The attacks at Bondi Beach, Australia and at Brown University remind us western democracies remain uniquely vulnerable to terrorist attacks, even terrorists armed with common firearms rather than the automatic weapons employed in the Middle East and other hot spots. 

In Australia at least 16, aged 10-87, were killed and some 40 were wounded at a “Chanukah by the Sea” celebration. Yes, the victims were largely Jews, and amazingly, the police think it was terrorism.  

In this case, the two killers were apparently not “known wolves.”

Naveed Akram, 24, and his 50-year-old father, Sajid, allegedly stormed the family-friendly Chanukah by the Sea event armed with shotguns and a bolt-action rifle…

Akram was disarmed by a bystander and eventually critically wounded by police during the 20-minute attack, while Sajid was killed.

At Brown University, during final exams, a man dressed in black entered a lecture hall,  “yelled something” and opened fire, apparently with a handgun. Two were killed and nine were wounded.  A “person of interest” was detained but was apparently released and the actual killer remains at large. As this is written, there is no apparent motive.

What both attacks have in common is that once they began, the victims were sitting ducks. Gun laws and regulations assured the killers their victims would be unarmed.

Australia doesn’t absolutely ban private ownership of guns, but is an anti-liberty/gun paradise that recognizes no right to self-defense. Citizens may own a narrow range of guns, but restrictions are sufficient to make Australia the envy of American gun grabbers. The entire nation is essentially a gun-free zone. With nearly all of what anti-liberty/gun cracktivists say is necessary to ensure absolute public safety, the Bondi Beach massacre should not have been possible. The Premier of New South Wales, therefore, wants even more gun control:  

Graphic: Fox Social Media Post

The “horrifying weapons that have no practical use in our community” were a shotgun and bolt action rifle.

At Brown, the gun was reportedly a handgun, not an “assault weapon.” Rhode Island, which recently passed a ban on many types of semiautomatic firearms, does not ban most guns outright and does grudgingly issue concealed carry permits, but has magazine restrictions and a seven day waiting period for gun purchases.  Unsurprisingly, Brown prohibits all firearms on campus.  

By the rhetoric of anti-liberty/gun cracktivists, the Bondi Beach and Brown attacks should have been impossible. Both are magical gun-free zones expressing the good intentions of the morally and intellectually superior. Good intentions, however, inevitably fall prey to reality.  Between 1950 and 2024, 92% of American mass attacks occurred in gun-free zones.   

But aren’t mass shooting deaths higher in gun-crazy America than anyplace else?  Not quite.  From 2009 to 2015, America was #11 in the world.  The most dangerous county? Norway. Even France and Belgium were more dangerous.

In 2015, the Texas Legislature allowed concealed handguns on college campuses. A professor who was about to retire resigned in protest, and students affixed colorful dildos to their backpacks in another act of protest whose connection to guns remains mysterious. With all those dildos, one was bound to go off?  Just as anti-liberty/gun cracktivists wailed when concealed carry laws swept the nation, there would be blood running in the streets and classrooms and gunfights would be as common as sunshine.

None of that came to pass. Americans taking the time and effort to obtain concealed carry licenses are uncommonly law-abiding. The same has been true in the 29 “constitutional carry” states that require no vetting or permit for concealed carry.

But won’t the police protect us? Not here—consider Uvalde--or in Australia:

Graphic: Social Media Post

To be fair, the police did eventually shoot both attackers and stop the attack, but by the time they managed that the damage had been done. At Brown, the only factor limiting damage was the killer’s lack of marksmanship and eventual decision to quit shooting.

The only thing that can stop a mass attack is armed citizens who then and there recognize what’s happening and deal with it. By the time the police can be notified, arrive and orient themselves, a great many people are going to be dead or wounded. The police would love to stop a mass shooter, to be a hero, but they just can’t. All the anti-liberty/gun laws in the world aren’t going to stop someone planning mass murder, and they’re going to continue to choose gun-free zones—like Australia.

An enduring mystery is why any Jew, circa 2025, would go about unarmed.

Here and in Australia, we’re on our own. We always have been.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.