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In the aftermath of the horrific incident at Bondi, Australia is facing several critical conversations. We are seeing a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an persistent concern about national security, and inquiries about the way such an event could occur. However, from the perspective of a public health expert and Jewish Australian, the most important dialogue we are finally having centers on firearms.

Ten Years of Warnings and a Successful Response

Health specialists have been issuing warnings about guns for a minimum of a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians united and enacted a suite 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 major events, with none approaching the death toll of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Attack and the Role of Current Regulations

Even during the Bondi tragedy, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. Reports indicate the individuals involved might have been armed with manually-operated long guns and a straight-pull shotgun. These firearms can only fire a single bullet at a time, necessitating a physical action to chamber the subsequent shot. Although these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain significantly less rapid and more cumbersome than the high-capacity, self-loading rifles frequently used in overseas attacks. The number of deaths at Bondi would've been far higher if different weapons had been accessible.

Stopping another Bondi requires unity across all states. And unfortunately, we have already seen cracks in the united front.

Legislation Showing Weakness

However, the terrible consequences of the attack reveals that existing gun laws are inadequate. Crafted in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have worn away their efficacy. Concerningly, there are now more firearms in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur massacre, with some citizens in cities reportedly holding collections of hundreds of weapons.

The nation has grown complacent and it has cost us terribly.

The Path Forward: Proposed Reforms

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been numerous announcements regarding new gun laws. New South Wales specifically will soon enact a package of reforms to mitigate the public danger posed by firearms. The federal government has announced a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is potential for a national firearms registry, despite the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal governments.

These measures are only possible provided that the nation works together. As noted, regarding firearm laws, 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.

Countering Frequent Arguments

There is the inevitable argument that "firearms are not the killers, people kill people". This is accurate in the identical way that aircraft do not fly passengers, pilots do. Yes, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be virtually impossible for a pilot to transport 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be all but impossible without firearms, and would have been far less damaging if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the weapons they used.

Balancing Necessity and Safety

It is acknowledged there are valid reasons for some Australians to own guns. Managing livestock or controlling vermin in rural areas is incredibly hard 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 – the imperative action – is to ensure that gun laws are modernized to accurately reflect the world we live in today. Australia's laws have long been the admiration of the world, but time and distance has done its work and the nation is no longer as safe as it previously was. It is vital to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and make certain that coming Australians are as protected as past generations have been.

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