🔗 Share this article

Following the tragedy of the awful attack at Bondi, Australia is facing multiple pressing conversations. We are seeing a much-needed national spotlight on anti-Jewish sentiment, an persistent worry about national security, and questions about how such an event could happen. However, as viewed of a health professional and Australian Jew, the most important dialogue we are finally having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Warnings and a Proven Response

Public health specialists have been issuing warnings about firearms for a minimum of a ten-year period. Following the events of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians united and implemented a suite of reforms to curb gun violence across the country. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation witnessed approximately one large-scale firearm incident per year. Over the following years, there have been extremely rare significant tragedies, with none reaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Role of Current Laws

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the alleged attackers might have been armed with manually-operated long guns and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These firearms can only fire a single bullet at a time, necessitating a manual operation to chamber the next round. Although these guns are capable of being discharged rapidly with lethal results, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the high-capacity, self-loading rifles frequently used in international mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi could have been much greater if different weapons had been available.

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

A System Showing Weakness

Yet, the terrible toll of the incident reveals that current firearm regulations are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have eroded their efficacy. Alarmingly, there are now a greater number of guns in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in urban areas owning arsenals of hundreds of weapons.

The nation has grown overconfident and it has cost us terribly.

The Path Forward: Announced Reforms

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been numerous announcements regarding strengthened firearm legislation. New South Wales in particular will soon introduce a suite of measures to reduce the collective risk posed by firearms. The national government has proposed a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a countrywide gun database, despite the complexities of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are feasible provided that the nation works together. As stated, regarding firearm laws, the country is dependent on its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the very nature of the Australian federation – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be bypassed with a journey across a border.

Countering Frequent Objections

There is the predictable response that "firearms are not the killers, people kill people". This is accurate in the identical way that planes don't transport people, pilots do. Yes, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be quite challenging for a pilot to transport 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be extremely difficult without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the firearms they possessed.

Weighing Need and Safety

There are legitimate reasons for some Australians to possess guns. Farm work or controlling vermin in rural areas is extremely difficult without them. A complete removal of guns from the country is impractical, as in some cases they are indispensable.

The achievable goal – the imperative action – is to guarantee that gun laws are updated to better match the world we live in today. Australia's laws have historically been the envy of the world, but time and distance has done its work and the nation is less secure as it once was. It is vital to take the lessons of Bondi seriously, and ensure that coming Australians are equally safe as previous generations have been.

As one friend remarked after the Bondi attack, "things like this just don't happen here". This is true, but solely due to the fact that the country has made concerted efforts to maintain its security. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is an aspiration that it can become the last one the nation ever sees.