Australians have defended their country’s strict gun laws following the deaths of six innocent buyers at Westfield Bondi Junction.
Joel Cauchi, 40, murdered five women and a man after entering a busy shopping center wielding a 30cm knife on Saturday around 3.20pm.
Cauchi’s rampage only came to an end after NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott, who was patrolling nearby, ran into the complex and shot him dead.
Inspector Scott was praised for her bravery and quick thinking on Saturday and Cauchi’s grieving parents said they had “no problem” with her actions.
American far-right personality Tara Bull said Cauchi’s stabbing spree was the reason she believed in allowing people to carry concealed weapons in public places.
“This is why I believe in concealed carry,” he wrote in a lengthy statement on X.
‘How many would have survived if there was a good guy with a gun? Self-defense and self-preservation are human rights.’
American far-right personality Tara Bull said Joel Cauchi’s stabbing spree was the reason she believed in allowing people to carry concealed weapons in public places.
“This is why I believe in concealed carry,” the American commentator wrote in a statement on X
However, many jumped to defend Australia’s strict gun laws which were introduced after a lone gunman killed 35 people in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
“We gave up our weapons so this guy couldn’t kill 60 people instead of 6,” one of them wrote.
“We’re glad we did it.”
‘Have you heard of a little place called the United States? “This experiment has been tried and is failing miserably,” said a second.
“No, we gave up guns so we could save lives,” a third shared.
‘Compare how many children Australia has lost in school shootings to the United States. Let’s compare how many lives are lost in Australia to the shootings in the United States.’
Many argued that Inspector Scott had been the “good guy here” and had saved countless lives by stopping Cauchi in his tracks.
“There was a ‘nice guy with a gun’, it was the police officer,” a second wrote.
“Very rarely is there a ‘good guy with a gun’ that makes a difference in American massacres; it’s usually the police,” said another.
‘And the difference here is that the perpetrators cannot access automatic weapons, so shooting deaths are rare. “Your country is so fucked up that you can’t see it.”
Joel Cauchi’s rampage only came to an end after NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott, who was patrolling nearby, ran into the complex and shot him dead.
Joel Cauchi, 40, murdered five women and a man after entering Westfield Bondi Junction wielding a 30cm knife on Saturday around 3.20pm (pictured)
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia’s strict gun laws, which were introduced after the Port Arthur massacre, had prevented many more deaths.
‘This man was wielding a knife, but if it was an automatic pistol, then we would have been talking about hundreds of deaths. And it’s an important reminder of how important it is that we have strict gun laws in this country,” he said.
The murder of the six Bondi Junction victims and the death of Cauchi himself mark the worst massacre in Sydney since the Quakers Hill nursing home fire in 2011.
Fourteen people died after drug-addicted nurse Roger Dean deliberately lit the fire in an attempt to destroy evidence that he had stolen prescription drugs.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the fact that security officers are not armed in Australian shopping centers would form part of the investigation.
—Well, Westfield security officers aren’t armed. This will certainly form part of the investigation with the coroner,” he told ABC News Breakfast on Monday.
And we’ll work with the coroner to determine what that looks like. But certainly that, you know, is something that will be raised.”
Commissioner Webb said arming security officers “would carry risks.”
“So I think it’s something we need to treat very carefully and think very carefully before making any decisions,” he said.
“And ultimately it’s a government decision.”
Members of the public are seen paying their respects to the victims of the Bondi Junction stabbing.
Police were called to Bondi Junction Westfield at 3.20pm on Saturday after Cauchi, 40, began chasing men, women and children with a knife.
He stabbed Ashlee Good, 38, Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Yixuan Cheng, 27, and Faraz Tahir, 30, to death.
Dozens more were injured, including Good’s nine-month-old baby, who was stabbed during the chaos that unfolded on Saturday.
Cauchi, who had been treated for schizophrenia, moved from Queensland to Sydney just a month ago and was known to police in his home state.
Before the attack he was reportedly sleeping rough and had no fixed address.