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In the aftermath of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting several pressing conversations. There is a much-needed national spotlight on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing concern about public safety, and questions about how such an tragedy could happen. However, from the perspective of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the most important dialogue we are finally having centers on firearms.

A Decade of Cautions and a Successful Solution

Health specialists have been sounding alarms about firearms for a minimum of a ten-year period. Following the events of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians united and enacted a series of reforms to reduce gun violence nationwide. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation witnessed approximately one mass shooting per year. Over the following years, there have been extremely rare significant tragedies, with none reaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Function of Current Regulations

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. Reports indicate the individuals involved might have been armed with bolt-action rifles and at least one straight-pull shotgun. These firearms can only fire a single bullet at a time, requiring a manual operation to chamber the next round. Although these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain far slower and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles commonplace in international attacks. The number of deaths at Bondi could have been much greater if more advanced firearms had been available.

Stopping a future Bondi demands unity across all states. And unfortunately, we have already seen fissures in the united front.

A System Showing Weakness

However, the horrific consequences of the attack reveals that existing firearm regulations are inadequate. Designed in the late 1990s with the best of intentions, decades have worn away their efficacy. Concerningly, there are currently more firearms in Australia than before the Port Arthur shooting, with some individuals in cities owning collections of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Road Forward: Proposed Reforms

Since the Bondi attack, there have been multiple announcements regarding new gun laws. The state of NSW in particular will soon introduce a suite of measures to reduce the public danger from firearms. The federal government has proposed a fresh gun buyback, and there is potential for a countrywide gun database, despite the complexities of aligning state and federal jurisdictions.

These measures are feasible if the nation acts in unison. As stated, when it comes to firearm laws, the country is only as strong as its weakest link. This is the very nature of the Australian system – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a short drive across a state line.

Addressing Frequent Objections

There is the predictable argument that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is true in the identical way that planes don't transport people, aviators do. Yes, aircraft require operators, but it would be virtually impossible for a pilot to move 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The horrific violence seen at Bondi would be all but impossible without firearms, and would have been far less damaging if the accused individuals had not had access to the weapons they used.

Weighing Need and Safety

There are legitimate reasons for some Australians to possess firearms. Managing livestock or culling pests in many places is extremely difficult without them. A complete removal of firearms from the country is not feasible, as in some cases they are indispensable.

The achievable goal – the imperative action – is to ensure that gun laws are modernized to accurately reflect the world we live in today. Australia's laws have long been the admiration of the world, but time and distance has taken a toll and the nation is less secure as it once was. It is vital to learn from the tragedy of Bondi seriously, and make certain that coming Australians are as protected as previous generations have been.

As one commentator observed after the Bondi attack, "things like this just don't happen here". This is true, but only because the country has made concerted efforts to maintain its security. As nightmarish as the attack was, there is an aspiration that it can serve as the last one the nation ever sees.