Every time there is a terror attack in the United States (caveat: they haven’t [yet] declared the incident in Florida as a terror attack), my Facebook page is filled with people calling for gun control and each time, I respond the same way.
Banning guns won’t stop terrorism because guns are not the cause. Our experience in Israel is just the opposite. At the start of our latest intifada, the mayor of Jerusalem came out with a relatively bold statement – he ASKED people to come armed to the city, to carry your guns. As a result, the vast majority of instances of terror in the city have been neutralized in seconds if not a minutes.
By contrast, in Tel Aviv, which has a much lower percentage of guns at any given time on the street, the mayor didn’t do this – and in several cases, a terrorist rampaged through the streets or whatever until finally an armed policeman was able to neutralize the terrorist. In one case, several people in the restaurant were licensed gun owners who left their guns at home. In another, people were able to videotape the terrorist running past vehicles and stabbing the drivers wherever he found an open window – no gun took him down, no one shot him for close to 10 minutes.
Guns DO NOT kill people…and had a gun in trusted hands been on site in most of the terror attacks in the States, the results would have been vastly different. I won’t go so far as to say guns save lives because again, that’s people who do it. Guns in the hands of good people can save lives and guns in the hands of bad people can’t be regulated by laws which they are intent on breaking anyway.
by Paula R. Stern
