🔗 Share this article

In the aftermath of the awful attack at Bondi, Australia is confronting several pressing reckonings. There is a much-needed national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing worry about public safety, and questions about the way such an tragedy could happen. However, as viewed of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the most important dialogue we are finally having revolves around firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Successful Response

Public health experts have been sounding alarms about guns for a minimum of a ten-year period. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and enacted a series of reforms to curb gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation witnessed approximately one large-scale firearm incident per year. Over the following years, there have been vanishingly few major events, with none reaching the death toll of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Tragedy and the Role of Current Laws

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were partially effective. It has been suggested the individuals involved possessed with manually-operated long guns and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These weapons can only fire a single bullet at a time, requiring a physical action to ready 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 international attacks. The number of deaths at Bondi would've been far higher if more advanced firearms had been available.

Preventing a future Bondi demands national cohesion. And unfortunately, there are already fissures in the united front.

A System Under Strain

However, the terrible toll of the attack reveals that current gun laws are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, years have worn away their effectiveness. Alarmingly, there are currently a greater number of guns in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur shooting, with some citizens in urban areas reportedly holding collections of hundreds of weapons.

We have been overconfident and it has cost us terribly.

The Path Ahead: Proposed Reforms

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been numerous declarations regarding strengthened firearm legislation. The state of NSW in particular will soon enact a suite of measures to reduce the public danger from firearms. The federal government has announced a fresh gun buyback, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the inherent challenges of aligning state and federal governments.

These measures are only possible provided that the nation acts in unison. As noted, regarding 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 avoided with a short drive across a state line.

Addressing Frequent Objections

There is the predictable response that "guns don't kill people, individuals are". This is accurate 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 transport 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The mass slaughter seen at Bondi would be extremely difficult without firearms, and would have been significantly less lethal if the alleged terrorists had been denied access to the weapons they possessed.

Balancing Necessity and Safety

It is acknowledged there are legitimate needs for some Australians to own firearms. Managing livestock or controlling vermin in many places is extremely difficult without them. A complete removal of firearms from the country is impractical, as in certain contexts they are essential tools.

The achievable goal – what we must do – is to guarantee that gun laws are modernized to better match the society we live in today. Australia's legislation have historically been the admiration of the world, but the passage of years has done its work and the nation is less secure as it once was. It is critical to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and ensure that future generations are as protected as past generations have been.

A friend observed after the Bondi events, "things like this just don't happen here". This is true, but solely due to the fact that the country has made concerted efforts to maintain its security. However horrific as the incident was, there is an aspiration that it can become the final tragedy the nation ever sees.