"Public health experts have been warning about guns for at least a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians came together and implemented a suite of measures to curb gun violence across the country. And it worked. Prior to 1996, we saw about one mass shooting a year. In the decades since, we have seen vanishingly few major events, and none with a death toll anywhere close to the shootings of the 80s and 90s."
"But the terrible toll of the attack shows us that our gun laws are failing. They were built in the late 90s with the best of intentions, but the decades have worn away their efficacy. There are now more guns in Australia than there were before the Port Arthur shooting, with some individuals living in our cities holding collections into the hundreds of firearms. We have been complacent and it has cost us terribly."
The Bondi shooting has prompted national reckonings over antisemitism, national security, and gun policy. Public health experts have warned about guns for at least a decade. After the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Australia implemented comprehensive measures that sharply reduced mass shootings. The Bondi attackers reportedly used bolt-action rifles and at least one straight-pull shotgun, firearms that fire single rounds and require manual reloading, which limited lethality compared with high-capacity semi-automatic rifles. Despite past successes, gun laws have eroded: there are now more guns, including large urban collections, and policy complacency has reduced efficacy and produced preventable harm.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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