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Following the tragedy of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is facing several critical conversations. We are seeing a long-overdue national focus on antisemitism, an persistent worry about national security, and inquiries about how such an event could occur. But, as viewed of a health professional and Australian Jew, the paramount dialogue we are now having centers on firearms.

Ten Years of Cautions and a Proven Solution

Health specialists have been issuing warnings about firearms for at least a ten-year period. Following the events of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and implemented a series of reforms to curb gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation experienced approximately one large-scale firearm incident per year. Over the following years, there have been vanishingly few major events, with none approaching the fatalities of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Tragedy and the Role of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. Reports indicate the individuals involved possessed with manually-operated long guns and a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons are limited to firing a one round at a time, necessitating a manual operation to chamber the next round. While these guns are capable of being discharged rapidly with lethal results, they remain significantly less rapid and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles commonplace in overseas attacks. The casualty count at Bondi would've been far higher if different firearms had been accessible.

Stopping a future Bondi demands national cohesion. Regrettably, there are already fissures in the facade.

Legislation Under Strain

Yet, the horrific consequences of the attack demonstrates that current firearm regulations are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have worn away their effectiveness. Alarmingly, there are now a greater number of guns in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur shooting, with some individuals in cities reportedly holding collections of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Path Forward: Announced Changes

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been numerous announcements regarding new gun laws. New South Wales specifically will shortly enact a suite of measures to mitigate the public danger posed by firearms. The federal government has proposed a new gun buyback, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the complexities of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are only possible if the nation acts in unison. As noted, regarding gun control, the country is dependent on its weakest link. This is the very nature of the Australian federation – laws in one state are much less meaningful if they can be avoided with a journey across a state line.

Countering Common Arguments

We hear the inevitable 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. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be quite challenging for a pilot to transport 500 people overseas without the plane. The horrific violence witnessed at Bondi would be all but impossible without firearms, and would have been far less damaging if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the firearms they possessed.

Balancing Need and Safety

It is acknowledged there are legitimate needs for some Australians to possess firearms. Farm work or controlling vermin in rural areas is extremely difficult without them. A total ban of guns from the country is not feasible, as in certain contexts they are indispensable.

What we can do – what we must do – is to guarantee that gun laws 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 no longer as safe as it once was. It is critical to learn from the tragedy of Bondi seriously, and make certain that coming Australians are as protected as previous generations have been.

As one friend observed after the Bondi events, "such tragedies just don't happen here". They don't, but only because the country has made concerted efforts to keep itself safe. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is hope that it can serve as the last one the nation experiences.