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In the aftermath of the horrific attack at Bondi, Australia is facing multiple pressing conversations. There is a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing concern about national security, and inquiries about the way such an event could occur. But, from the perspective of a public health expert and Australian Jew, the paramount dialogue we are now having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Proven Solution

Health experts have been sounding alarms about firearms for a minimum of a ten-year period. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians united and enacted a series of measures to curb gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation experienced roughly one mass shooting per year. Over the following years, 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 Existing Regulations

Amidst the Bondi tragedy, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the individuals involved 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 ready the next round. While these guns are capable of being discharged rapidly with devastating effect, they remain significantly less rapid and more cumbersome than the high-capacity, self-loading rifles commonplace in overseas attacks. The casualty count at Bondi would've been far higher if more advanced weapons had been available.

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

A System Under Strain

Yet, the terrible toll of the incident reveals that existing firearm regulations are failing. Crafted in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, years have worn away their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are now a greater number of guns in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur shooting, with some individuals in urban areas owning arsenals numbering in the hundreds.

We have been complacent and it has cost us terribly.

The Path Forward: Proposed Changes

In the time after the Bondi tragedy, there have been numerous declarations regarding new gun laws. The state of NSW specifically will shortly enact a suite of reforms to reduce the public danger from firearms. The national government has proposed a fresh gun buyback, and there is hope for a countrywide gun database, despite the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

These measures are only possible provided that the nation works together. As noted, when it comes to gun control, the country is dependent on its weakest link. This is the very nature of the Australian system – regulations in one state are much less meaningful if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a state line.

Addressing Frequent Arguments

There is the inevitable response that "firearms are not the killers, people kill people". 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 quite challenging for a captain to move 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The mass slaughter seen at Bondi would be extremely difficult without guns, and would have been far less damaging if the accused individuals had not had access to the weapons they used.

Weighing Necessity and Safety

It is acknowledged there are legitimate needs for some Australians to possess firearms. Managing livestock or culling pests in rural areas is extremely difficult without them. A total ban of firearms from the country is not feasible, as in some cases they are essential tools.

What we can do – what we must do – is to ensure that firearm legislation are modernized to accurately reflect the society we live in today. Australia's legislation have long been the admiration of the world, but the passage of years has taken a toll and the nation is less secure as it previously was. It is critical to take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and make certain that future generations are as protected as past generations have been.

As one commentator remarked after the Bondi attack, "such tragedies just don't happen here". This is true, but solely due to the fact that the country has collectively worked to keep itself safe. However horrific as the attack was, there is an aspiration that it can become the last one the nation experiences.