“The average citizen has no right to own any type of weapon whatsoever, and doing so illegally will land him or her in jail for many years. In situations like these, selecting who gets to have access to firearms and who doesn’t is the equivalent of selecting who gets to live or die.”
On October 7, the day Hamas attacked Israel, Inbal Rabin-Lieberman, a 25-year-old security coordinator at the Kibbutz Nir Am settlement located near the Gaza Strip, saved lives because she had a gun. After the kibbutz came under attack, Inbal hurriedly opened the armory and distributed guns to the twelve-member security team.
She caught the Hamas murderers unawares because they were not expecting to meet armed resistance. Lieberman killed five terrorists while the others gunned down twenty-five before the Israeli Defense Force arrived. Because of her actions, Nir-Am was the only settlement bordering the Gaza Strip that did not suffer Israeli casualties during Hama’s attack.
The number of Israelis killed in the terrorist attack is over 1,400. How many of those deaths could have been averted had more Israelis owned guns? Israel has draconian gun-control laws, worse than those in New York City. Only three percent (3%) of Israeli citizens own guns (compared to about thirty-two percent (32%) of U.S. citizens).
By Hank Vanderbeek