🔗 Share this article

Following the tragedy of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple pressing reckonings. There is a much-needed national spotlight on anti-Jewish sentiment, an persistent worry about public safety, and questions about how such an tragedy could happen. However, from the perspective of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the most important discussion we are now having centers on firearms.

Ten Years of Cautions and a Successful Solution

Public health experts have been issuing warnings about firearms for at least a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians united and enacted a suite of reforms to curb gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation witnessed roughly one mass shooting 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.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Function of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. Reports indicate the alleged attackers might have been armed with bolt-action rifles and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These firearms are limited to firing a single bullet at a time, requiring a physical action to ready the subsequent shot. Although these guns can be fired rapidly with lethal results, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, semi-automatic rifles commonplace in international mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi would've been far higher if different weapons had been accessible.

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

Legislation Under Strain

However, the horrific toll of the incident demonstrates that existing firearm regulations are failing. Crafted in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have eroded their efficacy. Alarmingly, there are currently a greater number of guns in Australia than before the Port Arthur shooting, with some citizens in urban areas owning collections numbering in the hundreds.

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

The Road Ahead: Proposed Changes

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been multiple announcements regarding strengthened gun laws. New South Wales in particular will shortly introduce a package of reforms to reduce the collective risk from firearms. The federal government has announced a new gun buyback, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, despite the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal governments.

These measures are only possible provided that the nation works together. As stated, regarding firearm laws, the country is dependent on its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the very nature of the Australian federation – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a journey across a border.

Countering Common Arguments

There is the predictable argument that "firearms are not the killers, people kill people". This is accurate in the identical way that planes don't transport people, 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 seen at Bondi would be extremely difficult without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the accused individuals had been denied access to the firearms they possessed.

Weighing Necessity and Safety

It is acknowledged there are valid needs for some Australians to own firearms. Farm work or culling pests in many places is extremely difficult without them. A complete removal of guns from the country is not feasible, as in certain contexts they are essential tools.

The achievable goal – what we must do – is to guarantee that gun laws are updated 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 no longer as safe as it once was. It is vital to learn from the tragedy of Bondi seriously, and make certain that future generations are equally safe as past generations have been.

As one commentator observed after the Bondi attack, "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 attack was, there is an aspiration that it can become the final tragedy the nation experiences.