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In the aftermath of the awful attack at Bondi, Australia is facing several pressing reckonings. There is a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an persistent concern about public safety, and questions about how such an tragedy could happen. However, from the perspective of a health professional and Australian Jew, the paramount discussion we are finally having revolves around firearms.

Ten Years of Warnings and a Successful Solution

Public health specialists have been sounding alarms about guns for at least a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and enacted a suite of measures to reduce gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation experienced roughly one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been extremely rare significant tragedies, with none approaching the death toll of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Function of Current Regulations

Even during the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the alleged attackers might have been armed with bolt-action rifles and a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons are limited to firing a single bullet at a time, necessitating a physical action to ready the subsequent shot. Although these guns are capable of being discharged rapidly with devastating effect, they remain far slower and less efficient than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles commonplace in overseas mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi could have been much greater if more advanced firearms had been available.

Stopping another Bondi demands national cohesion. And unfortunately, we have already seen fissures in the united front.

A System Under Strain

However, the horrific toll of the attack reveals that current firearm regulations are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, years have eroded their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur massacre, with some citizens in cities owning arsenals numbering in the hundreds.

We have been complacent and it has cost us terribly.

The Road Ahead: Announced Changes

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been numerous announcements regarding new firearm legislation. New South Wales specifically will soon introduce a suite of reforms to mitigate the collective risk posed by firearms. The national government has announced a fresh gun buyback, and there is potential for a national firearms registry, despite the complexities of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

These measures are only possible provided that the nation acts in unison. As noted, regarding firearm laws, the country is dependent on its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the reality of the Australian system – regulations in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a short drive across a state line.

Countering Common Arguments

There is the predictable response that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is true in the identical way that aircraft do not fly passengers, pilots do. Yes, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be quite challenging for a captain to transport 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be all but impossible without guns, and would have been far less damaging if the accused individuals had not had access to the firearms they possessed.

Balancing Need and Security

There are valid reasons for some Australians to possess firearms. Farm work or culling pests in many places 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 ensure that firearm legislation are updated to accurately reflect the society we live in today. Australia's legislation have long been the admiration of the world, but time and distance has done its work and the nation is less secure as it once was. It is critical to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and make certain that future generations are as protected as past generations have been.

A friend remarked after the Bondi events, "things like this just don't happen here". This is true, but only because the country has collectively worked to keep itself safe. However horrific as the incident was, there is hope that it can serve as the final tragedy the nation ever sees.