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Following the tragedy of the horrific attack at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple pressing conversations. There is a long-overdue national spotlight on antisemitism, an ongoing concern about public safety, and inquiries about the way such an event could occur. But, from the perspective of a public health expert and Australian Jew, the paramount dialogue we are now having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Successful Solution

Public health specialists have been issuing warnings about guns for a minimum of a ten-year period. Following the events of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians came together and enacted a series of measures to curb gun violence nationwide. The strategy succeeded. Before 1996, the nation witnessed roughly one mass shooting per year. Over the following years, there have been vanishingly few significant tragedies, with none reaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Attack and the Role of Current Regulations

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 a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons can only fire a one round at a time, necessitating a manual operation to ready the next round. While these guns can be fired quite quickly with lethal results, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the high-capacity, self-loading rifles commonplace in international attacks. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if different firearms had been accessible.

Preventing another Bondi requires national cohesion. And unfortunately, we have already seen fissures in the facade.

A System Showing Weakness

However, the terrible toll of the attack reveals that current gun laws are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have eroded their effectiveness. Alarmingly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in urban areas reportedly holding arsenals numbering in the hundreds.

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

The Road Forward: Announced Changes

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been multiple declarations regarding new gun laws. New South Wales specifically will soon introduce a suite of measures to mitigate the collective risk posed by firearms. The national government has announced a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is potential for a countrywide gun database, despite the complexities of aligning state and federal governments.

These measures are only possible if the nation works together. As stated, when it comes to firearm laws, the country is only as strong as its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the very nature of the Australian system – regulations in one state are much less meaningful if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a state line.

Addressing Common Arguments

We hear the inevitable response that "guns don't kill people, individuals are". This is accurate in the identical way that aircraft do not fly passengers, pilots do. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be quite challenging for a captain to transport 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The horrific violence seen at Bondi would be all but impossible without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the weapons they possessed.

Balancing Necessity and Security

It is acknowledged there are valid reasons for some Australians to own 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 some cases they are essential tools.

What we can do – the imperative action – is to ensure that gun laws are updated to accurately reflect the society we live in today. Australia's legislation have long been the admiration of the world, but time and distance has done its work and the nation is less secure as it previously was. It is critical to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and make certain that future generations are equally safe as previous generations have been.

As one friend remarked after the Bondi attack, "such tragedies just don't happen here". They don't, but solely due to the fact that the country has collectively worked to keep itself safe. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is hope that it can serve as the final tragedy the nation ever sees.