Something I learned here in Israel… it is virtually impossible for most Israelis to own a gun. Aside from air rifles and .22 target guns you must be either an active duty soldier in the army or meet some very stringent requirements in order to pack heat. The average Israeli household cannot own a shotgun or hunting rifle (there is nowhere to hunt in the maze of concrete high-rises that dominates the landscape of the Mediterranean’s most densely populated country). A fully automatic weapon is completely out of the question for civilians.
[Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza can and do own weapons, of course, and in fact most of them were supplied by the Israeli government. Yes, that’s right. The Labor government supplied the Palestinians with thousands of rifles and pistols so that they could set up a police force. These weapons have now found their way into the hands of Palestinian civilians. Thus when a Palestinian shoots an Israeli civilian or soldier it is very likely done with a gun paid for by that Israeli’s taxes.]
I used to be amazed that Israelis showed such restraint. They are crammed in like sardines. They have world-class traffic jams and a disregard for traffic laws (more Israelis are killed in car accidents than by terrorism or war). Just walking around on the street you hear a lot of people shouting at each other. I figured “it is amazing that more people don’t pull the M-16 off the top of the fridge and fill the air with lead”. It turns out that they don’t have M-16s or any of the other toys that give meaning to life as an American.
An Israeli asked me whether it was true that Americans could own serious guns privately and expressed amazement that this was indeed possible. He said “We read about this in the newspaper but the Americans that I’ve met seem quiet and non-aggressive.” My reply: “An armed society is a polite society” 🙂
You should watch the debates in the Knesset sometimes, they often turn into fistfights. 😉
Something confuses me: I thought that all adult Israelis are former soldiers, and that many of them are reserve soldiers and therefore have an automatic weapon stored in a safe at home.
To Guan:
Here in Israel most adults are indeed reserve soldiers, but none of us store any military equipment at home. In fact, it is against the law to keep ANY military property outside the reserves duty time period. We are simply re-issued all the gear we need (i.e. personal rifle, fatigues, etc.) every time we arrive at the army base and must return it when we depart back to civilian life. Apart from being safer for the general public, this is chiefly done in order to save money by reuse.
“An armed society is a polite society”: If that were really true, the people living in the Gaza strip would have been the most polite in the world…
Just a quick note — it’s also very difficult for American civilians to (legally) own a fully automatic weapon. Doesn’t mean, of course, that it’s not relatively easy to pick one up.
I’ve always found the notion that “An armed society is a polite society” hilarious. It’s only true if you believe that shooting other people is “polite” — Israel’s murder rate is something like a quarter of the US’s. I’d say that makes up for a lot of rudeness.
I am sure it is. But then why, every time I see news footage of the Jewish settlements in occupied teretories do I see every other person go shopping with an Uzi slung from their shoulders?
Although, on the subject of gun ownership: it is really people who kill, not guns. If Michael Moore’s excelent movie “Bowling for Culumbine” can be believed, Canadians own more guns per capita than Americans do. Yet their annual gun death rate is in the low three figures, south of the border it is almost 12.000!
The problem is nobody wants to talk about race and crime in America. It’s not “nice”. It could very well be racist. Therefore I won’t address it. Now I feel better.
However, let me assure you that as an avid gun owner and collector, I am handsome, debonair, devil-may-care, peaceful to the extreme and a just an all around light hearted gentleman. Just don’t ever cheat me in a business deal.
There’s reason to suspect the facts as presented by Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine:
http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html
Frankly speaking, I think the comment on the Labor party is totally untrue. The quantity of Weapons in Gaza and the West Bank is fairly limited and most of it has been purchased from some body in the settlements who are usually heavily armed. (In the occupied territory, It cost around 2K-3K $ to buy the rifle) and almost 1-3 $ per bullet.
I agree that the people are not all armed, but come on, we have 170,000 Soldiers are in duty in cities and around the cities plus 100,000 of Shien Beit, security, .. ++ All the settlers.
Also we Have all the F16, Apache, Nuclear Bombs, US Aid and US Tax Dollars
So we are really safe
As a Canadian, I can only giggle at this statement…