Israel is a country in a tough spot. They have people who don't just want to defeat them militarily all around them, and some inside their own borders, but who want them eliminated from the planet. They're openly calling for genocide, and that includes voices all across the world, including within our own country, for some idiotic reason.
Because of that, there are certain laws in place that try to make the nation a tough target for anyone to take on.
You might be able to beat Israel in a war, but they're damned sure going to make you pay for it first. They kind of take that "Never Again" thing seriously, and for good reason.
But they still have a lot of gun control. That's not exactly conducive to being as hard a target as possible. Now, an Israeli minister has taken a look at the American gun culture and figures that Israel should adopt similar laws to the United States.
Israel’s controversial National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir recently visited the U.S., where he met with Jewish groups, law enforcement officials and politicians, as well as facing several clashes with protesters.
The shouting critics, however, did not appear to bother Ben-Gvir, who was a right-wing activist in his youth.
...Prior to his meeting with Mast, Ben-Gvir had the chance to visit his home state where he saw something that he wanted to take back with him to Israel: gun culture.
Ben-Gvir has long been an advocate for wider distribution of firearms in Israel, and while he was visiting the U.S., he took time to see how America handles guns. He had the opportunity to visit both a shooting range and a gun store, which he said was "fascinating."
"I was surprised by the quantity and types of weapons available. Even I haven’t reached that level," Ben-Gvir told Fox News Digital.
He spoke about how critics have accused him of arming militias, which he denies. When speaking with Fox News Digital, Ben-Gvir said that the weapons he distributed in Israel "saved many lives."
"I believe we need to learn a from the Americans. One of the important lessons is their policy on weapons," Ben-Gvir told Fox News Digital. "I’m not sure I would distribute arms to the same extent, but I definitely believe in expanding access because citizens have the right to defend themselves."
Gun culture in Israel has changed since the Oct. 7 massacre. Before the attacks, Israel was strict about who was eligible to obtain a firearm. Pre-Oct. 7, firearm licenses were restricted to those who live and work in high-risk areas, licensed tour guides and those who served with Israeli police or IDF security forces, among a few other specified categories, according to an Israeli government website from 2019.
Frankly, they should "distribute arms to the same extent" as the US, in part because then October 7th might have gone very differently. As it was, some Hamas fighters were killed by armed civilians who made the terrorists pay for all the Israeli blood they wanted to spill.
Yet more guns in more hands might have actually changed everything, up to and including potentially preventing that particular atrocity.
Less than a month before that attack, Hamas lashed out at armed Israelis. They knew what they had planned and hoped to have more Israelis disarmed as a result, thus potentially making their vicious attack all the worse.
While not every Israeli would own a gun, even if they could do so easily, imagine what it would be like for the neighbors of the gun nuts who had a lot of AR-15s or AK-47-style rifles. Hamas is coming, but the neighborhood gun nut has put a fighting rifle in the hand of every man, woman, and child on the block with enough ammunition to beat back an army.
Or even just a few rifles among close friends.
Anything is better than being a sitting duck when so many people want you purged from humanity.
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