The nation's Gun Laws: An International Example That Must Endure, Particularly After Bondi

In the aftermath of the horrific attack at Bondi, Australia is facing several pressing conversations. There is a long-overdue national spotlight on antisemitism, an persistent worry about national security, and inquiries about the way such an tragedy could occur. However, as viewed of a public health expert and Jewish Australian, the paramount dialogue we are finally having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Successful Response

Public health specialists have been sounding alarms about guns for a minimum of a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians came together and implemented a suite of reforms to curb gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation experienced roughly one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been extremely rare major events, with none reaching the fatalities of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Attack and the Role of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi tragedy, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the alleged attackers 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 manual operation to ready the next round. Although these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with lethal results, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, semi-automatic rifles frequently used in overseas mass shootings. The casualty count at Bondi would've been far higher if different firearms had been available.

Stopping a future Bondi demands unity across all states. Regrettably, we have already seen cracks in the facade.

Legislation Under Strain

Yet, the horrific toll of the incident reveals that existing gun laws 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 shooting, with some individuals in cities reportedly holding collections of hundreds of weapons.

We have been overconfident and it has cost us terribly.

The Path Forward: Proposed Changes

In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been numerous announcements regarding strengthened firearm legislation. The state of NSW in particular will soon enact a package of measures to mitigate the public danger posed by firearms. The national government has proposed a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the inherent challenges of coordinating state and federal governments.

These measures are only possible if the nation acts in unison. As noted, regarding firearm laws, 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 bypassed with a journey across a border.

Addressing Frequent Objections

We hear the inevitable argument that "guns don't kill people, people kill people". This is accurate in the same sense that planes don't transport people, pilots do. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be quite challenging for a pilot to transport 500 people overseas without the plane. The mass slaughter seen at Bondi would be extremely difficult without firearms, and would have been far less damaging if the accused individuals had been denied access to the weapons they used.

Weighing Need and Security

There are valid needs for some Australians to own firearms. Farm work or controlling vermin in many places is incredibly hard without them. A complete removal of firearms from the country is impractical, as in some cases they are essential tools.

What we can do – what we must do – is to guarantee that gun laws are modernized to better match the world we live in today. Australia's legislation have historically been the envy of the world, but the passage of years has taken a toll and the nation is no longer as safe as it once was. It is critical to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and ensure that coming Australians are equally safe as previous generations have been.

A commentator observed after the Bondi attack, "things like this 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 attack was, there is an aspiration that it can become the last one the nation experiences.