Following the rise in terror attacks across Israel, the legal defense organization Honenu is calling on Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) to fix the bureaucratic procrastination in his Ministry and in the police over gun licenses.
Honenu has been dealing with the issue for years and is finding more and more cases in which citizens, including members of emergency response teams and reserve officers in the IDF’s special forces units, are struggling to receive gun licenses, or lose their licenses for strange reasons. When they try to fix the problems, they are confronted by delays and barriers.
In most cases Honenu is able to restore the gun licenses, though doing so requires navigating through a complex bureaucratic process.
The organization states that most of the cases result from the opening of a criminal case, even if it is over a minor issue unrelated to violence or if the file is immediately closed. Even these cases can result in a citizen losing his or her gun license due to a clerk’s decision.
By Menahem Schwartz