Gun laws of Israel

The news article, “'A reservist gets a gun to defendthe state - but not himself?', by Ari Soffer gives focus to the issue of gun licensing laws in Israel.  The recent uproar of why gun control has been a debating topic in Israel is because of the constant and violent attacks by terrorists on the citizens of Israel; alongside the murder of IDF Sergeant Yanai Weissman.  In addition, the larger debate is on how a reservist is allowed to carry an automatic weapon during a certain time of the year, and the rest of the year, one cannot carry a simple handgun. 

If one was to walk around Israel, the first thought that would come to mind regarding defensiveness would be confidently high because of the large amount of guns being carried throughout the streets.  However though, the majority of people who are permitted to carry a weapon openly are soldiers, police, and security guards, and this has been more prominent because of the recent murder of IDF Sergeant Yanai Weissman.  Resulting from his murder, military members are required to have their military issued weapon on them, even while off duty.  Citizens can carry open weapons too, but there are only a select few, and it equals to only 2-4% of the entire population.  Currently in Israel, the gun laws are only applicable to the citizens who live in designated dangerous zones within Israel, like Judea and Samaria, and some areas of Jerusalem. 

According to the news article, that in order to keep the entire country safe from terrorist attacks on its defenseless people, gun ownership needs to be less restrictive towards its citizens.  The man behind this movement is Amir Ohana.  Amir Ohana, is a politician that serves on the Knesset for Likud, and he is also the first openly gay person to serve on the Knesset.  Amir Ohana’s is arguing that the current laws regarding gun

Amir Ohana at a pride event

proprietorship is unfair towards its citizens and needs to be modified in order to keep everyone safe.  Ohana points out that in comparison to the United States, Israel has hardly anything in terms of gun ownership.  As stated from an interview with Ohana, “Gun ownership in the United States stands at 112%, when taking into account the fact that many people own more than one gun (in Israel, licensed gun owners can only own a single handgun).  (Soffer) Ohana compares Israel to the United States because he thinks that we are almost spoiled in the fact that we have so much lenience with our gun laws when there is no threat to actually qualify the need to guns.  In Israel, there are terrorists constantly attacking defenseless citizens, and as Ohana stated, "We cannot expect our citizens to defend themselves with umbrellas and shopping carts.” (Soffer) 

When reading this article, the points being made about how guns can be a benefit to the country of Israel seem to be very logical and practical.  Without a doubt the country is under random acts of terrorism, and civilians are many times subjected to this without any forms of defense.  The author of the article, Ari Soffer used Ohana as the main protagonist for the fight for gun rights in Israel.  Within the article, Soffer takes interviews from Ohana describing his thoughts on the gun control issue.  The accuracy of this article is solely based on an interview with a Ohana, leaving Soffer as just an informant as to what Ohana’s opinions are about the concern.  Soffer is very against having gun control within Israel and is a supporter of Ohana’s beliefs on the matter. 

Gun control in Israel is currently very restrictive, and only allows a select few carry them under specific conditions.  In Soffer’s article he explains a great deal about politician Amir Ohana and his recent uproar on the current gun control policy in Israel.  The article goes into Ohana’s thoughts and what should be done in order to make Israel a safer place for its citizens.