--- title: The Sydney Attack Could Have Been Worse if There Were a Gun description: The attack at Bondi Junction mall in Sydney might have resulted in more deaths if the country hadn't had such strong gun regulations canonical: https://time.com/6967424/sydney-mall-attack-guns/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-04-16T22:05:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:41:44.939Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Sydney Mall Attack Was Horrifying. It Could Have Been Worse og:description: If the 40-year-old man in Bondi Junction had had a firearm, how many more people would have died? og:url: https://time.com/6967424/sydney-mall-attack-guns/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2049c9966d58b17a/698a55af9d83e88343b99f85/sydney-mall-attack.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: sydney-mall-attack og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Sydney Mall Attack Was Horrifying. It Could Have Been Worse twitter:description: If the 40-year-old man in Bondi Junction had had a firearm, how many more people would have died? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2049c9966d58b17a/698a55af9d83e88343b99f85/sydney-mall-attack.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Sydney Mall Attack Was Horrifying. It Could Have Been Worse > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=1ddd4373-4fff-487a-881e-2f15ab5263c3&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Australian Police Investigate Why Man Who Went on Stabbing Spree Targeted Women [Watch (HLS stream): Australian Police Investigate Why Man Who Went on Stabbing Spree Targeted Women](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/iX05slR5.m3u8) (3:53)  _Published 2024-04-15. Australian police are examining why a lone assailant who stabbed six people to death in a busy Sydney shopping mall and injured more than a dozen others targeted women while avoiding men, a police commissioner said on Monday._  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Apr 16, 2024 10:05 PM UTC  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Apr 16, 2024 10:05 PM UTC Up until last week, I mostly thought of Bondi Junction as a place to wait for a bus. As the closest train-station hub to Bondi Beach and Sydney's fancy eastern suburbs, it's where I and other commuters would switch to buses to get our fix of beaches and high-end real estate. The Bondi Junction Westfield, as the mall is officially known, is a popular spot to meet, eat, catch a movie, and just hang out, while figuring out where the frick the right bus leaves from. Now I have a far different association with the mall. I, like so many people, was horrified by the news I woke up to on April 13\. A man had gone on a stabbing rampage, killing six people. I was born in Sydney and have relatives who have had stores or jobs in the mall. It was startlingly close to home. But underneath my alarm as I searched online for information was a quiet sense of hope; I knew it was unlikely that the mentally ill assailant would have a gun. I mourn the senseless loss of six humans—a male security guard and five women, one of them a new mother. But, as a three-decade resident of the U.S., I knew it could have been so much worse. In 1996, a tormented and nefarious man opened fire at an outdoor cafe in Tasmania, Australia, killing 35 people and wounding 24\. It was for many years the [worst mass-shooting in history](https://time.com/6182186/countries-banned-guns-mass-shooting/) anywhere in the world. The (very conservative) leader of the country at the time, Prime Minister John Howard, introduced new regulations on guns, including a gun buyback and a bunch more hoops that people had to jump through to get and keep a firearm, especially a handgun or an assault-style weapon. There were big protests, but Australia has continued to modify those laws over the years, with the end result beingthat in the almost exactly 28 years since the Port Arthur massacre there has been just one incident in which a shooter killed more than four strangers in Australia. According to recent [research](https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2021/04/28/new-gun-ownership-figures-revealed-25-years-on-from-port-arthur.html), there are 3.5 million registered guns in Australia, vastly more than in 1996\. But the proportion of Australians who own guns has fallen by almost 50%, meaning more guns are in the hands of fewer—and, the data suggests, more responsible—people. **Read More:**[_What It's Like To Own Guns in Australia_](https://time.com/4172274/what-its-like-to-own-guns-in-a-country-with-strict-gun-control/) In contrast, in the United States, just in the last four years, just in places people go to shop or hang out? Twenty-three dead in [a Walmart](https://time.com/5874088/el-paso-shooting-racism/) in El Paso, Texas; 18 dead at a bowling alley and then bar [in Lewiston, Maine](https://time.com/6328678/maine-shooting-updates/); 11 dead in a ballroom [in Monterey Park, Calif.](https://time.com/6564381/monterey-park-shooting-anniversary-lunar-new-year/); 10 dead in a supermarket [in Buffalo, N.Y.](https://time.com/6178803/buffalo-shooting-victim-katherine-massey/); and 10 dead in a supermarket in Boulder, Colo. And that's not even counting [the schools](https://time.com/6181718/uvalde-shooting-grieving-community/). If the 40-year-old man in Bondi Junction, [or the youth who stabbed people at a Sydney church later in the week](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-68817872), had had firearms, how many more people would have died? A knife is a terrifying weapon, but you have to get close and be stronger than your victim to use it. In the videos of the Bondi Junction attack, you can see people warding offthe killer, one of them using the flat end of a bollard to keep him trapped on an escalator for a while, another just turning to face him and squaring up before the attacker veers off in another direction. There's no scenario in which furniture or fists best a firearm. You could argue that a gun is much less stealthy than a knife and therefore people would have had more warning. But there's never enough warning for bullets—they're too fast, too efficient, too easy to deploy. There wouldn't have been enough time for shopkeepers to usher visitors into the backrooms of their stores, and there would have been fright and chaos and people running the wrong way because bullets move more swiftlythan thought. **Read More:** [_A New Guns Ruling Could Make Families Less Safe_](https://time.com/6253326/domestic-violence-guns-restraining-orders-ruling/) In the end the assailant was taken down by a lone police officer with, yes, a gun. There was no need to wait for the SWAT team, no panicked law enforcement officers trying to figure out what they were dealing with, no suiting up in high-tech Kevlar before going in. Bystanders told the officer where the knife-wielder was, she found him, he raised his knife at her, and she shot him. When I discuss gun violence with the Americans I love but do not agree with, they like to tell me that the problem is not guns, it's mental illness. And, yes, mental illness can sometimes be the cause of violence. The U.S. should be doing a much better job helping folks whose mental health is in crisis. But guns weaponize mental illness and escalate the tragedy. The Bondi Junction attacker's father [says he tried to keep knives away](https://apnews.com/article/stabbing-sydney-mall-australia-bondi-junction-ad40e483aead58e7982d647dec3c7732) from his son. And as history has proved, devastatingly often, it's hard to keep any readily available weapon away from those determined to hurt. But making guns harder to get can, and in Bondi Junction did, save lives. ## Transcript The events of yesterday have shocked the nation. Australians are waking up to try to deal with the shock and Trauma that will come with what has occurred with violent actions that are unspeakable and really just beyond comprehension people going about their Saturday afternoon shopping should be safe shouldn't they at risk? But tragically we saw a loss of life and people will be grieving for loved ones to die. We are outside. Now, there are many papers still in hospital at dealing with recovery and a thoughts and prayers are with them. We also do at this time give thanks to Appalachian Emergency Services the wonderful inspector who ran into danger by his self. And removed the threat that was there to others without thinking about the risk to herself. We also I see the footage of ordinary Australians putting themselves In Harm's Way in order to help their fellow citizens that bribery was quite extraordinary that we saw yesterday the best of us try and submit this extraordinary tragedy not lost. We have a 6 victims deceased five women and one man, and of course offender, we're working through the process now of speaking with the families and supporting the families of those victims. Tattoo of him I would appear you have no family in Australia. So we are looking through. And with agencies have a series to attempt to reach out to the families of those victims to the extent that we believed we were away the offender involved I can tell you that a 40 year old man from Queensland gel cap. She has been identified as the offender in this matter. We are continuing investigations in relation to him, he's a man is a Sid from Queensland we believe he came to New South Wales last month we are and have spoken with his family will continue to do so and I are cooperating with us. We know that shortly after coming to Sydney. Hey, I took possession of the storage facility that has been identified and we have worked through that very small storage facility. As I had said lost not there is still to this point. Nothing that we have no information. We have received no evidence. We have recovered now intelligence. We have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation Audiology or otherwise we know That the offender in the metal soffit from suffers from Mental Health. We are continuing to work through the pro falling off the offended but very clearly to us at this stage it would appear that this is not related to the mental health of the individual involved. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6967424/sydney-mall-attack-guns/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6967424/sydney-mall-attack-guns/"},"headline":"The Sydney Mall Attack Was Horrifying. 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