🔗 Share this article

Following the tragedy of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is facing several pressing conversations. We are seeing a long-overdue national focus on antisemitism, an persistent worry about public safety, and inquiries about how such an event could happen. But, from the perspective of a health professional and Australian Jew, the most important dialogue we are now having revolves around firearms.

Ten Years of Cautions and a Successful Solution

Health specialists have been sounding alarms about firearms for at least a ten-year period. In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians united and implemented a series of measures to curb gun violence across the country. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation witnessed roughly one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been extremely rare significant tragedies, with none reaching the fatalities of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Attack and the Role of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi tragedy, the nation's firearm regulations were partially effective. Reports indicate the alleged attackers possessed with manually-operated long guns and a straight-pull shotgun. These firearms are limited to firing a single bullet at a time, necessitating a manual operation to chamber the subsequent shot. Although these guns can be fired quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the high-capacity, semi-automatic rifles commonplace in overseas mass shootings. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if more advanced weapons had been available.

Stopping another Bondi requires national cohesion. And unfortunately, we have already seen fissures in the united front.

A System Under Strain

Yet, the terrible toll of the attack reveals that existing firearm regulations are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have worn away their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in cities reportedly holding arsenals numbering in the hundreds.

We have been overconfident and it has exacted a terrible price.

The Path Ahead: Proposed Changes

Since the Bondi attack, there have been multiple declarations regarding new gun laws. New South Wales in particular will soon introduce a package of measures to reduce the collective risk posed by firearms. The national government has announced a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is potential for a countrywide gun database, notwithstanding the complexities of aligning state and federal jurisdictions.

These measures are only possible provided that the nation works together. As noted, regarding gun control, the country is dependent on its weakest link. This is the reality of the Australian federation – regulations in one state are much less meaningful if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a border.

Addressing Frequent Objections

We hear the inevitable argument that "guns don't kill people, people kill people". This is accurate in the same sense that aircraft do not fly passengers, aviators do. Certainly, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be quite challenging for a pilot to transport 500 people overseas without the plane. The mass slaughter seen at Bondi would be extremely difficult without firearms, and would have been significantly less lethal if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the weapons they possessed.

Weighing Necessity and Safety

There are valid reasons for some Australians to possess firearms. Managing livestock or culling pests in rural areas is incredibly hard without them. A total ban of firearms from the country is not feasible, as in certain contexts they are essential tools.

What we can do – what we must do – is to ensure that gun laws are modernized to better match the society we live in today. Australia's laws have long been the admiration of the world, but the passage of years has taken a toll and the nation is less secure as it previously was. It is vital to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and make certain that coming Australians are as protected as previous generations have been.

As one friend observed after the Bondi events, "things like this just don't happen here". They don't, but only because the country has made concerted efforts to keep itself safe. However horrific as the attack was, there is an aspiration that it can become the last one the nation experiences.