In 2022, the year before alleged Bondi gunman Sajid Akram was permitted to have a gun, the NSW Firearms Registry granted a licence to one of the first men to be charged with anti-terrorism offences in Australia. His nickname was Jihad Jack.
The permit, given to a man who had once shaken hands with Osama bin Laden and had fought for the Taliban, did not ring alarm bells in the NSW Police counterterrorism unit for two weeks after it was issued, and did so only because he attempted to have his licence transferred into another of his many names. The permit was not formally revoked for a full year. During his appeal, the registry argued that it shouldn’t have to verify the information that it was given.
The case shows how warning signs have been ignored or missed at the NSW Firearms Registry, and it raises questions about whether there are more people who have been approved for gun permits despite having red flags in their background.
— Jordan Baker in Jihad Jack trained with terrorists. Then NSW gave him a gun permit
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