SYDNEY — Australia has announced plans to strengthen its already tough gun laws with new measures that will restrict who gets a license.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the proposed changes on Monday after a cabinet meeting of state and territory leaders a day after the country’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years.

Fifteen people were gunned down at a Jewish Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach, in a terror incident allegedly perpetrated by a father and son.

Under the plan, only Australian citizens will be entitled to hold a gun license. There’ll be new limits on the number of guns they can own, and the type of firearms that can be purchased.

Under the proposed changes, open-ended firearms licenses will be limited, requiring gun owners to reapply for approval to hold a license.

The 50-year-old father, who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, held a valid gun license, and legally owned six long firearms. He was not an Australian citizen, though his son was.

Australia already has some of the world’s toughest gun laws. Restrictions were tightened almost 30 years ago after a lone gunman armed with semiautomatic weapons killed 35 people in Tasmania.

The massacre shocked the government of the day into action, and within two weeks, new laws dictated tough rules on who could and couldn’t own a gun.

Until Sunday, Australia had decades of proof that tough gun laws can make a country safer with one of the world’s lowest gun homicide rates, per capita.

Between July 2023 through June 2024 Australia saw only 31 gun-related murders, a homicide rate of 0.09 per 100,000 people, according to data from the Australian Institute of Criminology.

But the number of guns held legally has risen steadily for more than two decades and now, at four million, exceeds the number before the 1996 crackdown, think-tank the Australia Institute said earlier this year.

The Bondi shooting has forced a rethink about whether state laws are still fit for purpose.

The government’s also seeking to speed up work on a National Firearms Register to compile data held in various states and territories about who owns guns and how many.

Mourners meanwhile filled Bondi Pavilion with thousands of bouquets on Monday, just steps from the beach where the mass shooting unfolded.

Adults and children wept, hugged and stood in silent reflection at the iconic landmark, with police tape still visible in the background, according to CNN’s Angus Watson at the scene.

One handwritten note, attached to a bouquet, read: “To all the victims – may you fly high. God is waiting for you. To the victims’ families – I wish you strength and courage at this difficult time. Praying for all the Jewish community.”

Australian and Israeli flags fluttered as hundreds gathered, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Governor-General Sam Mostyn, to honor the victims at the impromptu memorial.

Community members and Jewish leaders sang hymns, followed by a crowd joining in the Australian national anthem. — CNN