The adage that “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun” is a universal truth. It was reinforced yesterday, this time in Israel.

Most of yesterday’s news related to Israel was around the massive Iranian attack, which involved highly destructive ballistic missiles with a short 12-minute flight time. There was another story that didn’t get much attention, and this was a “conventional” Palestinian terror attack that involved a gun and a knife.

The Times of Israel reports (archived link):

Seven people killed in shooting, stabbing terror attack in Jaffa
Two terrorists attack civilians on Tel Aviv light rail, proceed to attack more people on foot before being shot, killed by security guard, civilians

Seven people were killed and at least eight others wounded in a shooting and stabbing terror attack in Jaffa on Tuesday evening, according to Israel Police, in one of the deadliest terror attacks in recent years.

Two terrorists, one of whom was armed with a rifle and the other with a knife, attacked civilians on the Tel Aviv light rail before getting off and continuing on foot and shooting and stabbing people on Jerusalem Street in the city.

A municipal security officer and armed civilians shot and “neutralized” the two terrorists, police added.

The timing of this attack was horrendous. It happened just minutes before Iran lobbed its ballistic missiles at Israel. It’s amazing that the defenders were able to make sense in the surrounding chaos and react as fast as they did.

The terror attack — one of the deadliest single attacks in Israel in recent years — came amid heightened tensions in Israel as the Israel Defense Forces announced a ground incursion into Lebanon in a bid to push the Hezbollah terror group away from the border and just minutes before Iran launched a massive missile attack on Israel. [...] He added that the police had no prior intelligence of the attack.

“We heard non-stop gunfire in every direction. We went outside in fear and saw a couple of figures running in the street, seemingly the terrorists. It was hard to watch,” Motti, an owner of a nearby kiosk, told Ynet.

“A woman came off the light rail screaming. Immediately after that, I saw injured people. It’s a bad feeling seeing the scene,” said Mohammed, a flower seller who witnessed the attack, adding that it was a “sad and difficult day.”

The Jerusalem Post reported (archived link) one of the tragic details of this attack, that one of the victims is a 33-year old mother of a 9-month old baby.

Social media had more detail, and that was about one of the defenders who stopped this shooting and stabbing attack. He is an Israeli reservist who was carrying his personal firearm and happened to be in the area:

Lev Kreitman, the citizen who neutralized the terrorists in Tel Aviv, is an IDF soldier who served in Gaza. He said, "I own a personal weapon due to being a reservist. I was sitting drinking something; suddenly, I heard shots. I ran towards them and shot the terrorist."

HERO pic.twitter.com/AGI9eUCwiW

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) October 1, 2024

As I wrote last year (see: “Israel’s gun control policies worsened the death toll”), the possession of guns by ordinary Israelis is surprisingly restricted by their government. It was providential that this reservist happened to be in the area with a personal firearm.

This defender is himself a survivor of the deadliest part of the October 7 attack on the Nova music festival. He was casually dressed in flip flops for an evening out.

And now, the most Israeli story ever: the man who neutralized the terrorist in Jaffa is the chair of Israel’s “Burning Man”, Midburn, who happened to be in the area (he’s also a Nova survivor).

He did it in flip flops. pic.twitter.com/4b89iOlBhw

— Yael Bar tur 🎗️ (@yaelbt) October 1, 2024

Another user on Twitter/X pointed out that this inexpensive attack that involved just a rifle, some ammo, and a knife, did way more damage than the very expensive ballistic missile launches by Iran.

This is very sad, but also goes to show that one terrorist in Israel inflicted more damage than 200 ballistic missiles from Iran, and it didn’t cost him tens of millions of dollars either. Iran has never looked weaker nor more ineffectual than it does now. Optimal time for… pic.twitter.com/WxHC3JFWkZ

— Charlie Go (@WeTheCharlie) October 1, 2024

Terrorism is a sort of distributed warfare that can pop up anytime, anyplace in unpredictable ways. It’s monetarily cheap but imposes a high cost on civilized society, not just in terms of deaths and lifelong injuries, but also in terms of the damage to psyche and morale and the erosion of civil liberties to counter the threat.

The good news, as we saw in this story, is that those attacks can also be countered and stopped inexpensively: by letting ordinary, decent people exercise their natural right to keep and bear arms.

If October 7 wasn’t enough for our fellow anti-Second Amendment Americans, I hope these daily stories of self-defense eventually get through to them.