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Following the tragedy of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple pressing reckonings. There is a long-overdue national spotlight on antisemitism, an persistent concern about national security, and questions about the way such an event could occur. However, from the perspective of a public health expert and Australian Jew, the most important discussion we are finally having revolves around firearms.

Ten Years of Warnings and a Successful Solution

Health specialists have been issuing warnings about firearms for at least a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians united and enacted a series of reforms to curb gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation witnessed roughly one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been extremely rare significant tragedies, with none approaching the death toll of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Attack and the Role of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the alleged attackers possessed with manually-operated long guns and a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons can only fire a one round at a time, requiring a physical action to ready the subsequent shot. Although these guns can be fired rapidly with lethal results, they remain far slower and less efficient than the high-capacity, semi-automatic rifles frequently used in international attacks. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if more advanced weapons had been available.

Preventing another Bondi requires national cohesion. And unfortunately, there are already cracks in the united front.

Legislation Showing Weakness

Yet, the terrible consequences of the attack reveals that existing firearm regulations are inadequate. Crafted in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have worn away their efficacy. Alarmingly, there are now a greater number of guns in Australia than before the Port Arthur massacre, with some citizens in cities owning collections of hundreds of weapons.

We have been overconfident and it has cost us terribly.

The Road Ahead: Announced Reforms

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been multiple announcements regarding strengthened firearm legislation. New South Wales in particular will soon enact a suite of reforms to reduce the public danger 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 governments.

These measures are only possible if the nation acts in unison. As stated, when it comes to gun control, the country is only as strong as its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the reality of the Australian federation – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a short drive across a state line.

Countering Common Objections

There is the inevitable argument that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is true in the identical way that aircraft do not fly passengers, pilots do. Certainly, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be quite challenging for a captain to transport 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be extremely difficult without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the weapons they possessed.

Weighing Need and Security

It is acknowledged there are legitimate reasons for some Australians to own guns. Farm work or culling pests in rural areas is incredibly hard without them. A total ban of firearms from the country is impractical, as in certain contexts they are indispensable.

The achievable goal – what we must do – is to ensure that gun laws are updated to accurately reflect the world 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 critical to take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and ensure that coming Australians are as protected as past 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 made concerted efforts to keep itself safe. However horrific as the incident was, there is an aspiration that it can serve as the last one the nation ever sees.