I'm reading - or perhaps re-reading - a book by Phyllis Chesler titled The New Anti-Semitism.
I just read a long list of Moslem attacks on Jews in Israel.
Murdered by
* guns
* knives
* bombs
* axes
Not just Israeli Jews. Not just Jews.
Many of the people just "happened" to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I am an American, born and raised.
I have lived in many places in the U.S., but thankfully never in New York where only criminals are allowed to have guns.
As an American who owns a gun and as an American whose sons own guns - one is a policeman - I cannot understand why the Israeli government doesn't get its head out of the European mind-set (no guns for non-criminals, a la New York City) and not only allow Israeli Jews to have small arms - pistols and revolvers - but to encourage its citizens to bear arms.
Register them if it must.
Limit the type of weapon - calibre, size.
Control the sale of ammunition (and reloading supplies) if deemed necessary.
Civilians - here and in Israel - cannot justify fully automatic anything, not pistols, not rifles.
Civilians - here and in Israel - cannot justify amour-piercing casings; these bullets are for the military and maybe the police.
In the "old days" almost all men did military service, consequently most men had weapons training. (The denizens of Mea Shearim and Beni Brak being obvious exceptions to this general statement, but then many of the good folk of Mea Shearim would prefer to be under Jordanian or PLO rule.)
Today, draft dodging has come to Israel so what once was true - as was once the case in the U.S. - no longer is valid.
Given that, Israel should insist that anyone who wants a sidearm or any firearm be required to take, and pass, a rigorous weapons training program. That's now Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in many U.S. jurisdictions today.
I lived for awhile in the Intermountain West where almost every home had several weapons, mostly rifles and shotguns, but there were sidearms without number.
Were there lots of murders with guns? No.
There were murders, but they were extremely rare.
Did people with guns get angry at people? Certainly. But they didn't shoot people.
There is a hesitation in most of us that prevents us from shooting someone unless that someone threatens our lives or the lives of our loved ones. I know.
When I was about 6 years old I learned to shoot a .22 calibre rifle. The man who taught me, a former U.S. Army captain, admonished us again and again and again never to point a gun at anything unless we intended to kill it.
I have never pointed a gun at a human. (I was a medic in the military and never left the States.)
Admittedly, the U.S. has too many shootings. But we also have too many stabbings and too many beatings and too many bombings, not all of the latter by imported terrorists.
We have too many burglaries, but interestingly, fewer where burglars know the home owner may be armed.
I would hazard, based on the tv news, that many shootings in the U.S. are gang or drug related.
Does Israel have lots of gangs or drug lords fighting for turf? If it does, I'll wager they already are armed.
What we have, then, is a population that has insufficient police protection (there simply are not enough cops in the country) that is kept helpless by a European mindset that should have been left in Europe - or New York City.
Israelis, and New Yorkers, too, should be allowed defensive weapons; they should be allowed to have the weapons and be encouraged to carry them, concealed to reduce any cowboy foolishness.
I owned for years a two-shot .38 calibre Derringer. I carried it as a police reporter riding the local constabulary (they knew about the weapon) and in the end, I gave it to a highway patrolman. Despite an at times hot temper, it never was fired in anger and never was fired at anyone.
A Derringer is very much was a defensive weapon.
I am not suggesting that Israeli civilians be armed with fully-automatic 9 mm or .40 calibre automatics; I am talking about weapons for use when an attacker is within 3 meters. That's about the maximum distance for any handgun accuracy.
What about tasers? My son the cop tells me that his department has a rule that basically states if a person is beyond a certain distance of an officer and does not have a gun, the officer should use the taser. If the attacker is closer than that certain distance, the office is to use his gun - and like my instructor of years ago, to shoot to kill.
Thank G-d there are few "police involved shootings" in my son's jurisdiction.
Israel needs to allow all citizens the opportunity to become trained in use of defensive firearms and to encourage the citizenry to purchase defensive sidearms.
It won't stop the Arab sniper, but it might stop the ax- or knife-wielding attacker or the eliminate a bomber before the device is exploded.
I lived in Israel.
I cannot comprehend why the government insists on allowing guns in the hands of criminals and terrorists and keeping weapons out of the hands of citizens who need to defend themselves.
Israel; - and New York - should take a lesson from the U.S. Intermountain West.
