🔗 Share this article The nation's Firearm Legislation: An International Example That Needs to Endure, Particularly After Bondi Following the tragedy of the horrific attack at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple pressing conversations. We are seeing a long-overdue national focus on anti-Jewish sentiment, an ongoing concern about national security, and inquiries about the way such an tragedy could occur. But, as viewed of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the most important discussion we are now having revolves around firearms. A Decade of Warnings and a Successful Solution Health experts have been issuing warnings about guns for a minimum of a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and implemented a series of measures to curb gun violence across the country. And it worked. Prior to 1996, the nation experienced roughly one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been vanishingly few major events, with none approaching the fatalities of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s. The Bondi Tragedy and the Role of Existing Regulations Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were not entirely useless. Reports indicate the individuals involved possessed with bolt-action rifles and a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons are limited to firing a one round at a time, necessitating a manual operation to ready the subsequent shot. While these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with lethal results, they remain significantly less rapid and less efficient than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles commonplace in international attacks. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if different firearms had been available. Preventing a future Bondi requires national cohesion. Regrettably, we have already seen fissures in the facade. A System Showing Weakness Yet, the terrible toll of the attack demonstrates that current firearm regulations are failing. Crafted in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, years have worn away their effectiveness. Alarmingly, there are now more firearms in Australia than before the Port Arthur shooting, with some citizens in cities owning arsenals of hundreds of weapons. We have been complacent and it has exacted a terrible price. The Path Ahead: Proposed Changes In the time after the Bondi attack, there have been multiple declarations regarding strengthened gun laws. The state of NSW specifically will shortly enact a suite of reforms to mitigate the public danger posed by firearms. The national government has announced a new gun buyback, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the complexities of aligning state and federal governments. These measures are feasible provided that the nation works together. As noted, regarding gun control, the country is dependent on its weakest link. This is the very nature of the Australian federation – regulations in one state are much less meaningful if they can be avoided with a journey across a border. Countering Common Arguments We hear the inevitable argument that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is true in the same sense that planes don't transport people, aviators do. Certainly, aircraft require operators, but it would be virtually impossible for a captain to transport 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The horrific violence witnessed 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 possessed. Weighing Necessity and Security There are legitimate needs for some Australians to possess firearms. Farm work or culling pests in many places is incredibly hard without them. A total ban of guns from the country is impractical, as in some cases they are indispensable. What we can do – what we must do – is to ensure that gun laws are updated to better match the society we live in today. Australia's legislation have long been the admiration of the world, but time and distance has done its work and the nation is no longer as safe as it previously was. It is critical to take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and ensure that coming Australians are equally safe as previous generations have been. As one friend remarked after the Bondi events, "things like this just don't happen here". They don't, but solely due to the fact that the country has collectively worked to maintain its security. However horrific as the attack was, there is hope that it can serve as the last one the nation ever sees.