For many Israelis, the reform represents a necessary response to an existential threat. Yet, it has also exposed deep flaws in the system. Critics argue that the current approach sacrifices long-term safety for short-term security, warning of potential unintended consequences, from accidental shootings to a rise in domestic violence.
“Getting a gun license is easier than getting a driver’s license,” Gozlan says. “For a car, you need lessons, tests and strict rules. For a gun, it’s just some paperwork and a few hours at the range.”
[Erga] Froman sees things differently. “If someone threatens you, you only draw your weapon in a national security situation. You don’t pull a gun for personal life-threatening situations unless it’s a case of terrorists. The rules here are clear – you must have a safe for your weapon. I can’t rely on my husband’s safe; a firearm is personal. I’m not allowed to use his gun, and he’s not allowed to use mine. The regulations are very strict. The weapon is for defending against those who want to harm us, not for general self-defense.”
[Ayala] Mirkin agrees. “We’re not like America,” she said. “We don’t want guns as hobbies … for us, it’s survival, not choice.”
One interviewee who asked to remain anonymous described how he trained his wife in basic firearm handling, even though she doesn’t have a license. “I never wanted to put her in this position, but if I’m not home during an attack, she needs to know how to defend our children.”
As Israel adjusts to this new reality, the societal implications of increased firearm ownership remain uncertain. For many, the weight of these decisions highlights the delicate balance between protection and responsibility.
“I hope I’ll never have to use it,” Gozlan says. “But I can’t ignore the reality we live in. Oct. 7 changed everything.”
— Efrat Lachter in Armed for survival: How Oct 7 Hamas massacre transformed gun culture in Israel
Much like in Israel firearms for many people in the United States have become more of a security need than a hobby or even a hunting tool. While Islamic terrorists are the main problem for Israeli citizens. In the United States it is the criminal element that the citizens must protect themselves from. Which in many ways are the same thing because crime is a form a terrorism and requires the same efforts to stop it, especially where the Justice system is also failing to protect it’s citizens.
October 7th was a reminder that they’re surrounded by people who are taught from birth to hate them.
In the US we are surrounded by people who from birth were taught to hate us. Do a dive into what left wing liberals are teaching their kids…case in point Kamala Harris a marx- ist socia-l- ist and literally millions of others like her and worse who want to destroy our country to rule over anyone not them, trained from birth by left wing liberal parents to hate and in some way ‘destroy’ anyone not them or who will not bend to their will.
“You don’t pull a gun for personal life-threatening situations unless it’s a case of terrorists.”
Its not so different in America, we have a terrorist threat too – we call them ‘criminals’ and the democrat party and left wing liberals and the ATF.
Yah, I found the article intriguing as well:
“The regulations are very strict. The weapon is for defending against those who want to harm us, not for general self-defense.”
So…huh?
It’s a pretty thin line between a terrorist breaking into your home and a home invasion robbery by masked gang members. Maybe the gangsters don’t intend to kill you but you don’t really know once they put a gun to your head.
Hard to believe considering all the history relative to Israel that it took an October 7 event for the Israeli citizens to demand change and the government to make changes to personal defense issues. Mindbogglingly that such attitudes existed.
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The ease of acquiring a license is pure bullshit on many levels. First, nobody anywhere should ever need to be licensed to own a tool. Second, have a discussion with any anti and you’ll soon realize there is no difficulty bar high enough to satisfy the them therefore their entire position is disingenuous from the start.
“The regulations are very strict. The weapon is for defending against those who want to harm us, not for general self-defense.”
“General self-defense” *is* someone trying to harm me…
“The weapon is for defending against those who want to harm us, not for general self-defense.”
What???
That’s about as logical as the anti-gun people saying ‘we don’t need more guns in our schools’ when anyone mentions hiring school cops or training school personel in self defense.
“You don’t pull a gun for personal life-threatening situations unless it’s a case of terrorists.”
Ok i gotta call BS on this lady. Lady, you’re yelling us that if a garden variety rapist arrives and is gonna rape then kill you then you are gonna think ‘nope, i’ll not use a gun to defend my self cause its not a terrorist’ ?
Israel has a rather large population of rapists and child molesters, particularly ones who fled prosecution in other countries. The lack of extradition that happens in such cases leads me to be a bit ambivalent in having much care on their local varieties of crazy.
Since military service is required in israel, I would think that most of the civilian population already has a basic understanding of firearm safety and operations.
They need to start building civilian gun ranges so that the civilians can go practice and train.
But will they???
They already have.. It’s called Gaza and Lebanon.
A very bizarre take on firearms and their “appropriate” usage leaves this American Jew quite confused. Using a gun against a terrorist = okay, using a gun against a domestic threat = not good? WTF?
I took it as Jew on Jew crime isn’t bad enough to require a gun. I’m not familiar with the situation over there in that regard.
There has always been hatred against Israel, not only in the middle east but from separate groups the world over. But the terrorist issues and the current war against Israel, and Gaza and the Palestinian issues, today can be traced directly back to being rooted in actions of one democrat U.S. president trying to impose ‘democrat liberal values’ on the region starting in in Sept. 1978.
In September 1978, President JImmy Carter invited Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the presidential retreat of Camp David. This was put forth publicly as to end the protracted conflict between the two countries, it was not that. Sadat told his aides: “What we are after is to win over world opinion. President Carter is on our side. This will end in Begin’s downfall!” He was right. Carter told Sadat: “I will represent your interests as if they were my own. You are my brother.” A jubilant Sadat told his aides that “poor naïve Carter” was ready to pressure Begin into giving Egypt everything it wanted.
“Mr. Prime Minister,” Carter told Begin icily after Sadat presented his proposals “that is not only the view of Sadat, it is also the American view – and you will have to accept it.” Angrily he repeated, “You will have to accept it.” These proposals included Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied after Egypt attacked it in 1967. While territorial expansion at the expense of an aggressor nation had been recognized as a right of the victor in a war from time immemorial, Carter was determined that it would not apply to Israel. He also wanted Israel to acknowledge that it was carrying out an illegitimate occupation of Palestinian land. He complained to Begin: “Listen, we’re trying to help you bring peace to your land. You would have us feel that we are going out of our way deliberately to be as unfair to Israel as possible.” Indeed. Thus want has become known as the ‘Camp David Accords’ was born.
Now is it wrong to want to end a war? No, of course not. But when a U.S. president tells a victim country ‘suck it up and accept it and live with it cause we say so cause we are going to side with your enemy and let them get away with it and the heck with your country right to self-defense’ … its sends a message of “Hey, if anyone else wants to do what ever they want to this victim its ok.”.
On a side note though, doesn’t that sound oddly familiar with the anti-gun groups and Biden and Harris and other anti-gun democrats of today? “The heck with your constitutional right to self-defense via arms, you will have to accept it and like it so too bad because we say so even if it does mean you are placed in danger because we let criminals run wild.”
Its always the same playbook with the democrats, they just shift the context around.
The ‘Camp David Accords’ final ‘agreement’ had Israel making substantial territorial concessions in exchange for promises that Egypt would not attack Israel, which the Egyptians kept because U.S. foreign aid was made contingent upon peace. Carter for all practical purposes made Israel the ‘enemy’.
In reality Carter forced Israel to agree under duress, and the ‘Camp David Accords’ bought no peace to the Middle East and Israel continued to be under ‘siege’ from terrorist-bad-actors and threatening countries in the Middle East. The ‘Camp David Accords’ ‘agreement’ was designed in part to legitimize the existence of the “Palestinian” people, a propaganda invention of the KGB in the 1960s, and advanced the claim that Israel was occupying Palestinian territory to which only Israel had a legitimate claim. Carter practically and purposely guaranteed a new generation of hatred of Israel, and today, the outgrowth from that by those ‘kids’ of that era growing up, and adult terrorist of that era teaching this new generation, and today their thinly veiled excuse is ‘Gaza’ and the the “Palestinian” people. Carters actions with the ‘Camp David Accords’, and in books he wrote about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, shows he had an animus toward Israel and that animus and lack of sympathy for the Jews of Israel continued through his life even until the end of his life in the last few days at age 100. And today that same animus toward Israel still exists in the democrat party, and is even expressed today by ‘the squad’ in congress and through the squad members promoting a “Palestinian” people area called ‘Gaza’.
Correction for: “Carter for all practical purposes made Israel the ‘enemy’.”
Should have been…Carter for all practical purposes made Israel the ‘enemy’ and ‘rewarded’ Egypt.
and … President James (‘Jimmy’) Earl Carter died on 29 Dec 2024 at age 100. And as usual the legacy media somewhere messed up on their reporting – the WSJ headline initially reported ‘President James Earl Carter, 1994-2024’ … making Carter 30 years old, Carter was born in 1924…they later changed the headline but not before it was pointed on on X here > h ttps://x.com/FrankLuntz/status/1873508798356418796?mx=2 .
Joe Biden was the first Democratic senator to endorse Carter’s long shot 1976 bid for the presidency.
Well said!
I had an idea that Carter was not the nice guy he was portrayed as, but had no clue of the whole story.
sigh….. posts in moderation.
The jews have learned nothing from the holocaust. It was criminals called the SA. Who attacked jews and anyone they disagreed with.
The jews are socialist progressive in their political orientation. Only the members of the JPFO have learned from history.
“the jews”? Easy on the monolithic characterization, my friend! Maybe “most Jews”, however some of us are VERY conservative and situationally aware! 🙂
But yeah, I get what you are saying…
Every Jewish person I personally know owns and carries guns.
When oct 7 happend, a group of us gun owners around here started receiving requests for where to get guns from the Jewish communities and entities around here for about a 50 mile radius.
We got together and ended up, eventually, distributing over 600, what we called, ‘defense packs’ each of which eventually contained 4 AR’s and 4 pistols (a mixture of glocks and sig), with magazines and ammo, and some basic survival rations and first aid stuff. At first we didn’t put that many guns in but the demand kept growing so we increased the amount of guns and ammo and supplies need based upon a 4 man fire team concept. We then ran over 2,000 people through some basic tactical engagement training for free at a local range taught by some retired navy seals and other special forces that are stationed nearby. And since then we have continued to ensure the Jewish ‘community’ was well armed and ready and training continues as well for tactical engagement.
Elderly and young…. these people are serious about it. My favorite was an elderly lady about 80 years old taking out four of the special forces guys in an exercise … she even did a little victory dance. I laughed my butt off watching her.
Nice!
Your claims of Israel having “a rather large population of rapists” is not borne out by facts> Israel’s Rape rate is lower than many Western Nations*
* Israel Rapes per 100,000>>18.3
*US Rapes per 100,000>>>> 41.8
England and Wales Rape>>>117.3-per 100,000
Sweden Rapes Per 100,000> 85.6
New Zealand>>> >> 37.3
Ireland>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 21.9
Finland>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 32.9
France>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 58.9
Denmark>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 48.1
Belgium>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 34.9
Austria>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 23.0
*Wikipedia Stats
Good grief, they’re the same idiots who write gun control laws in the USA. “Only to be used on terrorists” but not to shoot murderers trying to kill you.
The Israelis are beginning to return to the Frontier Days where armed citizens were their own first responders. Will there be accidents? Sure. Will a couple decades worth of accidents add up to another 7 October? Nope.
I am left to conclude this concession by the State was justified solely in order to protect the State because as a result of the 10/7 attach, civilians were furious at the inability of the government to protect them. Thus, a revolt of the voters was viewed as more of threat to the status quo of the State than Hamas was. So, a self-centered and power-oriented State did what was expedient, it granted this legal permission only in the context of responding to a threat, not to the citizen, but a threat to the State.
The instant the public grows complacent again, and starts to worry more about abuse of firearms by civilians, that is the instant this concession will be withdrawn.
The lesson here is the right to self defense must never be taken for granted, nor allowed to be infringed. A person is always their own “first responder”, for the protection of themselves, their family, and their immediate community. Had that been appreciated and respected, the 10/7 attack would have been resisted far more effectively.
Governments the world over and from the dawn of Time protect themselves first, then the citizens only after (the government’s) toes get burnt.
It’s odd that if someone else ignores the law and attempts to kill you, you can’t use your gun to defend yourself UNLESS it’s a terrorist. Now I’m sure there are situations where that would be easy to determine, but other situations will be ambiguous. So if you’re not sure you’re supposed to let them kill you?
Israel has compulsory military service. That means most citizens have had weapons training. I was surprised that gun ownership was so rare, particularly in the remote kibbutzim.
I am sorry you have to defend yourself and everyone in the home needs to to be able to use and be comfortable using a firearm. You need to have more than pistols you need to be comfortable wit the idea that you might have to use deadly and overwhelming force else you are going to die.
Every time a firearms restriction is lifted here in the United States there is a melancholy chorus predicting gun fights over parking spaces, etc. It’s been going on since the beginning of the shall issue movement and it’s as predictable as sunrise. The predictions never come true. Never. The Israelis should trust their people.
How do you distinguish between “general self defense” and a terrorist attack? This is irrational.