Yesterday, Israel’s Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch announced that gun control measures would be eased in Jerusalem and 41 other municipalities across Israel. This announcement comes in the wake of the attack on the Jerusalem synagogue which left five people dead including three American rabbis as well as other attacks which have taken place at various bus and train stations across Israel by Hamas terrorists over the past several weeks.
I find this very interesting. Typically when there are mass shootings in the United States the clamor is for more gun control by the liberal media and elected officials especially President Obama.
I think there is an understanding in Israel that the police cannot be everywhere at all times. There may be circumstances where someone or a group of people may intend to cause deadly harm and their intended victims might have to take matters into their own hands. If random attacks are becoming less random, but no less arbitrary then people have to have a means by which to defend themselves. The Israeli government is wisely seeing fit to give its populace a better chance to survive such attacks.
Now it has been more than 25 years since I was last in Israel, but one of my lasting impressions of the country was how prevalent guns were. Of course, one would see armed soldiers and police as one would expect. But the people who led our youth group carried rifles with them and we would see civilians with rifles over their shoulders when he walked the streets. It took some getting accustomed to, but I think we were safer for it. Walking with adults who were armed made people with bad intentions less likely to carry them out.
I wish our government and media would react in such a rational manner the next time there is a mass shooting in this country. However, I don’t think that day will come anytime soon.
