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Following the tragedy of the horrific attack at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple pressing reckonings. There is a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing concern about national security, and inquiries about how such an event could occur. But, from the perspective of a public health expert and Australian Jew, the most important discussion we are now having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Warnings and a Successful Response

Public health experts have been sounding alarms about guns for at least a ten-year period. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and enacted a suite of measures to curb gun violence nationwide. The strategy succeeded. Prior to 1996, the nation witnessed roughly one large-scale firearm incident per year. In the decades since, there have been vanishingly few significant tragedies, with none reaching the death toll of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Role of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi tragedy, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. Reports indicate the alleged attackers might have been armed with bolt-action rifles and a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons can only fire a single bullet at a time, requiring a manual operation to chamber the subsequent shot. Although these guns are capable of being discharged rapidly with lethal results, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, semi-automatic rifles commonplace in international attacks. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if more advanced firearms had been accessible.

Stopping another Bondi requires unity across all states. Regrettably, there are already cracks in the facade.

A System Under Strain

However, the horrific consequences of the attack demonstrates that existing firearm regulations are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, years have eroded their efficacy. Concerningly, there are now a greater number of guns in Australia than before the Port Arthur shooting, with some individuals in urban areas owning arsenals of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Path Ahead: Proposed Changes

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been numerous announcements regarding new firearm legislation. New South Wales in particular will soon introduce a package of reforms to reduce the collective risk posed by firearms. The national government has proposed a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a countrywide gun database, notwithstanding the inherent challenges of aligning state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are only possible if the nation acts in unison. As noted, regarding firearm laws, the country is only as strong as its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the reality of the Australian system – laws in one state are much less meaningful if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a border.

Addressing Frequent Objections

There is the inevitable argument that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is accurate in the same sense 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 overseas without the aircraft. The horrific violence witnessed at Bondi would be all but impossible without firearms, and would have been significantly less lethal if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the firearms they possessed.

Weighing Need and Safety

There are valid needs for some Australians to possess guns. Managing livestock or controlling vermin in many places is extremely difficult without them. A complete removal of firearms from the country is not feasible, as in certain contexts they are indispensable.

What we can do – what we must do – is to guarantee that gun laws are updated to better match the society we live in today. Australia's laws 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 take the lessons of Bondi seriously, and ensure that future generations are as protected as past generations have been.

A friend remarked after the Bondi attack, "such tragedies just don't happen here". They don't, but only because the country has made concerted efforts to keep itself safe. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is an aspiration that it can serve as the last one the nation experiences.