Terrorist attack in Sydney

[altmin]

The alleged gunmen behind the Bondi beach attack are a father-son duo suspected of using legally obtained firearms to commit the massacre, according to police.

Naveed Akram, 24, was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries. His 50-year-old father, who the Sydney Morning Herald first reported to be Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police.

...

Naveed Akram, who worked as a bricklayer, came under the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) in October 2019, according to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese. He was examined for six months because of his alleged associations with others, with the ABC reporting claims that the counter-terror investigation involved an Islamic State cell.

“[Naveed Akram] was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Albanese said.

The NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, said the two men had lived at another house in Bonnyrigg, in the city’s west, which was also raided on Sunday night. He said there was nothing “to indicate that either of the men involved in yesterday’s attack was planning the attack”, and confirmed the older man had held a gun licence for a decade.

Lanyon would not comment on reports claiming a manifesto or black Islamic State flag were found in the car driven to the scene by the alleged attackers

 

[altmin]

The two residence thing appears to be because his parents separated and his father was living in an apartment.


The Bonnyrigg house that was raided is listed as owned by the mother, who seemingly had nothing to do with any of this.

 

[altmin]

The man who disarmed the gunman, was shot by the same guy he disarmed. It was the son who went to his father after being disarmed and got another gun to shoot the guy who took the first gun. That second bit was not in the released video.

 

[ZenMode]

I have been busy and almost entirely off offline since yesterday afternoon.

That being said.....

How many times was "Allahu Akbar" yelled during the attack?

Rolling the dice year by year....

The Australian Jewish community had been issuing urgent warnings for approximately two years regarding a dramatic and unprecedented surge in antisemitism, which they feared would escalate from hate speech and vandalism to physical violence and terrorism.

Nature and Frequency of Warnings
Jewish community leaders and organizations, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), consistently alerted government officials and authorities to a "tsunami of anti-Jewish hate" following the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Escalation of Incidents: The number of reported antisemitic incidents in Australia more than tripled in the year after October 7, 2023. In the year leading up to that date, there were 495 incidents; the year after, there were 2,062.

Types of Attacks: The incidents progressed from verbal abuse and graffiti to more severe crimes, including arson attacks on synagogues and kosher restaurants, physical assaults, and bomb threats against Jewish institutions.
Fear and Insecurity: The pervasive atmosphere of incitement forced Jewish Australians to take precautions, such as advising students not to wear school uniforms in public and universities offering remote exams for safety.

 

[CFordUNC]

America Is an Unserious Country Filled With Unserious People

Stories about revealed preferences and who we really are.

www.thebulwark.com

America Is an Unserious Country Filled With Unserious People​

On April 28, 1996, an Australian man took two semiautomatic rifles to the seaside town of Port Arthur and killed 35 people. Twelve days later the Australian government passed the National Firearms Agreement.

Twelve days.

Prior to the passage of the NFA, Australia had millions of guns. The NFA established a national gun registry, a 28-day waiting period for buying a gun, strict gun-licensing rules, and other provisions.1 The result was that gun-related murders declined and mass shootings more or less disappeared. This account is from a 2016 assessment of the NFA’s effects:

The risk of an Australian dying by gunshot remains less than half what it was before Port Arthur. Research shows that murderers did not move to other methods.

But although Australia hasn’t seen a public mass shooting since 1996, we have no shortage of firearm-related crime. Gun owners who know each other well – be they family members or gang members – have always been the ones to kill each other most frequently.

Then there’s the killer already in the room. About 80% of gun deaths in Australia have nothing to do with crime. Instead, they’re suicides and unintentional shootings.

So:

• People in Australia still own guns.
• The NFA did not stop all gun violence.
• But it seriously curbed the kind of random gun violence that is most preventable. And it all but eliminated mass shootings.

Translation:

A country can do something about gun violence and mass shootings. If it wants to.

Oh, and one other note: The prime minister who pushed the NFA through so quickly after the Port Arthur massacre was John Howard, who was a pretty conservative figure in Australian politics.

A serious country populated by serious people is not helpless to solve its problems. Americans preen and posture as if they want to do something about random gun violence and mass shootings. But we do not. A majority of Americans have decided that active shooter drills and school massacres are an acceptable price for preserving our gun regime. What makes us unserious is that practically no one in this majority is willing to state this revealed preference openly.

And to think that some of us were surprised that Americans could elect Donald Trump. Twice.

 

[SnoopRob]

America Is an Unserious Country Filled With Unserious People

Stories about revealed preferences and who we really are.

www.thebulwark.com

America Is an Unserious Country Filled With Unserious People​

On April 28, 1996, an Australian man took two semiautomatic rifles to the seaside town of Port Arthur and killed 35 people. Twelve days later the Australian government passed the National Firearms Agreement.

Twelve days.

Prior to the passage of the NFA, Australia had millions of guns. The NFA established a national gun registry, a 28-day waiting period for buying a gun, strict gun-licensing rules, and other provisions.1 The result was that gun-related murders declined and mass shootings more or less disappeared. This account is from a 2016 assessment of the NFA’s effects:


So:

• People in Australia still own guns.
• The NFA did not stop all gun violence.
• But it seriously curbed the kind of random gun violence that is most preventable. And it all but eliminated mass shootings.

Translation:

A country can do something about gun violence and mass shootings. If it wants to.

Oh, and one other note: The prime minister who pushed the NFA through so quickly after the Port Arthur massacre was John Howard, who was a pretty conservative figure in Australian politics.

A serious country populated by serious people is not helpless to solve its problems. Americans preen and posture as if they want to do something about random gun violence and mass shootings. But we do not. A majority of Americans have decided that active shooter drills and school massacres are an acceptable price for preserving our gun regime. What makes us unserious is that practically no one in this majority is willing to state this revealed preference openly.

And to think that some of us were surprised that Americans could elect Donald Trump. Twice.

America is a perfectly normal country that has an unserious third of its populace and a system that provides outsized power to that unserious third.

What gets me about this message coming from The Bulwark is that this third were the politically allies of those running The Bulwark until about 10 years ago when Trump pulled back all the dog whistles and performative concern for others and now these folks act like they were never associated with these unserious folks.

 

[ZenMode]

So:

• People in Australia still own guns.
• The NFA did not stop all gun violence.
• But it seriously curbed the kind of random gun violence that is most preventable. And it all but eliminated mass shootings.

Translation:

A country can do something about gun violence and mass shootings. If it wants to.

And yet guns are still the focus of the issue.

Australia mass shooting latest: PM wants tougher gun laws after 15 killed at Bondi Beach

Australia mass shooting latest: PM wants tougher gun laws after 15 killed at Bondi Beach

The Australian government is "prepared to take whatever action is necessary," after the shooting at Bondi Beach, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

abcnews.go.com

 

[CFordUNC]

And yet guns are still the focus of the issue.

Australia mass shooting latest: PM wants tougher gun laws after 15 killed at Bondi Beach

Australia mass shooting latest: PM wants tougher gun laws after 15 killed at Bondi Beach

The Australian government is "prepared to take whatever action is necessary," after the shooting at Bondi Beach, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

abcnews.go.com

They always will be, but there is no denying that the measures that Australia implemented in 1996 have led to a massive decline in the kinds of mass shooting deaths that occur seemingly weekly in America. And the decline happened while Australians are still able to own guns! Anyone in America throwing up their hands and crying that there's nothing that we can do to help *drastically curb*- maybe not outright prevent, but drastically curb- these kinds of mass casualty events that happen weekly at our elementary schools, supermarkets, movie theaters, parades, college campuses, etc., is either lazy or malicious. I don't see any gray area.

 

[Calheel]

The man who disarmed the gunman, was shot by the same guy he disarmed. It was the son who went to his father after being disarmed and got another gun to shoot the guy who took the first gun. That second bit was not in the released video.

If true, he should have shot the dad. That would be hard to do to shoot an unarmed man, but letting him regroup with his son may have resulted in more people dying and him getting shot himself.

 

[pspsps]

America is a perfectly normal country that has an unserious third of its populace and a system that provides outsized power to that unserious third.

What gets me about this message coming from The Bulwark is that this third were the politically allies of those running The Bulwark until about 10 years ago when Trump pulled back all the dog whistles and performative concern for others and now these folks act like they were never associated with these unserious folks.

I agree with you and what you said is why I tend to summarily skip over any Bulwark content. I can recognize an ally in dark times but I do not need to respect their opinions when they have been architects of the dark times.

 

[ChileG]

The alleged gunmen behind the Bondi beach attack are a father-son duo suspected of using legally obtained firearms to commit the massacre, according to police.

Naveed Akram, 24, was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries. His 50-year-old father, who the Sydney Morning Herald first reported to be Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police.

...

Naveed Akram, who worked as a bricklayer, came under the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) in October 2019, according to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese. He was examined for six months because of his alleged associations with others, with the ABC reporting claims that the counter-terror investigation involved an Islamic State cell.

“[Naveed Akram] was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Albanese said.

The NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, said the two men had lived at another house in Bonnyrigg, in the city’s west, which was also raided on Sunday night. He said there was nothing “to indicate that either of the men involved in yesterday’s attack was planning the attack”, and confirmed the older man had held a gun licence for a decade.

Lanyon would not comment on reports claiming a manifesto or black Islamic State flag were found in the car driven to the scene by the alleged attackers

All over social media today are guns-rights people saying stuff like, “see, outlawing guns doesn’t work!”
And lo and behold, the guns were bought legally, as they always are when it comes to mass shootings.

 

[rodoheel]

And yet guns are still the focus of the issue.

Australia mass shooting latest: PM wants tougher gun laws after 15 killed at Bondi Beach

Australia mass shooting latest: PM wants tougher gun laws after 15 killed at Bondi Beach

The Australian government is "prepared to take whatever action is necessary," after the shooting at Bondi Beach, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

abcnews.go.com

I mean, yeah, obviously any sane country would want to tighten its gun laws when something like this happens

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[Zoo_View]

I agree with you and what you said is why I tend to summarily skip over any Bulwark content. I can recognize an ally in dark times but I do not need to respect their opinions when they have been architects of the dark times.

Today, I appreciate that The Bulwark people oppose Trump.

The reality is they helped create Trump.

They supported PNAC…..the Heritage Foundation…..Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Don Rumsfeld, etc.

They quietly acquiesced to Birtherism.

The 2004 Dubya homophobia campaign? They were all in.

 

[wmheel1287]

Who is more drunk...LIndsay or Ramrouser? Actually, is Ramrouser Lindsay Graham? That would make a lot more sense than I care to admit.

 

[SnoopRob]

Who is more drunk...LIndsay or Ramrouser? Actually, is Ramrouser Lindsay Graham? That would make a lot more sense than I care to admit.

 

[altmin]

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/16/boris-and-sofia-gurman-identified-as-couple-who-lost-lives-trying-to-stop-bondi-gunmen-as-attack-began-ntwnfb

Dramatic footage has emerged of two victims who were killed while trying to stop a gunman during the early stages of the Bondi beach terror attack on Sunday.

The couple have been identified as Boris Gurman, 69, and Sofia Gurman, 61, after their family gave a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald.


“We are heartbroken by the sudden and senseless loss of our beloved Boris and Sofia Gurman,” the family said.

“They had been married for 34 years, with their 35th wedding anniversary approaching in January. We were looking forward to celebrating Sofia’s 62nd birthday on Wednesday 17th of December.”

Dashcam footage posted to the Chinese social media platform Rednote showed the moment Boris, wearing a purple shirt, tackled shooter Sajid Akram on Campbell Parade in Bondi as he emerged from his car, which had an Islamic State flag draped over the front windscreen.

Boris appears to push Akram on to the road and wrestle a gun from his hands. Sofia was also involved in the confrontation.

 

[nycfan]