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In the aftermath of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple critical reckonings. There is a long-overdue national spotlight on antisemitism, an persistent concern about national security, and inquiries about how such an event could occur. But, from the perspective of a health professional and Australian Jew, the most important discussion we are finally having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Proven Solution

Public health experts have been sounding alarms about guns for a minimum of a ten-year period. Following the events of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians came together and enacted a series of reforms to reduce gun violence across the country. The strategy succeeded. Prior to 1996, the nation witnessed approximately one large-scale firearm incident per year. In the decades since, there have been vanishingly few major events, with none approaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Tragedy and the Function of Current Laws

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were partially effective. It has been suggested the alleged attackers possessed with manually-operated long guns and a straight-pull shotgun. These firearms are limited to firing a single bullet at a time, requiring a manual operation to chamber the next round. Although these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with lethal results, they remain significantly less rapid and less efficient than the large-magazine, semi-automatic rifles commonplace in international mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi could have been much greater if more advanced weapons had been available.

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

Legislation Showing Weakness

Yet, the horrific consequences of the incident reveals that existing gun laws are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have worn away their effectiveness. Alarmingly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in cities reportedly holding arsenals numbering in the hundreds.

We have been complacent and it has cost us terribly.

The Road Forward: Announced Changes

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been numerous announcements regarding new gun laws. New South Wales in particular will soon introduce a package of reforms to mitigate the public danger from firearms. The national government has announced a fresh gun buyback, and there is potential for a national firearms registry, despite the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are only possible provided that the nation works together. As noted, regarding gun control, the country is dependent on its weakest link. This is the very nature of the Australian system – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a border.

Addressing Frequent Objections

There is the predictable argument that "guns don't kill people, individuals are". This is accurate in the identical way that aircraft do not fly passengers, aviators do. Certainly, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be quite challenging for a pilot to transport 500 people overseas without the plane. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be all but impossible without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the accused individuals had not had access to the weapons they possessed.

Weighing Necessity and Safety

It is acknowledged there are valid needs for some Australians to possess firearms. Farm work or culling pests in many places is incredibly hard 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 accurately reflect the society we live in today. Australia's laws have long been the envy of the world, but time and distance has taken a toll and the nation is less secure as it once was. It is vital to take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and make certain that future generations are as protected as previous generations have been.

As one commentator observed after the Bondi events, "such tragedies 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 incident was, there is an aspiration that it can become the final tragedy the nation ever sees.