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Following the tragedy of the awful attack at Bondi, Australia is confronting several critical conversations. There is a much-needed national spotlight on antisemitism, an ongoing concern about national security, and questions about the way such an tragedy could happen. However, from the perspective of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the paramount dialogue we are now having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Warnings and a Successful Response

Public health specialists have been sounding alarms about guns for a minimum of a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians united and implemented a series of reforms to curb gun violence across the country. The strategy succeeded. Before 1996, the nation experienced approximately one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been vanishingly few major events, with none approaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Attack and the Function of Existing Laws

Even during the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the individuals involved might have been armed with bolt-action rifles and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These weapons are limited to firing a single bullet at a time, necessitating a manual operation to ready the subsequent shot. While these guns can be fired rapidly with lethal results, they remain significantly less rapid and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles frequently used in overseas attacks. The casualty count at Bondi would've been far higher if more advanced firearms had been available.

Preventing another Bondi requires unity across all states. And unfortunately, there are already fissures in the united front.

Legislation Showing Weakness

Yet, the terrible consequences of the attack demonstrates that current firearm regulations are failing. Crafted in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have worn away their efficacy. Concerningly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur shooting, with some individuals in cities owning collections numbering in the hundreds.

The nation has grown overconfident and it has exacted a terrible price.

The Path Forward: Proposed Reforms

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been multiple announcements regarding strengthened gun laws. New South Wales in particular will soon enact a suite of measures to mitigate the collective risk from firearms. The federal government has proposed a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the complexities of aligning state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are feasible if the nation works together. As stated, when it comes to firearm laws, the country is dependent on its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the very nature of the Australian system – regulations in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a journey across a border.

Countering Frequent Objections

There is the inevitable response that "guns don't kill people, people kill people". This is true in the same sense that aircraft do not fly passengers, aviators do. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be virtually impossible for a pilot to transport 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The horrific violence witnessed at Bondi would be all but impossible without firearms, and would have been far less damaging if the accused individuals had been denied access to the firearms they possessed.

Balancing Necessity and Safety

There are valid reasons for some Australians to own guns. Farm work or controlling vermin in rural areas is extremely difficult without them. A total ban of guns from the country is impractical, as in certain contexts they are indispensable.

The achievable goal – the imperative action – is to ensure that firearm legislation are updated to better match the world we live in today. Australia's legislation have long been the admiration of the world, but time and distance has taken a toll and the nation is less secure as it once was. It is vital to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and make certain that coming Australians are as protected as past generations have been.

A commentator observed after the Bondi attack, "such tragedies just don't happen here". This is true, but only because the country has made concerted efforts to maintain its security. However horrific as the incident was, there is an aspiration that it can become the last one the nation experiences.