The Conservative American Response to Bondi
Conservative Americans took one look at the shooting in Bondi and ran with it as evidence that gun laws don't work. It's the dumbest fucking thing.
We have more mass shootings than other nations so when it happens elsewhere, especially somewhere with significant gun control laws, some Americans have a knee-jerk reaction to go "See?? It's not just us! Nothing can stop mass-shootings!" to justify our inaction.
There are several reasons why Bondi isn't evidence that gun laws don't work.
- It took 30 years for this to happen under Australia's gun laws. Thirty years of gun laws working isn't tossed out the window with one event.
- The Australian government immediately set to work to strengthen their gun laws even further. Not because they don't work. Because they do, and they acknowledge that they have a responsibility to ensure that this doesn't happen again.
- Fifteen people died. The weapons were obtained legally, to my understanding. How many more could/would have died if they had been the types of weapons banned in Australia?
I also want to note that while the shooters displayed an Islamic State flag, an unarmed Muslim man fought to disarm one of the shooters. Islamophobia is a disease, and instances like this serve to fuel the illness. Acknowledgement that Islam isn't a monolith any more than any other religion is a critical antibiotic.
This isn't a comprehensive look at the factors at play, and it is still an America-centric perspective because I am still a propagandized American. I have a very, very long way to go in deconstructing that. But the conservative response is so frustrating, and I felt drawn to screaming into the void about it.