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In the aftermath of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is facing multiple pressing conversations. There is a much-needed national spotlight on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing worry about public safety, and questions about the way such an tragedy could occur. But, from the perspective of a public health expert and Jewish Australian, the paramount discussion we are finally having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Proven Response

Public health specialists have been sounding alarms about firearms for at least a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and enacted a series of measures to reduce 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 Tragedy and the Function of Existing Laws

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the alleged attackers might have been armed 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 ready the next round. While these guns can be fired quite quickly with lethal results, they remain significantly less rapid and less efficient than the large-magazine, semi-automatic rifles commonplace in overseas mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi could have been much greater if different weapons had been accessible.

Stopping a future Bondi demands national cohesion. Regrettably, we have already seen fissures in the facade.

A System Showing Weakness

However, the horrific consequences of the attack demonstrates that existing firearm regulations are inadequate. Crafted in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have eroded their efficacy. Concerningly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than before the Port Arthur shooting, with some individuals in cities owning arsenals of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Path Forward: Proposed Changes

In the time after the Bondi tragedy, there have been numerous announcements regarding strengthened gun laws. New South Wales specifically will soon introduce a suite of reforms to reduce the collective risk posed by firearms. The federal government has proposed a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is potential for a countrywide gun database, notwithstanding the complexities of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

These measures are feasible 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 very nature of the Australian federation – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be bypassed with a journey across a border.

Countering Frequent Objections

We hear the predictable response that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is true in the identical way that planes don't transport people, pilots do. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be virtually impossible for a pilot to move 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The horrific violence seen at Bondi would be all but impossible without guns, and would have been far less damaging if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the firearms they possessed.

Weighing Necessity and Safety

It is acknowledged there are legitimate reasons for some Australians to own firearms. Managing livestock or controlling vermin in rural areas is extremely difficult without them. A complete removal of guns from the country is impractical, as in certain contexts they are indispensable.

The achievable goal – the imperative action – is to guarantee that firearm legislation are modernized to better match the world we live in today. Australia's laws have long 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 critical to take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and ensure that future generations are equally safe as past generations have been.

A friend 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 keep itself safe. However horrific as the attack was, there is an aspiration that it can become the final tragedy the nation experiences.