Don’t punish shooters in our name By Australian Jewish Association President Robert Gregory NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane's decision to rethink the NSW gun buyback is welcome, but it also raises an uncomfortable question. Why did NSW rush these laws through in the first place? They were sold as part of the response to the antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi. As the president of a Jewish organisation, I don't want lawful firearms owners punished in our name. The national gun buyback was a knee-jerk response to the Bondi Beach attack led by the Albanese Government. Yet, nine months later, NSW and the ACT are the only jurisdictions to have reached agreements with the Commonwealth to implement it. Last month, Federal Member for Parkes Jamie Chaffey described months of confusion since the 19 December 2025 announcement and firearms businesses facing millions in losses. He called the NSW plan a “program clearly devised by people who don't understand or simply don't care.” It has become too convenient to focus on guns rather than addressing the root causes of what Jewish Australians have endured for three years. The same politicians happy to tar Australia’s almost one million lawful firearms owners still cannot say the words “radical Islam”. Australia already has some of the world’s strictest firearms laws. Making new ones is much easier than having difficult conversations about immigration, radicalisation and some of the failures of multiculturalism. The laws wouldn't have passed without the NSW Liberals' support. To her credit, Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane has now acknowledged the unintended consequences and promised to freeze the buyback if elected. But many warned at the time that the legislation was rushed. The Bill was introduced just eight days after the Bondi attack. The Nationals and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers opposed it from the outset. But One Nation may gain the most. Firearms owners are concentrated in regional and marginal seats where One Nation is already seeking to make gains. Premier Minns has admitted in Parliament that the scheme won't take illegal firearms off the streets. Here's a newsflash for Labor in Canberra and Macquarie Street: the number of guns Bill keeps on his farm in Wagga has zero impact on the safety of the Jewish community. If anything, the laws may be doing the opposite of what was intended. The Daily Telegraph revealed that applications for new gun licences spiked 25 per cent in the six months since the laws were announced. There is another cost. The Jewish community has been wrongly tied to these laws, and that is fuelling more antisemitism. That is a bitter irony. Firearms owners have been among the most supportive of my community. After Bondi I took many heartfelt calls from them. Many now feel an aspect of their own culture is under attack. The gun debate has also exposed an anomaly in NSW law. NSW permits armed guards to protect property, including cash-in-transit and valuable goods such as jewellery. Yet guards protecting people at a public community event from a potential terrorist attack are prohibited from carrying a firearm. Questioned by Robert Borsak MLC last month, Premier Minns reiterated his support for reconsidering the arming of CSG, which protects Jewish community events. No final decision has been made but logically this should apply to all high-risk public events. An extraordinary aspect of the Bondi attack was the heroism of ordinary civilians who confronted the terrorists. One even got close enough to temporarily disarm an attacker. One hero, Gefen Bitton, described how his Israeli military training kicked in as he charged towards the gunfire. He was unarmed and was shot, becoming one of the most seriously injured survivors. It's difficult not to contemplate how differently things might have ended had armed security been present or a suitably trained and licensed person at the event been carrying a firearm. Israel, with its long history of suffering terrorist attacks, has taken a different approach. Civilians can apply for firearms licences after extensive screening. Armed civilians have repeatedly helped stop terrorist attacks, often because they are closer to the scene than law enforcement. Australia is not Israel and overseas models cannot simply be transplanted here. But the Israeli experience does challenge the simplistic assumption that reducing the number of firearms in lawful hands necessarily makes a community facing a terrorist threat safer. If we don’t confront the cause of Bondi, there will be another attack. Next time it may involve a vehicle, a knife, explosives or an illegally sourced firearm. Compared to many of his Labor colleagues, Chris Minns has been a friend of the Jewish community. My message to the Premier is simple: don't punish another community in our name. Law-abiding farmers and hunters did not cause Bondi. Sporting shooters did not cause Bondi. The firearms community did not cause Bondi. Bondi was an antisemitic terrorist attack. If governments are serious about preventing another one, they need to confront the ideology that caused it. Don't make firearms owners the scapegoats. https://www.news24.com.au/opinion/not-in-our-name-jewish-leader-issues-impassioned-rebuke-of-firearm-laws-rushed-through-nsw-parliament-after-the-bondi-terror-attack/news-story/37eee654dd2edb867fb5159d2d901e30#%23comments
