Hello, I’m Alex Nguyen, a contributing writer here at Mother Jones.
The mass shooting at Bondi Beach has killed at least 15 people and injured dozens after two gunmen opened fire on Sunday at a Hanukkah celebration, Australia’s worst mass shooting in three decades. Our executive editor, James West, happened to be in Sydney when the horror unfolded.
Today, James has a dispatch from Bondi Beach, where hundreds of mourners gathered to honor those lost in the horrific attack. Here's a glimpse of what he saw on the ground:
The day after the shooting, people with whom I spoke were wrestling with anguish and outrage—and with questions about the scale of the disaster: After escalating incidents of antisemitism in Australia following the beginning of the war in Gaza, how could the Jewish community have been so vulnerable? And how did a nation that prides itself on strict gun laws allow two men to be so heavily armed?
The shooting at Bondi came one day after the shooting at Brown University, where two students were killed and nine injured after a gunman opened fire during the fall semester’s final exam week. For at least two of the students, this was not the first school shooting they had survived.
It's hard to overstate how terrifying these events are.
As Edward Renton, a 27-year-old who lives near Bondi Beach, said, "It’s just tragic that children are being shot next to a petting zoo, when they’re celebrating a holiday. It’s definitely not something that Australians are used to, and hopefully we don’t have to get used to it.”
—Alex Nguyen
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