Before the October 7^th attacks, Israel had nothing like our Second Amendment. Though not a European nation, Israelis have a very much liberal European attitude toward liberty and social controls, and that includes European attitudes on gun control. The Times of Israel noted:

Gun control in Israel is relatively strict, and firearm licenses are generally only granted to those who can show a need for extra security in their line of work or daily life. Meaning, one of the key criteria for a private citizen to receive permission to own a gun is where they live.

We think of Israel as being a heavily armed nation, replete with images of soldiers carrying automatic weapons, and the near-universal military draft for men and women alike, but that’s not the case. Even in the kibbutz near the border with Gaza, most weapons were kept not in private residences, but central armories, and, hit with a surprise attack, few residents had time to arm themselves, and they were met with torture, rape, and murder. The Times of Israel, just three days after the attack, still put a loosening of gun control laws as a “right-wing” issue:

Relaxing Israel’s restrictive gun license laws has long been championed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, as well as some libertarian-leaning right-wing politicians, but it is an issue that has not gained much traction, despite occasional reports of high-level discussions on the issue.

It would appear that Minister Ben Gvir was right all along, but journalist Gavriel Fiske was still infected with the more liberal attitude.

However, it seems that Israelis are voting with their actions on the issue. From Bloomberg:

Anxious and Armed, Israel Has Been Transformed After Hamas Attack

• After Oct. 7’s security failings many citizens take up arms

• Israel’s Jews and Arabs alike are gripped by a sense of unease

By Gwen Ackerman and Alisa Odenheimer | Thursday, December 14, 2023 | 2:00 AM EST

Israeli children, long free to wander, are now routinely chaperoned. Gun license applications are up by a factor of eight. Self-defense classes are oversubscribed.

Since Hamas operatives crossed into Israel on a killing and kidnapping spree on Oct. 7, a society that enjoyed 15 years of calm and rising prosperity remains haunted by scenes of slaughter. Israelis have been left traumatized by the fear that thousands of militants on their borders will try again — and that their security services might again fail.

“This is a natural reaction to the shock we are going through,” said David Passig, professor of future studies at Bar Ilan University, of the way ordinary citizens are rushing to arm themselves. He has had a weapon for 35 years that was kept locked away, he said, except for mandatory practice sessions. “Now I’m walking around with it.”

I have previously noted how applications for licenses to carry concealed weapons soared in heavily Democratic Philadelphia after 2021’s record-shattering homicide surge. In situations in which people do not believe the government can protect them from the bad guys, it’s normal for them to seek protective measures for themselves.

The political impact of this anxiety is likely to be profound, even if it has yet to fully play out. National security has long been the calling card of Israel’s right. Yet it was the right, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that failed to stop the invasion that killed about 1,200 and led to the abduction of 240 others.

Polls show disillusionment with Netanyahu and support shifting to the more centrist opposition leader Benny Gantz — part of the newly formed war cabinet. But there’s little appetite for compromise with Palestinians, as so many abroad have urged.

The nation’s dark mood reflects a level of threat unknown to the Israeli public for many years, said Dan Orbach, a military historian at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. People have been motivated by disquiet that the “allegedly mighty Israeli military isn’t able to protect you, even in the most basic sense,” he said.

The number of people applying for gun licenses over the past two months has soared to 260,000, with the volume of new requests each day exceeding those received each week before the war began.

Although the country has widened eligibility, the criteria for approval remain strict. As of the last week of November, 26,000 new applications had been approved while 16,000 people were rejected as unfit to carry a firearm.

We are not told why the 16,000 rejected applicants were deemed “unfit to carry a firearm.” It’s possible that they simply lived and worked in Tel Aviv, which is considered safe.

But this is what happens when seconds count, and the police, or in this case, the Israel Defense Force, are minutes or even hours away. We’ve all seen the stories of brave reservists, discharged veterans, and Israeli women ran toward the fire rather than fleeing from it, fighting the attacking terrorists, and in some cases paying for their bravery with their lives. But let’s tell the truth here: if the residents of the kibbutzim had, and were known to have, firearms in their homes, rather than being lambs awaiting the slaughter, Hamas’ attack would have been beaten off with few Israeli casualties. And, more probably, had the residents been known to be armed, the Hamas assault would not have occurred in the first place.

It would have been the difference between an attack on Franklin, New York, and Brownsville, Texas; who would be stupid enough to attack Texans?
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