JERUSALEM – There’s an entire country that would probably differ with the White House’s off-key assertion that gun control will help deter terrorists.
The latest so-called wave of terror in Israel has been a case study in how guns actually stop jihadist attacks. So much so that the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, asked residents with gun licenses to carry their weapons at all times. “If you check, you’ll see that in many cases, those who neutralized terrorists were citizens who aren’t necessarily police officers, like former soldiers,” he said.
Last month, Israel eased restrictions on firearms possession across the country. The entire city of Jerusalem and 41 other cities, towns, and local councils were declared “high-priority” areas in which qualified residents receive expedited gun permits.
There’s a reason terrorists here understand that any kind of attack is a suicide mission. The armed guards at cafes, schools, shopping centers, and other soft targets, combined with the prevalence of gun-carrying off-duty soldiers and civilians with permits, make it a virtual certainty that the terrorist will be killed, usually in less than three minutes.
If you shoot up a bus station in Israel, you will be killed pretty quickly. If you stab Israelis, you will be killed within minutes. Today, a 20-year-old Israeli was moderately-to-seriously wounded by a terrorist who was shot dead at the scene.
It is unheard of here in Israel for an attacker to shoot at civilians inside a facility for nearly fifty minutes, entering different parts of the building, reloading and murdering at will, as was the case with the Columbine High School massacre.
The death toll in the Paris jihad would have been much lower had the attacks occurred on Israeli soil precisely because of the abundance of weapons in the hands of those qualified to use them. It’s a statistical probability that someone inside or near any sports stadium or concert hall will be armed.
And let’s not get started on “gun-free” military bases, which stems from a 1992 directive to limit and control firearms in military zones. When I tell my Israeli friends about that brilliant regulation they usually think I’m joking.
Israelis are not sitting ducks because of common sense gun laws that are quickly being eased even further. How many lives could have been saved by even one armed civilian inside the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California?
Perhaps that’s the question to pose to President Obama, who apparently believes gun control will keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists, ignoring the fact that weapons can stop terror attacks.
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest: “President Obama yesterday jumped to say that this mass shooting means it’s time for common sense gun laws. Does the President really think that common sense gun laws would deter terrorists now that he has admitted that these two may have been terrorists?”
Earnest replied: “Yes. The president believes that passing common sense gun laws that makes it harder for people with bad intentions to get guns, makes the country safer.”
Doocy retorted: “But so the president thinks that when there are potentially two terrorists sitting around planning a mass murder they may call it off because President Obama has put in place common sense gun laws?”
Earnest: “Well Peter, we’re still learning of the precise motives of the individuals who carried out this heinous act of violence yesterday. One thing we do know is the four firearms they were wielding were legally purchased under the laws in place now. That’s a fact. So, that might lead some to conclude that we should have made it a little harder for them. Would that have changed the entire outcome? We’re still investigating the situation, but I guess the question is, why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we make it harder for them? What’s the explanation for that?”
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