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Following the tragedy of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting several pressing conversations. There is a much-needed national focus on antisemitism, an persistent concern about public safety, and questions about how such an event could occur. However, from the perspective of a public health expert and Australian Jew, the most important dialogue we are now having revolves around firearms.

A Decade of Warnings and a Successful Response

Public health experts have been issuing warnings about firearms for a minimum of a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians united and enacted a series of reforms to reduce gun violence across the country. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation witnessed roughly one large-scale firearm incident per year. In the decades since, there have been extremely rare major events, with none approaching 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 partially effective. It has been suggested the individuals involved might have been armed with manually-operated long guns and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These firearms can only fire a single bullet at a time, requiring a physical action to ready the subsequent shot. Although these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the high-capacity, semi-automatic rifles frequently used in international attacks. The number of deaths at Bondi could have been much greater if different firearms had been available.

Preventing another Bondi requires national cohesion. Regrettably, we have already seen fissures in the facade.

Legislation Under Strain

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

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

The Path Ahead: Announced Changes

Since the Bondi attack, there have been multiple declarations regarding new gun laws. New South Wales in particular will shortly introduce a package of measures to reduce the public danger posed by firearms. The national government has announced a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is potential for a countrywide gun database, notwithstanding the complexities of aligning state and federal jurisdictions.

These measures are feasible if the nation works together. As noted, regarding gun control, the country is only as strong as its weakest link. This is the very nature of the Australian system – regulations in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a journey across a border.

Countering Common Arguments

There is the inevitable response that "guns don't kill people, people kill people". This is true in the identical way that aircraft do not fly passengers, aviators do. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be quite challenging for a pilot to move 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The horrific violence witnessed at Bondi would be all but impossible without firearms, and would have been far less damaging if the alleged terrorists had been denied access to the weapons they used.

Weighing Need and Security

There are valid reasons for some Australians to own guns. Managing livestock or culling pests in rural areas is incredibly hard without them. A total ban of firearms from the country is impractical, as in some cases they are essential tools.

The achievable goal – the imperative action – is to guarantee that firearm legislation are updated to better match the society we live in today. Australia's legislation have historically been the envy of the world, but the passage of years has done its work and the nation is less secure 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 previous generations have been.

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