried about being second-guessed and prosecuted, that even during an active terror attack, they hesitate. Compare that to America. When there is an active shooter, our police doctrine is simple. Run toward the gunfire, engage immediately, stop the threat, period. We learned that lesson the hard way after Columbine.

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We don't wait. We don't assess. We don't hide behind trees while people die. And you know what? We have armed civilians who will do the same thing. Because we have the Second Amendment. Because we believe in the right to self-defense. If just one armed civilian had been in that crowd at Bondi Beach, one person with a concealed carry permit and proper training, how many of those 15 people would still be alive?

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The CDC estimates defensive gun use happens between 500,000 and three million times per year in the United States. Thousands of documented cases of armed citizens stopping mass shooters. But Australia? Their citizens were defenseless. Their police were hamstrung. And 15 people paid with their lives. Let's zoom out for a second, because here's what the gun control advocates don't want you to know.

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Violence didn't stop after Australia banned guns. It just changed tactics. Australia has had multiple high profile mass violence incidents in recent years. And while this attack used guns, proving the gun ban doesn't work, other attacks have used different weapons. April, 2024, Bondi Junction Shopping Center, a mentally ill man with a knife kills six people before police finally shoot him.

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The same month, a teenage boy storms a Christian church service and stabs a priest mid-sermon. Multiple bystanders wounded. All survived, but it was declared terrorism. In 2019 Queensland, a stabbing murder leads to Jack's Law, legislation further restricting knife possession. The pattern is clear. When you ban guns, terrorists and criminals adapt.

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They use knives, they use vehicles. Remember the 2017 Westminster Bridge attack in London? A terrorist used a car to kill five people and injure 50 others. Evil finds a way. And here's the truth the gun control crowd doesn't want to admit. You cannot defend yourself against a knife-wielding attacker with your bare hands, at least not easily. You can't defend yourself against a vehicle ramming into a crowd.

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You can't defend yourself against acid attacks which have skyrocketed in the UK since their gun ban. But you can defend yourself if you have the great equalizer, a firearm. That's why they call it the equalizer. Because a 100 pound woman with a gun has the same defensive capability as a 250 pound male attacker. Take that away and who wins? The strongest, the most violent, the predators.

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And when the government bans guns but criminals still get them anyway, like at Bondi Beach, the good guys are defenseless while waiting for police who may or may not engage immediately. So Chad, if you are listening, I want you to know I totally respect you. I respect our friendship. I respect that we had real civil conversations about difficult topics. That's what made those discussions so valuable. But brother,

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You were wrong about guns. Your country promised that banning firearms would make Australia safer. Instead, knife homicides went up. Mass violence continued, just with different weapons. And now 15 Jews are dead at Bondi Beach because they had no way to defend themselves while waiting for police. You used to say America was backwards and crazy, that our gun culture was dangerous, that we should follow Australia's example. But...

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Look at the data. In America, states with the highest rates of concealed carry permits have lower rates of mass shooting deaths. Armed citizens stop crimes every single day. We don't wait 10 minutes for help. We are the help. I'm not saying Australia should go back to 1995. I'm not even saying our system is perfect. But what I am saying is this. Your government took away your ability to defend yourself.

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promised you safety and failed to deliver. And now your fellow Australians are paying the price. So Chad, reach out. Let's have another conversation because I think after Sunday night, we've got a lot to talk about and I miss you buddy. Patriots, this isn't just about Australia. This is about the blueprint that gun control advocates want to use in America. Every time there's a mass shooting in the United States, the immediate response from the left is,

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We need to be like Australia or other countries and ban the guns. They don't tell you about the knife crime. They don't tell you about the 10 minute response times. They don't tell you about the defenseless victims. They just say, turn in your guns and the government will keep you safe. But government can't keep you safe, not in real time, not when seconds matter and police are minutes away. The average police response time in America is 10 minutes.

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In rural areas, it can be 30 minutes or more. When someone breaks into your home at 3 a.m., when someone attacks you in a parking lot, when a mass shooter opens fire, you are your own first responder. And if you are unarmed, you are a victim waiting to happen. That's why the Second Amendment exists, not for hunting, not for sport shooting, but for defense against criminals, against terrorists, and yes, against tyranny.

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Our founding fathers understood something that modern gun control advocates refuse to acknowledge. An armed population is a free population. Patriots, 15 people are dead in Australia because their government disarmed them and promised safety it couldn't deliver. Think about that. Think about those families at Bondi Beach, parents covering their children, running for their lives, watching people die around them, defenseless.

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That's the reality of gun control. It doesn't stop evil. It just disarms the good. And when someone finally asks, where were the police? Where was the help? The answer is 10 minutes away because government can't be everywhere. Government can't protect you in real time, but you can protect yourself if you have the tools and the training. So when politicians tell you we need to be more like Australia, ask them.

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Do you want Americans waiting 10 minutes while terrorists slaughter families? Do you want knife crime to replace gun crime? Do you want to strip away our constitutional right to self-defense based on promises that history proves our lies? Because that's what they are really asking for. Well, patriots, that's our show for today. The truth about Australia's gun ban is finally being exposed, not by politicians, but by the bodies left behind.

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If you haven't already, make sure to hit that subscribe, follow, and or like button. It really does help me out, and thank you in advance. Once done here, head on over and check out O'Connor's Quick Strike. Remember, Quick Strike airs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This podcast is Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can find me on X at O'Connor Podcasts. Share this episode. The mainstream media won't tell you the truth about gun control, so it's up to us to get the word out. And Chad, if you're out there, reach out, brother. I'd love to continue the conversation.

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Have a great rest of your day. Until Thursday, hold the line unapologetically. This is John O'Connor, signing off.