Australia's Gun Laws: An International Model That Needs to Endure, Particularly After Bondi

In the aftermath of the horrific attack at Bondi, Australia is facing several critical reckonings. There is a much-needed national focus on antisemitism, an persistent worry about public safety, and inquiries about the way such an event could happen. But, as viewed of a health professional and Jewish Australian, the paramount dialogue we are now having centers on firearms.

Ten Years of Cautions and a Successful Solution

Health experts have been issuing warnings about guns for at least a decade. Following the events of the Port Arthur tragedy, Australians came together and enacted a suite of reforms to reduce gun violence across the country. The strategy succeeded. Before 1996, the nation witnessed approximately one mass shooting per year. In the decades since, there have been vanishingly few major events, with none reaching the fatalities of the incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Bondi Tragedy and the Role of Current Regulations

Even during the Bondi events, the nation's gun laws were not entirely useless. It has been suggested the individuals involved might have been armed with manually-operated long guns and a straight-pull shotgun. These weapons are limited to firing a single bullet at a time, requiring a physical action to chamber the next round. While 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 overseas attacks. The casualty count at Bondi could have been much greater if different weapons 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 terrible toll of the incident reveals that existing firearm regulations are failing. Crafted in the late 1990s with the noblest aims, decades have worn away their effectiveness. Concerningly, there are now a greater number of guns in Australia than before the Port Arthur shooting, with some citizens in urban areas owning collections of hundreds of weapons.

We have been complacent and it has cost us terribly.

The Road Forward: Proposed Reforms

Since the Bondi attack, there have been multiple declarations regarding strengthened gun laws. New South Wales specifically will shortly enact a suite of measures to mitigate the public danger posed by firearms. The federal government has announced a new firearm surrender scheme, and there is potential for a national firearms registry, despite the complexities of aligning state and federal governments.

These measures are feasible if the nation works together. As noted, regarding firearm laws, the country is only as strong as its least stringent jurisdiction. This is the very nature of the Australian system – regulations in one state are easily circumvented if they can be avoided with a short drive across a border.

Countering Common Objections

There is the predictable response 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, planes can't fly themselves, but it would be quite challenging for a pilot to transport 500 people overseas without the aircraft. The mass slaughter witnessed at Bondi would be all but impossible without guns, and would have been significantly less lethal if the accused individuals had not had access to the firearms they possessed.

Weighing Necessity and Security

There are valid needs for some Australians to own firearms. Farm work or culling pests in many places is extremely difficult without them. A total ban of firearms from the country is not feasible, as in some cases they are essential tools.

The achievable goal – the imperative action – is to guarantee that firearm legislation are updated to better match the society we live in today. Australia's laws have historically 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 take the lessons of Bondi to heart, and make certain that future generations are equally safe as previous generations have been.

As one commentator observed after the Bondi attack, "such tragedies just don't happen here". This is true, but only because the country has collectively worked to maintain its security. However horrific as the incident was, there is hope that it can become the final tragedy the nation ever sees.