The Bondi Massacre: bungling all round with gun owners (and taxpayers) now set up as scapegoats

Some problems are incapable of resolution. It is not possible to pick all potential home grown or Islamic killers or those with emerging mental conditions. Similarly, with lone actor attacks, there's often no sign beforehand of the potential for violence.

There is also the double standard.

Around 1,200 people are killed each year on Australia's roads and about 40,000 are seriously injured, yet nobody seriously suggests restricting car ownership. Similarly, there is no call to ban kitchen knives (nor should there be), which feature in homicides more commonly than guns. In 2017, a mentally ill man attempted to murder five students with a baseball bat at the Australian National University. (Sensibly) nobody called for a ban on baseball or cricket bats.

One of the effects of Albanese's rise to power has been a switch from the Coalition's soft support for Israel to overt hostility from Labor. This has changed the political atmosphere and provided licence to an explosion of anti-Jew rhetoric from elements within the Islamic community and elsewhere. Labor shows no appetite to check this. While Israeli over-reach in Gaza has further inflamed feelings, (minority held) extreme Islamicist views well preceded the recent conflict.

A backlash to the new gun laws is already in evidence, especially in country areas. Already there has been a further shift in support away from the Coalition to One Nation. The Liberal brand in NSW has become ever more closely linked with wokism, while Labor is increasingly being recognised as chasing the Islamic vote and deserting its working-class roots.

In the face of widespread calls for an independent Royal Commission into the Bondi massacre, PM Albanese has announced a snap reviewof federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to be led by respected former defence and ASIO chief, Dennis Richardson. The "closed door" review will assess whether commonwealth agencies have adequate powers, structures, processes, and information-sharing arrangements.

The review has been criticised for being too narrow in its terms of reference and for the choice of a former career bureaucrat (associated with the existing security apparatus, and formerly chief of staff to Bob Hawke) to head it. The review is also too federally focussed and does not cover the issue of whether the actions (or lack thereof) of the Albanese or Minns governments contributed to anti-Jew intimidation and violence. It also won't address most of the issues I have raised about whether the new laws will meaningfully facilitate reducing gun violence.