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Following the tragedy of the horrific incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple pressing reckonings. We are seeing a long-overdue national spotlight on antisemitism, an ongoing worry about public safety, and inquiries about how such an event could happen. However, as viewed of a public health expert and Jewish Australian, the most important dialogue we are finally having revolves around firearms.

Ten Years of Warnings and a Successful Response

Health experts have been issuing warnings about firearms for at least a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians came together and enacted a suite of reforms to curb gun violence across the country. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation experienced roughly one large-scale firearm incident per year. Over the following years, there have been vanishingly few major events, with none approaching the death toll of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Attack and the Function of Current Laws

Even during the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the individuals involved possessed with bolt-action rifles and a straight-pull shotgun. These firearms can only fire a single bullet at a time, necessitating a manual operation to ready the next round. While these guns can be fired quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain far slower and less efficient than the high-capacity, semi-automatic rifles frequently used in overseas attacks. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if different weapons had been available.

Preventing a future Bondi requires unity across all states. Regrettably, we have already seen cracks in the united front.

Legislation Showing Weakness

Yet, the horrific toll of the attack reveals that current firearm regulations are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, years have worn away their efficacy. Concerningly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in urban areas reportedly holding collections numbering in the hundreds.

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

The Road Ahead: Announced Reforms

Since the Bondi attack, there have been multiple announcements regarding new gun laws. New South Wales specifically will soon introduce a package of reforms to mitigate the public danger from firearms. The federal government has proposed a fresh gun buyback, and there is potential for a countrywide gun database, notwithstanding the complexities of aligning state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are feasible provided that the nation works together. As noted, 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 federation – laws in one state are much less meaningful if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a border.

Countering Common Objections

We hear the inevitable argument that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is true in the same sense that planes don't transport people, aviators do. Certainly, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be quite challenging for a captain to transport 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be extremely difficult without firearms, and would have been significantly less lethal if the accused individuals had not had access to the weapons they used.

Balancing Need and Security

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

What we can do – what we must do – is to guarantee that firearm legislation are updated to better match the world we live in today. Australia's laws have historically been the admiration of the world, but time and distance has done its work and the nation is no longer as safe as it previously was. It is critical to take the lessons of Bondi seriously, and make certain that coming Australians are equally safe as past generations have been.

A friend observed after the Bondi events, "things like this just don't happen here". They don't, but solely due to the fact that the country has collectively worked to maintain its security. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is hope that it can become the final tragedy the nation experiences.