The recent terror attack at Bondi Beach, near Sydney, Australia, started about 6:45 p.m. on December 14, Australian time. Two terrorists opened fire with long guns on a Jewish celebration of the first day of Hanukkah. Sixteen people are reported dead, including one of the two attackers. Two police officers are among the 38 people killed or wounded, according to Wikipedia.
In a dramatic video from 9 Australia News, a bystander, later identified as Ahmed al Ahmed, surprises one of the terrorists from behind. He puts the terrorist, who is armed with a shotgun with an extended magazine and a red dot sight, into a headlock and wrestles the shotgun from the terrorist. He points the gun at the retreating terrorist, but does not or cannot fire. He has been reported as having no knowledge of firearms. An older man approaches the retreating terrorist and throws a bottle at him.
The other terrorist, armed with a bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight, waves for his confederate to join him on a footbridge. About 1:20 in the video, the terrorist, who was disarmed, has rearmed with another long gun and started shooting again. The man who threw the bottle has taken the shotgun and attempts to use it, but he does not appear to be successful. The man who threw the bottle is wounded, retreats, and falls down or is shot down.
At about 1:46, a police officer approaches behind the terrorist, who is armed with a scoped rifle. The officer has a handgun out and aimed at the terrorist, but does not appear to shoot.
The terrorist turns and sees the officer. The officer still does not appear to shoot, but ducks behind a tree. The officer still has the pistol aimed at the terrorist, but does not appear to shoot. The video is cut off at that point.
The man who tackled the terrorist and disarmed him is a hero. It is unfortunate he knew nothing about firearms, and could not shoot the terrorist. The terrorist was able to retreat, rearm and continue his attack against innocent people. The man who threw the bottle is also a hero. It is not clear which of the terrorists wounded the man who did the disarm, or who wounded the man who threw the bottle.
The terrorist who retreated had a medium-sized bag and a backpack. It was impossible to know what was in them at the time he was disarmed. The lesson is clear: do not allow an active shooter to retreat if it can be avoided. They may have other weapons, they may have explosives, they may continue the attack.
This correspondent does not see any evidence that the police officer at the tree with the pistol pointed at the terrorist, who was armed with a rifle, fired a shot. It would be expected that some motion of recoil would be noticed, and a shot would be heard on the video.
A clear picture and timeline of the event is not yet available. Casualty figures are not final. More information is expected to become available in the next few days.
Good news from X: “The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC), the council of Imams NSW and the Australian Muslim Community unequivocally condemn the horrific shootings in Bondi.”
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
As seen another problem with gun control is many to not learn how to operate firearm’s.
Where I grew up in Northern Wis. Learning how to shoot was expected and encouraged.
Many were trained with firearms. getting ones hunters safety card was looked forwarded to.
I transfer that knowledge into a life time of firearms collecting, training, instructing along with a 33 year career in Law enforcement,
Carry, train, practice one never knows when evil will appear.
This is what happens when you disarm your public. The people in Australia need to re-vote their gun laws and get them back but even if they win, their country will probably call it unconstitutional even though they don’t have a 2nd amendment or find any other excuse to not let them have guns. Why you might ask! Because unarmed, they have the people right where they want them, under complete and total control of the government. If our government ever calls for the collection of all our guns, then the new war will begin. You think that islamist sections… Read more »
If I have to risk my life to disarm a terrorist, I’m going to finish the terrorist.
Australia has nearly completed the total woosification of their nation. The land of Crocodile Dundee is now the land of Cowardly Hide-me cops and a population that doesn’t know how to operate a shotgun. This is what the Dims want for America.
There are 4 police officers who take no action and only hide. 3 pony tail police and 1 male (not a man) undoubtedly from the DEI hires. They dare not shoot one of their precious invaders lest their lives be over. Some never drew their weapons at all. Fortunately in the eyes of the cucked society no one had a gun, knife or recently taken machete otherwise both of these terrorist could have gotten killed. These same people think they’ll defend off China once they decide it’s time to take the land. It’s laughable Notice who had to take action… Read more »
What. A. Bunch. Of. PUSSIES!! If you can’t figure out how to shoot a gun (jammed, empty, whatever), then at least use it to club the shooter into an injury or coma. As a nation, these Gooberment coddled serfs deserve to die off. And I blame the Gooberment (yeah, looking at YOU, Oz and EnZed) for disarming and breeding their serfs into helplessness. More and more, I thank God Himself for creating the United States from “the wretched refuse”, the outcast, the “just leave me the f*** alone”. And for giving us The Founding Fathers that could figure out the… Read more »
It’s worse than I initially thought. Earlier reports were sketchy, and said only (ONLY???!!!) ten people were murdered. It’s too bad that Ahmed was unfamiliar with fire arms. Kudos for to Ahmed his bravery. Ditto for the one and only other person who tried to counter attack. How many people were present? Where was the armed security at the “safe place” event? The armed police officer was likely peeing in his/her/its Depends rather than doing the job he/she/it was drawing a paycheck to do. We learned a little (just a little) from Uvalde… and that was go in with guns… Read more »
Lots of lessons here. The police, while less than a block away — the entire station was less than a block away, failed to engage the terrorists in a timely manor. This was nearly 30 entire minuets in duration from first shot to last shot. Some cops actually watched for 20 minuets as 55 innocent people were shot and 15 of them were murdered. You can not depend on the police to save you. Stay armed. Gun control doesn’t work. Gun control disarmed the good guys and armed the bad guys. Nobody was able to return fire and defend themselves,… Read more »
As is always the case when you have a mass shooting or other “gun violence” incident of note in an area with overly strict gun laws, I mused sarcastically to myself that Australia needs stronger gun laws. The whole continent is a virtual Gun Free Zone. Wouldn’t you know it, their politicians are already talking about tightening their gun laws, over this! How can they be tightened any more?
Article said prime minister of Australia said they are going to pass more restrictive gun laws to stop terrorists. Huh? How will that stop terrorism? What about the numerous gun laws that Australia has on the books now? Why didn’t they work? Or is this just an excuse to completely disarm all of Australia? Just like they did in England. When they banned all guns! It will be easier to buy a gun in Russia than in Australia or England! Australia has banned machetes because street gangs attacked each other using machetes. And that ” frightened ” the women politicians,… Read more »