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Why I Got a Gun

(Free Press) Matti Friedman - I was recently at an indoor shooting range in Jerusalem watching new gun-license applicants blast paper targets. They included a young mother who'd been evacuated from Sderot after Hamas terrorists killed dozens of her neighbors on Oct. 7. A religious woman was trying out a stomach holster that could be concealed under her shirt - she's a kindergarten teacher and doesn't want to frighten the children. Many visitors to Israel are startled by the sight of armed young men and women in uniform carrying M-16s on the bus, assuming an enthusiasm for weapons and a free approach to acquiring them. But Israelis have no legal right to bear arms. Guns are simply a tool for protection against the Arab violence that has shaped this society over the last century. Before Oct. 7, less than 2% of Israelis owned guns. Since the attacks, more than 300,000 Israelis have requested gun permits. Gun ownership is still tightly restricted and involves paperwork beyond the wildest dreams of U.S. gun-control advocates. If you're cleared for a permit by the Ministry of Internal Security after a background check of your medical and psychological records and your military service, and then pass a test that includes firing 100 bullets, you're licensed to own and carry a single weapon. You cannot buy another gun. It's virtually impossible to buy a rifle. For years, we have suffered regular episodes in which Palestinian men go berserk in public places with knives or guns, killing people until they themselves are shot and killed by security forces or an armed civilian. In Jerusalem, where I live, I can think of a dozen such attacks in the last year. We have now absorbed lessons from the Hamas attack. The first is that we could not afford any further delusions about the intentions or capabilities of our Palestinian neighbors. These delusions had just led to the deaths of 1,200 Israelis like us, many of whom were murdered in their kitchens and living rooms, and to the kidnapping of 250 more, with enthusiastic support across the Palestinian public. The second lesson involved our basic assumption that security forces would always arrive fast. In Israel, guns are a matter of communal defense. The writer was an Associated Press reporter in Jerusalem between 2006 and 2011.
2024-04-11 00:00:00
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