NAN-F-7
Smugglers
Canberra, Oct. 5, 2017 (Xinhua/NAN) Australia’s opposition leader Bill Shorten on Thursday called on the government to sentence the gun smugglers in trial to a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Shorten, leader of the Australian Labour Party (ALP), called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to extend Australia’s national gun amnesty to the end of 2017 in order to get more dangerous weapons off the streets.
Speaking in the wake of a mass shooting in Las Vegas which left 59 people dead and more than 400 injured, Shorten said that more could be done to protect Australians from gun violence.
The most infamous terrorist attack on Australian soil, the Lindt Cafe Siege in Sydney in December 2014 which left three people dead, was carried out with an illegal firearm.
“It’s a sad fact that an illegal gun was used in the Lindt Cafe Siege.
“We should do everything we can to stop this sort of tragedy ever happening again,” Shorten said.
More than 28,000 firearms were surrendered in the three months of the National Firearms Amnesty, the first of its kind since automatic weapons were criminalised in 1996.
Shorten said in spite of the success of the scheme, law enforcement experts estimated that as many as 600,000 illegal guns remained in circulation.
“This is just far too many.
“Australians are rightfully proud of our gun laws, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do more.
“We need to let well-meaning Australians hand in any guns, especially high-powered military style weapons that they shouldn’t have,” he said.
Shorten’s comments came as leaders from Australia’s states and territories arrived in Canberra for a special Coalition of Australian Governments meeting with Turnbull with an exclusive focus on counter-terrorism. (Xinhua/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Grace Yussuf