This surprised me.
Why would Jews, who are smart, be so stupid about firearms? The Jews in Israel are surrounded by people who do not hide the fact that they intend to exterminate them and who believe that they are required to do so by their benighted religion. How could anyone fail to grasp that the right to life, which is an individual, not a group, right entails the individual's right to self-defense and therewith the right to acquire appropriate means thereto? How could anyone fail to grasp that no government could possibly protect every citizen needing protection from lethal threats, especially the citizens of a state beleaguered by ruthless enemies on all sides? Read on for some insight into the roots of this madness.
It is close to impossible to own a firearm as a private citizen in Israel. Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett says, “Except during times of heightened terrorism anyone who would possess a firearm without being compelled to do so because of their job (soldier, police officer, etc.) is viewed by the general public as simply being mentally defective. Those same people are the first ones to ask if you sit next to them, if they know you are armed, when you get on Jerusalem’s Lite Rail.”
There is no Second Amendment in Israel. The Israeli gun lobby cannot gain traction due to a liberal/socialist-oriented populace. “Politics rule. Citizens don’t.”
“Much of the opposition to gun ownership comes from the various women’s movements. They point to deaths of women from firearms. Otherwise opposition against private ownership of firearms goes back to the founding of Israel. The second law passed by the Israeli Legislature (1949) was confiscation of all firearms and munitions.”
“The average citizen has no right to own any type of weapon whatsoever, and doing so illegally will land him or her in jail for many years. In situations like these, selecting who gets to have access to firearms and who doesn’t is the equivalent of selecting who gets to live or die.”
[. . .]
Israeli News reported in February that following a deadly terror attack in Jerusalem, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that, “his government will loosen restrictions on private gun ownership in Israel and expand the licensing of weapons for thousands of civilians. Netanyahu justified the action by citing examples in which armed citizens or off-duty soldiers used their weapons to stop terrorists and save lives.”
David Codrea, in Firearms News reports that:
“While parallels to the situation in Ukraine are understandable enough to make with this new move to recruit civilians into the defense equation, the biggest similarity (and biggest mistake) is, both nations waited until the wolf was at the door to start the process. Our own Second Amendment presupposed an already armed and trained citizenry that could be mustered and deployed to match a professional military threat.”
“And for their part, now that they’re armed and have experienced firsthand what is needed to fight tyranny, don’t look for soon-to-be battle-hardened Ukrainians to give up their guns the next time peace pokes through the war clouds.”
Rabbi Raz Blizovsky, an activist who has been part of grassroots discussions concerning personal arms, told The Times of Israel, “Firearm licenses for private citizens in Israel are typically only granted to individuals who can prove a need for extra security in their line of work or daily life. It's a "pity" that it took a devastating terror attack to wake up the country to the importance of personal protection for private citizens. I have been involved with groups that have been talking about this issue for years. During calm times, people don’t do anything.”
Blizovsky told the Times he believes the atrocities committed by Hamas could have been avoided if more Israeli civilians had firearms.
Never ever give up your guns, because the minute you do you become a helpless victim. You never know when something like an inhumane attack on the homeland will happen. We have open borders through which illegal immigrants pour in from the entire world. We are not just talking about refugees from Central America and Mexico. Deranged Middle Easterners are entering unfettered. What are their plans? Entire terror cells could be walking across the borders.
Don’t believe someone who tells you to give up your guns to make society safe. The Second Amendment allows us to keep and bear arms to keep us safe, not to take our arms to keep us safe.
In the end, Stern said the Israeli government’s restriction on civilian firearms ownership cost hundreds of civilian lives. That grave injustice should never be forgotten.
Stern said: “But what I'm talking about right now is the guilt of disarming a population in face of terrorism that is unthinkable and that is evil, and they're going to have to pay when their day of judgment comes. Whether it's in front of a judge or whether it's in front of God, each and every person who wrote those laws and who enforced those laws is going to have to pay for their responsibility for all that blood that was spilled because they disarmed those people and didn't give them the ability to defend themselves.”
“In the end the Israeli government’s restriction on civilian firearms ownership cost hundreds of civilian lives. And that grave injustice should never be forgotten.” Nor allowed to be repeated in other countries.
Upon the very instant that the most moral people do not have the biggest weapons, the evil will prey on the innocent and weak.
Posted by: Joe Odegaard | Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at 02:50 PM