The attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, has made a lot of people nervous, both here and abroad. It's a terrible incident by anyone's metric, and it only ended due to the heroism of a man who charged one of the gunmen and disarmed him.
The fact that he had to do that when the police were on the scene is...problematic, to say the least.
Still, that's what stopped it, and it should have been stopped sooner, and not just by the police. An armed citizen on the scene might have been able to do something about it far sooner.
But as the Prime Minister and other officials consider gun control in the wake of this tragedy, it's important to understand something. The problem isn't guns. It never was the guns. It will never be the guns.
In the past 12 months, 10 other antisemitic incidents were reported in Australia.
On December 6th 2024, a suspected arson attack took place on a synagogue.
On December 11th 2024, a Jewish neighbourhood was attacked, a car was set on fire and multiple homes and buildings were vandalised with antisemitic and anti‑Israel graffiti.
On January 7th 2025, threatening gestures were made towards worshippers near a synagogue in Sydney.
On January 10th 2025, a different synagogue in Sydney was vandalised with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti.
On January 11th 2025, another synagogue in Sydney was vandalised with red swastikas and other Nazi‑linked graffiti.
On January 17th 2025, two cars were set on fire, and four vehicles in total were damaged. A house was also vandalised in an antisemitic attack.
On January 21st 2025, a childcare centre in Sydney was set on fire and vandalised with antisemitic graffiti.
On January 29th 2025, NSW police confirmed that a caravan found in Sydney, containing a significant number of explosives and antisemitic‑linked material was under investigation as a potential terror threat.
On February 12th 2025, threats were made to Jewish patients at a Sydney hospital.
On July 4th 2025, 20 worshippers at a Shabbat dinner congregation in Melbourne had to evacuate when the front door was set alight.
"But those weren't fatal," someone would probably try to argue, and not without at least some firm ground to stand on.
However, the fact that this many violent antisemitic incidents have happened should be concerning. Especially with so many of them located in Sydney, where this attack took place.
The problem here isn't guns. There were plenty of incidents before that could have resulted in fatalities. They weren't primarily because the bigots in question simply didn't want to kill anyone except for the camper found with explosives. That tool just got found out too early.
All of these other incidents were people who wanted to terrorize Jewish people, but not necessarily cross the line into murder. These two jackwagons this past weekend had no issue crossing it.
The problem, as is so often the case, isn't guns, but people. In this case, it's an attitude that's directed toward Jewish people in general.
Even if you don't like how Israel responded to the October 7th attacks, the idea that it's open season on Jews across the world is incredibly troubling all on its own. What we saw happen at Bondi Beach is essentially the same bigotry we saw in the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018. This time, though, the bigots were apparently Islamic fundamentalists with ties to ISIS.
Then again, a lot of people in the Middle East--not all by any stretch, but many--didn't see the Nazis as bad guys, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised to see the same racism in similar enough places.
Either way, though, the issue isn't guns. Australia's requirements to get firearms are pretty extensive already. They just didn't do any good because evil doesn't care about playing well with others.
The sooner people come to understand that, the better.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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