As the new work week begins, a sharp lesson is playing out for the entire world to witness. Australia is showing that a nation can choose life over ideology, as the United States shows what happens when ideology is chosen over life.
Two horrific acts of gun violence took place this weekend. At Brown University, a mass shooting took place in a classroom on the university’s campus in Rhode Island, where two people were killed and at least nine others were injured. In Australia, at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, at least 15 people died in a mass shooting attack in a spree of violence that shook the core of the nation. By Monday morning, the political leadership of Australia was moving forward with decisiveness, with new ideas about how to further curb gun violence. In the United States, our political class continues to normalize yet another gun tragedy by remaining inactive. Thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers……–
Australia has long been recognized as a global model for gun control. After the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, where 35 people were killed, the government enacted sweeping reforms, also in a fast-acting way. A mandatory gun buyback program destroyed nearly 650,000 firearms, bans were placed on rapid-fire rifles, and strict licensing and background checks became national standards.
I greatly applaud the ability of the government to have encouraged the populace to understand the necessity of banning most automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns from civilian possession. Likewise, the need for a mandatory 28-day waiting period for all new firearm purchases.
While this weekend’s Bondi Beach shooting was profoundly wretched, we need to recognize it as an isolated event in that nation. It was Australia’s deadliest in decades. As the new work week starts, their government set out to examine the places in the existing gun control laws that need to be tightened. In other words, Australia treats a mass shooting as a call to action, not a moment for empty platitudes.
The United States, by comparison, has become numb to mass shootings. Another Saturday. Another bold headline. Has the pizza finished baking in the oven?
From schools where young children were slaughtered to grocery stores, churches to concerts, gun violence is a daily reality in our nation. Yet despite thousands of deaths annually, the political system in the United States remains paralyzed. Leaders offer trite and meaningless slogans while refusing to enact meaningful reforms. Assault weapons that are meant for war zones remain widely available, background checks are inconsistent, and loopholes abound. The result is a grim cycle in our nation. First comes the massacre, second the mourning, and then thirdly the silence from the political class. The nation then waits for the next massacre.
Where Australia sees gun violence as a solvable civic crisis, the U.S. treats it as an unavoidable feature of modern life. This difference is not cultural inevitability. It all comes down to pure political will. What we are witnessing is that Australia grasps why gun control laws matter. When they need to be updated, adjusted, or refined, the political class moves together with collective courage.
Such a stark contrast with the feckless political class in the United States. Within hours, Australia’s leaders proposed reforms. Among the new measures proposed would be a limit on the number of guns someone can own and a review of licenses held over time. In our nation, proposed gun control reforms have stalled for decades.
We are seeing today in Australia how the national cabinet acts with bipartisan consensus, while the small-minded people who are elected in our nation view gun policy as a partisan battlefield. When it comes to the average everyday type of people, it is so very clear to witness the moral fiber being stronger with Australians. They grasp that restrictions on guns are the path to safety for society, while Americans are fed crap by the NRA and gun manufacturers that freedom requires tolerating the slaughter of our fellow citizens.
Australia’s example with gun control is not perfect; the tragedy this weekend underscores that fact. But that nation’s laws prove that gun violence can be reduced when governments act decisively. The United States’ refusal to follow suit is simply and completely a failure of political courage. Every new massacre in our nation is, in my mind, far more than a gunman going berserk. It is also an indictment of our political leaders who looked the other way in all the preceding acts of gun violence.
Caffeinated Politics 
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