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Following the tragedy of the awful attack at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple pressing conversations. There is a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an persistent concern about public safety, and inquiries about the way such an tragedy could happen. However, as viewed of a public health expert and Jewish Australian, the paramount dialogue we are finally having revolves around firearms.

A Decade of Warnings and a Proven Response

Health specialists have been issuing warnings about guns for at least a ten-year period. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and enacted a series of reforms to reduce gun violence nationwide. 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 approaching the fatalities of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Tragedy and the Role of Existing Regulations

Amidst the Bondi tragedy, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the alleged attackers might have been armed with manually-operated long guns and a straight-pull shotgun. These firearms are limited to firing a single bullet at a time, requiring a manual operation to ready the subsequent shot. While these guns can be fired quite quickly with lethal results, they remain significantly less rapid and more cumbersome than the high-capacity, self-loading rifles frequently used in overseas mass shootings. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if different firearms had been accessible.

Preventing another Bondi requires unity across all states. And unfortunately, we have already seen fissures in the united front.

A System Under Strain

However, the horrific toll of the attack reveals that existing firearm regulations are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, years have eroded their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are now a greater number of guns in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in urban areas owning collections numbering in the hundreds.

We have been overconfident and it has cost us terribly.

The Path Forward: Announced Reforms

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been multiple declarations regarding new firearm legislation. The state of NSW in particular will soon enact a suite of measures to reduce the collective risk from firearms. The federal government has proposed a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, despite the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal governments.

These measures are feasible if the nation works together. As stated, when it comes to gun control, the country is dependent on its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the reality of the Australian system – laws in one state are much less meaningful if they can be avoided with a short drive across a state line.

Addressing Common Objections

We hear the inevitable response that "guns don't kill people, individuals are". This is accurate in the identical way that planes don't transport people, pilots do. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be virtually impossible for a pilot to move 500 people overseas without the plane. The horrific violence seen at Bondi would be all but impossible without guns, and would have been far less damaging if the alleged terrorists had been denied access to the firearms they possessed.

Weighing Necessity and Security

There are legitimate reasons for some Australians to possess guns. Managing livestock or culling pests in many places is incredibly hard without them. A total ban of firearms from the country is impractical, as in certain contexts they are essential tools.

The achievable goal – the imperative action – is to ensure that firearm legislation are updated to accurately reflect the world we live in today. Australia's laws have historically been the envy of the world, but the passage of years has taken a toll and the nation is no longer as safe as it once was. It is critical to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and make certain that future generations are as protected as past generations have been.

A commentator remarked after the Bondi events, "things like this just don't happen here". This is true, but only because the country has made concerted efforts to keep itself safe. However horrific as the incident was, there is hope that it can serve as the last one the nation experiences.