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Anthony Albanese says he is \u201cready for the fight\u201d to tighten Australia\u2019s firearms laws after the Bondi beach terror attack<\/a>, as the gun lobby and the National party push back against changes they claim are attempts to divert attention from radicalisation.<\/p>\n Former Liberal prime minister John Howard, who introduced sweeping gun control measures after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, said he\u2019d support tightening firearms laws and there were too many guns in Australia, but claimed Albanese was focusing on the wrong issue.<\/p>\n Howard said the debate over gun laws was \u201ca diversion\u201d and that \u201cthe issue here is antisemitism\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe failure over the last two years has been that of the federal government, led by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to bring sufficient energy to a broad-based attack on the evil of antisemitism,\u201d he told Sky News.<\/p>\n Albanese\u2019s push to tighten gun laws has the backing of Walter Mikac, whose wife and two daughters were among the 35 people killed at Port Arthur.<\/p>\n \u201cHonouring those killed at Bondi beach \u2013 and the legacy of my daughters, Alannah and Madeline \u2013 requires more than words of sympathy,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt requires courage and a renewed commitment to public safety as the guiding principle of our firearm laws. Australia has led the world before \u2013 we can, and must, do so again.\u201d<\/p>\n But the president of the Shooters Union warned of a \u201cmassive pushback\u201d to proposed changes, claiming licensed firearm owners were treated as a punching bag.<\/p>\n