Professor Barnett's point is exactly right. But I'd like to build on it a bit to show why this really should be the end of the gun control debate, even though it won't be.
— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) October 9, 2023
Around 700 Israeli civilians were murdered yesterday by Hamas terrorists. That figure is likely to go up… https://t.co/CzZ4LArgz3
This article was originally posted on X.com. It’s being syndicated here with the permission of its author.
Professor Barnett’s point is exactly right. But I’d like to build on it a bit to show why this really should be the end of the gun control debate, even though it won’t be.
Around 700 Israeli civilians were murdered yesterday by Hamas terrorists. That figure is likely to go up as the fog of war clears and proper counting of those lost can happen, but we can use it as a reference point for now. As far as we know, the 700 is not counting IDF forces who responded and were killed in subsequent combat, but rather just murdered civilians.
Israel is a much smaller country than the US, with a bit under 10 million people. 700 killed in a country of 10 million would be the equivalent of about 24,000 Americans being killed in an organized terrorist attack, if you scaled up the population to match our own. That’s the weight of the damage to Israel, it’s like they had eight 9/11s all on one day.
So let’s bring it back to gun control. Israel foolishly does not have a right to bear arms, meaning there could be no immediate resistance to the Hamas invaders, and they had free reign to slaughter until IDF could respond. Let’s assume that gun control in Israel has saved a handful of lives over the years (a charitable assumption). It has certainly not saved 700 lives, especially when you factor in the many murders by terrorist sympathizers that could have been prevented or mitigated by armed Israeli citizens.
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What does this mean for the US? Well, let’s be honest. The main reason the gun control side has any momentum here is because of mass shootings. There are certainly some household murders done with guns, as there are some people killed in the crossfire by criminals shooting at each other. But for the most part in the US, if you don’t engage in gangs, the illegal drug trade, or other criminal activity, gun-related crime is extremely unlikely to affect you. That’s why several very pro-gun states that have low gang/drug crime also have homicide rates akin to European countries. In most of the US, you are quite safe from gun-related crime if you aren’t a criminal.
Mass shootings, however, change that calculus because even though they are rare, they can affect innocent people anywhere. Schools, grocery stores, concerts, movie theaters. If it weren’t for mass shootings, the gun control movement would basically be dead outside of the most hardcore Democrat bastion cities. They very blatantly use mass shootings for momentum to push their authoritarian gun control policies while people are still reeling from tragedy and susceptible to liberty-eroding “solutions” that never deliver the promised results.
Israel is at war.
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 9, 2023
We didn’t want this war.
It was forced upon us in the most brutal and savage way.
But though Israel didn’t start this war, Israel will finish it.
Once, the Jewish people were stateless.
Once, the Jewish people were defenseless.
No longer.
Hamas will… pic.twitter.com/eVECGnzLu3
That’s the sole reason there are laws in some states banning so-called “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines.” AR15s and the like are rarely used in more routine sorts of crimes, but they have been used in some high profile mass shootings to inflict unspeakable horror.
The reason we have the right to have such weapons though is in case we ever go through what Israel is now going through. A handgun or a shotgun is just not nearly as effective against well-armed hardened killers as a semiautomatic rifle is.
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Remember the figure I cited earlier of an equivalent attack if scaled to our country’s size – 24,000 dead. And that’s just the initial attack, not everything else that follows. According to Mother Jones’s database, if you added up every single mass shooting in the US combined since 1982, you’d have 1,128 fatalities. Many of those were done with just handguns, but for this argument assume all the perpetrators used semiauto rifles.
Israel had well over half that inflicted on it in just a day, despite its much smaller population. (And of course, if we had Israel’s population size, our 1,128 mass shooting fatalities would fall to around 34 total dead.)
The fact of the matter is, a domestic tyrant or a foreign invader can inflict more damage on us in mere minutes or hours than all the losses we’ve had from all our major mass shootings combined.
Some may say in response to this that it could never happen here, we don’t have a Gaza equivalent on our borders. It is, thankfully, less likely here thanks to our nice moat, and relatively friendly neighbors. I hope such a day never comes.
That said, I categorically reject arguments with this sort of “end of history” assumption built in. Things can go bad here. It may not be in our lifetime if we are fortunate, or our children’s. But we are the caretakers of a right passed down since antiquity and codified into our Bill of Rights as the Second Amendment. We do not have the moral right to surrender it. And some day, we may be glad we didn’t.
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But, see, that’s why the Dems want us all to be disarmed – so they can turn us over to their Chinese overlords without any ready means of resistance.
We are not in 1982 so the last full year is 2022.
The United States cannot be invaded except to tin foil hat brigade who know nothing about why invading the US is impossible by any nation or alliance of nations.
The question of a “tyrant” government is a possibility. If that happens people who look like me and darker will lose our 2 Amendment rights. The only tyrant possible in the US is only going to be a white guy of a political persuasion that is now showing what they are across the country with book banning, deleting the hard truths of history that is taught, etc. Things that Hamas has implemented. If you criticize Hamas and its leaders you will be arrested. Florida is attempting an even better version of the previous. They are attempting to pass a law that requires you to report yourself to the state of Florida if you criticize Desantis or any white republican governor. You know because once a law is enacted its hard to kill.
MAGA is now well on its way to becoming Hamas.
By the way all the “militias” are like the Middle Eastern militias sworn to whoever. They are not well regulated as stated in the 2nd Amendment so they are criminal organizations no different than the other gangs in the US. The racist militia violence will become lethal as they threaten to do if the Democratic nominee wins election or reelection and their is a blue wave due to all those new voters turning 18 every year who outnumber the dying right. MAGA is just a fancier Klan at this point. Sadly many aren’t actually racist they’ve just been bamboozled into aligning with racists.
just trying to protect ourselves from invaders like you!!!
TDS has fried your simple mind. I seriously hope you’re either a bot or you’re getting paid a lot to be that stupid. FJB!
Bigoted much ?
The train doesn’t stop at your station does it.
You sir are a simpleton, take your TDS and stick it up your keister.
Man, you just a rambling idiot.
For those of you reading this, I guarantee that 99% of you are wondering why in the world Israel WOULDN’T have liberal (in the true sense of the word) gun laws a la Arizona, where I happen to live.
Let me school you, especially you secular Jews who don’t know shit about your own people: Israel, while a vibrant capitalist democracy, is VERY MUCH a socialist country in every way, shape and form. While Jews from all over the world live in Israel (called “keeboots galyu-ote”, the ingathering of the exiles) the country was REESTABLISHED by Jews from Europe in the 1800s who were used to serving in armies through forced conscription but were never allowed to own firearms of their own.
YES, the khalutsim (pioneers) of pre-state Israel DID carry guns, but not in public, always hidden safely from the prying eyes of the Ottoman Turkish and later British overlords.
In Israel, ownership of private firearms IS allowed, but the laws are draconian, a la New York, New Jersey or California.
I am not very optimistic that Israel will liberalize it’s guns laws even with the recent massacres.
Steve Marcus
IDF S/N 4383858
you can get a firearm (even fully auto assault rifle) if you live or interact with red zones areas and the red zone population or live near by red zone just Pepole didn’t apply or they trust armed forces to protect them and you know what happened…….
Switzerland had mandatory service like Israel. All discharged men sent home with their weapons. Like Israel, they were surrounded by belligerents. A no brained.
Biden’s border surrender policy has allowed hundreds, if not thousands (we have no way of knowing) of potential terrorist to enter the U.S. in rthe last 3 years. These people are masters at exploiting weakness. When an attack comes (and it will come), biden will blame it on right -wing radicals and recommend new gun laws.
how many taliban came here from the afghanistan withdraw. I doubt there was anyone on hand to verify who was a friendly.
Has everything to do with people control and anti gunners could care less about facts! The country has a history of not putting up with freedom crushing individuals and that is what gets in the way of the people control agenda! I am surprised many do not look at the recent spate of anti gun laws in democrat controlled states when there is an election coming up, should tell people that they have no intention of losing the election!
I’d sacrifice every Israeli for Americans to have more rights 🙂
How about we just sacrifice you, imbecile.
I was astonished to learn Israeli citizens aren’t armed. If any country on Earth needs to have that, it’s Israel.
When did the doctors pronounce you brain-dead?
while it certainly should stop all talk of gun control it won’t because American people are to brain washed to realize the dangers that exist in this country with millions of the illegals being moslim terrorists. one day they will rise up and slaughter all the Americans they can. no guns make you an easy target even if you don’t want a gun do not deny others their right to protect themselves and maybe even you and your family. wake up while you still can do something about saving you and America.
In my life I have seen some pretty disturbing examples of group violence. The LA riots come to mind, much more recently the Soros riots but nothing compares to the recent, foolish and cowardly attack by Hamas.
Once thing I have noticed about the Palastinian people, they want the world to embrace their cause and there is a lot of support in the brain washing institutions in the US. Do they ever care enough to speak up when African Muslims kidnap African Christian girls and make them slaves? Do they ever take a moral stand beyond their own self interest? The Palastinian people seem to think their cause is the only one that should matter, its NOT even an old struggle compared to many other struggles.
Hamas has reached a new low in the world of cheap shots and lots of innocent people will pay.
what debate? we want to be able to defend ourselves, they don’t want that, but since we are the people paying them to carryout our wishes they need to do what we want period!!!!!