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In the aftermath of the horrific attack at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple critical reckonings. There is a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an persistent concern about public safety, and questions about how such an event could occur. However, from the perspective of a public health expert and Jewish Australian, the paramount dialogue we are finally having revolves around firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Successful Response

Health specialists have been sounding alarms about firearms for a minimum of a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians united and enacted a suite of reforms to curb gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation experienced roughly one mass shooting per year. Over the following years, there have been vanishingly few significant tragedies, with none approaching the fatalities of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Attack and the Role of Existing Regulations

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the alleged attackers possessed with bolt-action rifles and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These weapons can only fire a single bullet at a time, necessitating a physical action to ready the next round. While 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 mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi would've been far higher if different weapons had been available.

Preventing another Bondi demands national cohesion. And unfortunately, we have already seen fissures in the facade.

Legislation Showing Weakness

However, the terrible consequences of the attack demonstrates that existing gun laws are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have worn away their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are now more firearms in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur massacre, with some individuals in cities owning collections numbering in the hundreds.

We have been complacent and it has cost us terribly.

The Road Forward: Announced Changes

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been numerous declarations regarding strengthened gun laws. New South Wales specifically will shortly introduce a package of reforms to mitigate the collective risk posed by firearms. The national government has announced a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a countrywide gun database, despite the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal jurisdictions.

These measures are feasible provided that the nation works together. As stated, regarding gun control, the country is only as strong as its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the reality of the Australian federation – regulations in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a journey across a state line.

Addressing Frequent Objections

There is the predictable 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. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be quite challenging for a pilot to move 500 people internationally without the aircraft. The mass slaughter seen at Bondi would be all but impossible without firearms, and would have been significantly less lethal if the alleged terrorists had not had access to the firearms they used.

Balancing Need and Safety

It is acknowledged there are valid reasons for some Australians to own firearms. Managing livestock or culling pests in many places is incredibly hard without them. A complete removal of guns from the country is not feasible, as in certain contexts they are essential tools.

The achievable goal – what we must do – is to guarantee that firearm legislation are updated to better match the society we live in today. Australia's laws have historically been the admiration of the world, but the passage of years has taken a toll and the nation is less secure as it once was. It is critical to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and ensure that coming Australians are as protected as past generations have been.

A friend remarked after the Bondi events, "things like this just don't happen here". This is true, but only because 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 final tragedy the nation experiences.