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Following the tragedy of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting several critical conversations. We are seeing a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing worry about national security, and inquiries about the way such an event could happen. But, from the perspective of a public health expert and Jewish Australian, the most important dialogue we are now having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Warnings and a Proven Solution

Public health specialists have been sounding alarms about guns for at least a ten-year period. Following the events of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians united and enacted a suite of measures to reduce gun violence across the country. The strategy succeeded. Before 1996, the nation witnessed roughly one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been extremely rare major events, with none reaching the death toll of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Role of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were partially effective. It has been suggested the individuals involved might have been armed with bolt-action rifles and a straight-pull shotgun. These firearms are limited to firing a one round at a time, necessitating a manual operation to ready the next round. While these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain significantly less rapid and more cumbersome than the high-capacity, self-loading rifles frequently used in overseas mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi would've been far higher if more advanced firearms had been accessible.

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

A System Showing Weakness

However, the terrible consequences of the incident demonstrates that current gun laws are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, years have worn away their efficacy. Alarmingly, there are currently a greater number of guns in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in cities owning arsenals numbering in the hundreds.

We have been overconfident and it has cost us terribly.

The Road Ahead: Announced Reforms

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been numerous announcements regarding new gun laws. New South Wales specifically will shortly enact a package of measures to mitigate the collective risk from firearms. The federal government has announced a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a countrywide gun database, notwithstanding the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal governments.

These measures are only possible provided that the nation acts in unison. As noted, when it comes to firearm laws, the country is dependent on its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the very nature of the Australian federation – regulations in one state are easily circumvented if they can be bypassed with a journey across a state line.

Addressing Common Objections

There is the predictable response that "guns don't kill people, people kill people". This is true in the same sense that planes don't transport people, pilots do. Yes, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be virtually impossible for a captain to move 500 people internationally without the plane. The horrific violence seen at Bondi would be all but impossible without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the accused individuals had not had access to the weapons they possessed.

Balancing Need and Security

There are legitimate needs for some Australians to own guns. Farm work or culling pests in rural areas is extremely difficult without them. A complete removal of guns from the country is not feasible, as in some cases they are indispensable.

What we can do – what we must do – is to ensure that firearm legislation are updated to better match the society we live in today. Australia's laws have historically been the envy of the world, but the passage of years has done its work and the nation is no longer as safe as it once was. It is critical to take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and make certain that future generations are as protected as past generations have been.

A commentator 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 keep itself safe. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is hope that it can serve as the final tragedy the nation experiences.