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In the aftermath of the awful attack at Bondi, Australia is confronting several pressing conversations. There is a long-overdue national spotlight on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing concern about public safety, and inquiries about the way such an event could happen. But, from the perspective of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the most important dialogue we are now having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Proven Response

Health experts have been sounding alarms about firearms for a minimum of a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians came together and implemented a series of measures to reduce gun violence across the country. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation witnessed roughly one mass shooting per year. Over the following years, there have been vanishingly few significant tragedies, with none approaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Recent Tragedy and the Role of Current Regulations

Even during the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were partially effective. It has been suggested the alleged attackers possessed with manually-operated long guns and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These weapons are limited to firing a single bullet at a time, requiring a manual operation to chamber the subsequent shot. While these guns can be fired quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain significantly less rapid and less efficient than the large-magazine, semi-automatic rifles frequently used in international mass shootings. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if more advanced firearms had been accessible.

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

A System Showing Weakness

However, the horrific toll of the incident demonstrates that existing firearm regulations are inadequate. Crafted in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have eroded their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre, with some citizens in urban areas owning collections of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Path Ahead: Announced Reforms

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been numerous declarations regarding strengthened firearm legislation. New South Wales specifically will soon introduce a suite of measures to reduce the collective risk from firearms. The federal government has proposed a fresh gun buyback, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the complexities of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are only possible if the nation acts in unison. As stated, regarding gun control, the country is only as strong as its weakest link. This is the reality of the Australian system – regulations in one state are much less meaningful if they can be avoided with a short drive across a border.

Addressing Frequent Objections

There is the predictable argument that "firearms are not the killers, people kill people". This is accurate in the same sense that planes don't transport people, pilots do. Yes, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be quite challenging for a captain to move 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The horrific violence seen at Bondi would be all but impossible without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the accused individuals had been denied access to the weapons they possessed.

Weighing Necessity and Security

There are legitimate needs for some Australians to possess firearms. Managing livestock or controlling vermin in many places is extremely difficult without them. A total ban of guns from the country is not feasible, as in some cases they are indispensable.

What we can do – what we must do – is to guarantee that gun laws are modernized to better match the society we live in today. Australia's laws have historically been the envy of the world, but the passage of years has done its work and the nation is no longer as safe as it previously was. It is vital to take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and make certain that coming Australians are equally safe as past generations have been.

As one friend remarked after the Bondi attack, "such tragedies just don't happen here". They don't, but solely due to the fact that the country has collectively worked to maintain its security. However horrific as the incident was, there is an aspiration that it can serve as the last one the nation ever sees.