Israel and Gun Control

 Israel and Gun Control - American Thinker

Stern feels that Biden is also too focused on protecting Hamas and civilian casualties, and that his behavior in pressuring Israel on how to prosecute the war is unforgivable. “He should not be trying to place any conditions, and try to hinder Israel in any way, and I’m definitely disappointed about that, but I’m not surprised.”

. . ."According to Stern, “almost nobody is allowed to own guns at all” in Israel. But most citizens enter the Israeli military at 18, and they are issued a rifle. Americans who enter the military are also issued rifles, but the difference is that American soldiers aren’t permitted to keep their rifles in their possession off base. “But in Israel it doesn’t work like that, in Israel, the soldiers usually leave their bases carrying their rifles with them,” says Stern. Upon discharge from the IDF, however, the rifle is taken from the Israeli soldier. And from the sounds of it, that soldier may never be able to even get a handgun, never mind a rifle, again. Images in the news recently of IDF soldiers carrying their weapons are contributing to public deception around the idea of “loosened” gun-control laws in Israel. “The problem is that people see these off-duty soldiers, very often who walk around in civilian clothes, carrying M16s on their back,” says Stern. “And the conclusion that outsiders come to, ‘oh look at that all these civilians in Israel are armed, they can just walk around lugging M16s on their back,’ and they see [Israel] as a gun utopia.”

"If you are worried about gun control in America, you would not want to be an Israeli citizen. There is no Second Amendment in Israel. In fact, the second law that the Israeli legislature passed in 1949 was the confiscation of all firearms and munitions. About 2% of private citizens in Israel own firearms, as compared to 30% of people in the United States. “Out of those 2%, those lucky few who do have a firearm license in Israel, it’s only good for one pistol, no rifles, no shotgun, just one measly pistol.”