Terrorism Visits Bondi, Albanese Government Reaction: Disarm Australian Citizen Completely

This was not a failure of ordinary Australians.

It was not the fault of lawful firearms owners.

And it will not be rewritten as such.

I grew up in a time when you could buy ammunition from a corner store and firearms from sporting goods shops in Australia. That didn’t make our communities violent. It didn’t make Australians reckless. What it reflected was trust, responsibility, and a very different relationship between citizens and the state.

As a nation, we are now virtually disarmed. Lawful firearms ownership has been progressively restricted, regulated, and stigmatised. Australians complied. We adapted. We accepted the burden. We lived with the legacy of Port Arthur and the weight that lawful owners have carried ever since.

Yet here we are again.

A firearms licence was issued to a non-citizen on a recurring visitor visa. Weapons were purchased. Intelligence concerns were examined and dismissed. The outcome speaks for itself.

This was not a failure of gun laws. It was a failure of screening, intelligence coordination, and licensing judgment.

In my view, this did not begin overnight. It has been building for years. More recently, policy settings recognising a so-called “state of the stateless” risk emboldening those already inclined toward extremism. When boundaries soften and accountability weakens, extremists do not see compassion — they see vulnerability.

Australia’s easy-going, trusting nature is one of our greatest strengths. But it becomes a weakness when exploited by those who reject our values and our laws.

What is most troubling is how quickly politics rushes in — sometimes before victims are even accounted for, before emergency responses are complete, before families have answers. Left-wing ideological talking points are peddled while people are still being treated, still being identified, still being mourned.

Politics is about politics.

People are about people.

Disarming compliant citizens will never eradicate terrorism. It simply ensures that the only people left carrying weapons are those who already operate outside the law.

This is a failure of systems and leadership, not of the Australian public. Shifting blame onto lawful firearms owners or the broader community is neither honest nor acceptable.

Australians deserve truth, accountability, and restraint — especially in moments of tragedy.