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In the aftermath of the awful incident at Bondi, Australia is confronting multiple critical conversations. We are seeing a long-overdue national focus on antisemitism, an persistent concern about public safety, and inquiries about how 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.

Ten Years of Cautions and a Successful Response

Health specialists have been issuing warnings about guns for a minimum of a ten-year period. In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians united and implemented a suite of reforms to reduce gun violence across the country. The strategy succeeded. Before 1996, the nation experienced approximately one large-scale firearm incident per year. In the decades since, there have been vanishingly few significant tragedies, with none reaching the death toll of the shootings in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Role of Current Laws

Amidst the Bondi events, the nation's firearm regulations were partially effective. 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, requiring a manual operation to ready the subsequent shot. Although these guns can be fired quite quickly with devastating effect, they remain significantly less rapid and more cumbersome than the large-magazine, self-loading rifles commonplace in overseas attacks. The number of deaths at Bondi could have been much greater if different weapons had been accessible.

Preventing another Bondi requires national cohesion. And unfortunately, we have already seen cracks in the united front.

Legislation Under Strain

However, the horrific consequences of the attack reveals that existing firearm regulations are failing. Designed in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have eroded their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are now more firearms in Australia than prior to the Port Arthur shooting, with some citizens in urban areas owning arsenals of hundreds of weapons.

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

The Road Forward: Announced Reforms

Since the Bondi tragedy, there have been multiple announcements regarding new firearm legislation. The state of NSW in particular will soon enact a package of measures to reduce the collective risk posed by firearms. The federal government has proposed a fresh firearm surrender scheme, and there is hope for a national firearms registry, notwithstanding the complexities of aligning state and federal jurisdictions.

All of this are feasible if the nation works together. As noted, regarding firearm laws, the country is dependent on its weakest link. This is the very nature of the Australian federation – laws in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a journey across a border.

Addressing Frequent Objections

There is the predictable response that "guns don't kill people, 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 quite challenging for a pilot to transport 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The horrific violence witnessed at Bondi would be extremely difficult without guns, and would have been far less damaging if the accused individuals had not had access to the weapons they used.

Balancing Necessity and Security

It is acknowledged there are valid needs for some Australians to possess guns. Farm work or controlling vermin in many places is incredibly hard without them. A complete removal of firearms from the country is not feasible, as in some cases they are indispensable.

The achievable goal – what we must do – is to ensure that firearm legislation are updated 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 previously 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 friend observed after the Bondi events, "such tragedies 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 an aspiration that it can become the last one the nation experiences.