Two violent acts this week - a mass shooting in Sydney and a foiled vehicle‑attack plot in southern Germany - suggest that it is people, not tools, who choose to inflict harm and efforts to address violence must focus on the individuals, their motives and threat indicators rather than merely on the instruments used.

In Sydney on December 14, at least 15 people were killed and about 40 wounded during a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration near Bondi Beach. Police have identified the alleged shooters as 50‑year‑old Sajid Akram and his 24‑year‑old son, Naveed Akram. Both men opened fire with legally owned firearms, six of which were registered to the father, before police intervened. Authorities described the attack as a targeted act of terror and antisemitism.

Australia is widely recognized as having some of the toughest gun laws in the world, dating back to the 1996 National Firearms Agreement, which sharply restricted semi‑automatic weapons and instituted a national gun buyback program after the Port Arthur massacre. Despite these strict controls, the presence of legally held weapons did not prevent the Bondi Beach tragedy, underscoring that restrictions on tools alone cannot avert violence if individuals intent on harm find ways to exploit them.

Meanwhile in Germany, authorities arrested five men on suspicion of planning a vehicle attack on a Christmas market in the Dingolfing‑Landau region of Bavaria. The suspects detained Friday include three Moroccan nationals aged 22, 28 and 30, a 56‑year‑old Egyptian national, and a 37‑year‑old Syrian national. Prosecutors allege the group intended to use a vehicle to cause mass casualties at a busy holiday market; authorities characterize the plot as motivated by Islamist extremism but stopped it through intelligence cooperation before any attack could unfold.

Cars have been repeatedly used as weapons in attacks around the world. Recent examples include a vehicle ramming in Vancouver in April 2025 that killed 11 and injured more than 30, and past attacks such as a 2016 truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market and others in Nice, London and elsewhere, which were all carried out by individuals deliberately weaponizing everyday tools.

These incidents illustrate a fundamental point: laws governing objects like guns will not stop determined attackers. It is ultimately people who make the choice to kill, not the cars or firearms they use.