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Following the tragedy of the horrific attack at Bondi, Australia is facing several critical reckonings. There is a long-overdue national spotlight on anti-Jewish sentiment, an persistent concern about national security, and inquiries about the way such an tragedy could happen. But, as viewed of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the most important discussion we are now having revolves around firearms.

Ten Years of Warnings and a Successful Response

Health experts have been issuing warnings about firearms for a minimum of a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians came together and enacted a series of reforms to curb gun violence across the country. And it worked. Before 1996, the nation experienced approximately one large-scale firearm incident 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.

This Recent Attack and the Role of Existing Laws

Even during the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the individuals involved possessed with bolt-action rifles and a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons can only fire a single bullet at a time, requiring a manual operation to ready the subsequent shot. Although these guns are capable of being discharged quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain far slower and less efficient than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles frequently used in international mass shootings. The number of deaths at Bondi would've been far higher if more advanced firearms had been available.

Stopping another Bondi demands unity across all states. And unfortunately, there are already cracks in the united front.

A System Under Strain

However, the horrific consequences of the incident demonstrates that existing gun laws are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, years have eroded their effectiveness. Alarmingly, there are currently a greater number of guns in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur massacre, with some citizens in urban areas reportedly holding arsenals numbering in the hundreds.

We have been overconfident and it has cost us terribly.

The Road Ahead: Proposed Changes

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been numerous announcements regarding strengthened firearm legislation. The state of NSW in particular will soon enact a package of reforms to mitigate the public danger from firearms. The federal government has announced a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is potential for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the complexities of aligning state and federal governments.

All of this are only possible provided that the nation acts in unison. As stated, regarding firearm laws, the country is dependent on 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 journey across a state line.

Countering Common Arguments

There is the inevitable argument that "firearms are not the killers, individuals are". This is accurate in the same sense that aircraft do not fly passengers, aviators do. Certainly, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be virtually impossible for a pilot to move 500 people overseas without the plane. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be extremely difficult without firearms, and would have been significantly less lethal if the accused individuals had not had access to the firearms they possessed.

Balancing Necessity and Safety

It is acknowledged there are legitimate needs for some Australians to own firearms. Managing livestock or controlling vermin in rural areas is extremely difficult without them. A complete removal of guns 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 society 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 no longer as safe as it once was. It is vital to learn from the tragedy of Bondi to heart, and make certain that coming Australians are as protected as previous generations have been.

A commentator remarked after the Bondi attack, "things like this just don't happen here". They don't, but only because the country has collectively worked to keep itself safe. As nightmarish as the incident was, there is hope that it can serve as the final tragedy the nation experiences.