🔗 Share this article

In the aftermath of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is facing several critical reckonings. We are seeing a long-overdue national spotlight on anti-Jewish sentiment, an persistent concern about national security, and questions about the way such an tragedy could happen. However, from the perspective of a public health expert and Australian Jew, the paramount discussion we are now having revolves around firearms.

Ten Years of Warnings 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 massacre, Australians came together and implemented a series of measures to curb gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation witnessed approximately 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.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Role of Existing Laws

Amidst 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 firearms can only fire a one round at a time, requiring a physical action to ready the subsequent shot. While these guns can be fired quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain significantly less rapid and less efficient than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles frequently used in overseas attacks. The casualty count at Bondi would've been far higher if different weapons had been accessible.

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

Legislation Under Strain

However, the horrific consequences of the attack reveals that current gun laws are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have eroded their efficacy. Concerningly, there are now a greater number of guns in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur shooting, with some citizens in urban areas reportedly holding arsenals of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Road Forward: Proposed Reforms

In the time after the Bondi tragedy, there have been multiple announcements regarding strengthened firearm legislation. The state of NSW specifically will soon introduce a suite of reforms to reduce the collective risk posed by firearms. The national government has announced a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is potential for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the complexities of coordinating state and federal governments.

These measures are only possible if the nation acts in unison. 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 state line.

Addressing Common Arguments

We hear the inevitable response that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is accurate in the identical way that aircraft do not fly passengers, pilots do. Certainly, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be virtually impossible for a captain to transport 500 people internationally without the plane. The horrific violence witnessed 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 firearms they possessed.

Weighing Need and Safety

It is acknowledged there are legitimate reasons for some Australians to own firearms. Managing livestock or culling pests in many places is incredibly hard without them. A complete removal of guns from the country is not feasible, as in certain contexts they are essential tools.

The achievable goal – the imperative action – is to guarantee that gun laws are updated to better match the society we live in today. Australia's laws have long 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 to heart, and make certain that coming Australians are as protected as previous generations have been.

As one friend observed after the Bondi attack, "things like this just don't happen here". They don't, but solely due to the fact that the country has made concerted efforts to maintain its security. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is an aspiration that it can become the last one the nation experiences.