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In the aftermath of the awful attack at Bondi, Australia is facing several pressing reckonings. We are seeing a long-overdue national focus on antisemitism, an ongoing concern about public safety, and inquiries about the way such an tragedy could happen. But, as viewed of a public health expert and Australian Jew, the paramount discussion we are finally having revolves around firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Proven Solution

Health specialists have been issuing warnings about guns for a minimum of a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and enacted a suite of reforms to curb gun violence across the country. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation experienced roughly one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been vanishingly few significant tragedies, with none reaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Attack and the Function of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi tragedy, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the individuals involved might have been armed with bolt-action rifles and a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons can only fire a single bullet at a time, necessitating a manual operation to ready the next round. While these guns can be fired rapidly with lethal results, they remain significantly less rapid and less efficient than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles frequently used in international mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi could have been much greater if different firearms had been accessible.

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

Legislation Showing Weakness

Yet, the terrible toll of the incident reveals that existing gun laws are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have worn away their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in cities owning arsenals of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Road Ahead: Announced Reforms

Since the Bondi attack, there have been numerous announcements regarding strengthened firearm legislation. New South Wales specifically will soon introduce a package of measures to reduce the public danger posed by firearms. The federal government has proposed a new gun buyback, and there is potential for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are feasible if the nation acts in unison. As noted, regarding gun control, the country is dependent on its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the very nature of the Australian federation – laws in one state are much less meaningful if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a state line.

Addressing Common Arguments

There is the predictable response that "guns don't kill people, individuals are". This is accurate in the same sense that aircraft do not fly passengers, aviators do. Certainly, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be virtually impossible for a pilot to move 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The mass slaughter seen at Bondi would be all but impossible without firearms, and would have been far less damaging if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the weapons they possessed.

Balancing Need and Security

There are legitimate needs for some Australians to possess guns. Farm work or culling pests in rural areas is extremely difficult without them. A total ban of guns from the country is impractical, as in some cases they are indispensable.

What we can do – the imperative action – is to guarantee that gun laws are updated to better match the world we live in today. Australia's legislation have long been the envy of the world, but the passage of years has taken a toll and the nation is less secure as it previously was. It is vital to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and ensure that coming Australians are as protected as previous generations have been.

As one commentator remarked after the Bondi events, "things like this just don't happen here". They don't, but solely due to the fact that the country has collectively worked to keep itself safe. As nightmarish as the attack was, there is hope that it can become the last one the nation experiences.