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Following the tragedy of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple critical reckonings. There is a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing concern about public safety, and questions about how such an tragedy could occur. But, as viewed of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the most important dialogue we are finally having revolves around firearms.

Ten Years of Cautions and a Successful Solution

Health specialists have been sounding alarms about firearms for at least a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians united and enacted a suite of measures to reduce gun violence nationwide. The strategy succeeded. Prior to 1996, the nation experienced approximately one mass shooting per year. Over the following years, there have been vanishingly few significant tragedies, with none reaching the death toll of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Function of Existing Regulations

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the individuals involved might have been armed with manually-operated long guns and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These weapons can only fire a single bullet at a time, requiring a manual operation to chamber the subsequent shot. Although these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, semi-automatic rifles commonplace in international attacks. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if different weapons had been available.

Stopping another Bondi demands unity across all states. Regrettably, there are already fissures in the facade.

Legislation Showing Weakness

However, the horrific toll of the incident reveals that current firearm regulations are inadequate. Crafted in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, years have worn away their effectiveness. Alarmingly, there are currently a greater number of guns in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre, with some citizens in urban areas reportedly holding arsenals of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Path Forward: Announced Changes

Since the Bondi attack, there have been multiple declarations regarding new gun laws. The state of NSW in particular will soon introduce a suite of reforms to mitigate the public danger from firearms. The federal government has proposed a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a countrywide gun database, notwithstanding the complexities of coordinating state and federal governments.

These measures are feasible if the nation works together. As stated, regarding gun control, the country is dependent on its weakest link. This is the reality of the Australian system – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be bypassed with a short drive across a state line.

Countering Common Arguments

There is the inevitable response that "firearms are not the killers, people kill people". This is accurate in the same sense that planes don't transport people, 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 extremely difficult without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the accused individuals had not had access to the firearms they used.

Balancing Necessity and Safety

There are valid reasons for some Australians to possess firearms. Managing livestock or controlling vermin in rural areas is incredibly hard without them. A complete removal of guns from the country is impractical, as in some cases they are indispensable.

What we can do – the imperative action – is to guarantee that firearm legislation are updated to better match the society we live in today. Australia's laws have long been the envy of the world, but the passage of years has done its work and the nation is less secure as it once was. It is vital to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and make certain that future generations are equally safe as past generations have been.

A friend observed after the Bondi attack, "such tragedies just don't happen here". They don't, but only because the country has collectively worked to maintain its security. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is an aspiration that it can become the final tragedy the nation experiences.