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Following the tragedy of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is facing several pressing reckonings. There is a long-overdue national focus on antisemitism, an persistent worry about public safety, and inquiries about how such an event could occur. However, as viewed of a public health expert and Jewish Australian, the most important discussion we are finally having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Warnings and a Proven Response

Public health experts have been sounding alarms about firearms for a minimum of a ten-year period. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians united and enacted a series of measures to curb gun violence nationwide. The strategy succeeded. Prior to 1996, the nation witnessed approximately one large-scale firearm incident per year. In the decades since, there have been vanishingly few major events, with none reaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Attack and the Role of Existing Regulations

Even during the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. It has been suggested 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, requiring a physical action to chamber the next round. Although these guns are capable of being discharged rapidly with lethal results, they remain significantly less rapid and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, semi-automatic rifles frequently used in international mass shootings. The casualty count at Bondi would've been far higher if different weapons had been accessible.

Stopping a future Bondi demands unity across all states. Regrettably, there are already cracks in the facade.

Legislation Under Strain

However, the horrific toll of the incident reveals that current firearm regulations are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have eroded their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are currently a greater number of guns in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in cities reportedly holding collections numbering in the hundreds.

We have been overconfident and it has cost us terribly.

The Road Forward: Proposed Changes

In the time after the Bondi tragedy, there have been numerous announcements regarding new gun laws. The state of NSW in particular will soon introduce a suite of reforms to mitigate the public danger from firearms. The national government has proposed a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a countrywide gun database, despite the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

These measures are feasible if the nation acts in unison. As stated, when it comes to gun control, the country is dependent on its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the reality of the Australian system – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a border.

Countering Frequent Arguments

There is the predictable response that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is true in the same sense that planes don't transport people, aviators do. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be virtually impossible for a captain to move 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be extremely difficult without firearms, and would have been far less damaging if the accused individuals had been denied access to the weapons they possessed.

Weighing Need and Security

It is acknowledged there are legitimate needs for some Australians to own firearms. Farm work or controlling vermin in rural areas is incredibly hard without them. A complete removal of guns from the country is impractical, 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 accurately reflect the society we live in today. Australia's legislation have historically been the envy 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 vital to take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and make certain that coming Australians are equally safe as past generations have been.

As one commentator observed after the Bondi attack, "such tragedies 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. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is hope that it can serve as the final tragedy the nation experiences.