America has a Second Amendment and Israel does not. Most people don’t realize that Israel has some of the most draconian gun laws imaginable. Only 2% of Israeli civilians can legally own a gun. And even then, after undergoing an extremely rigorous background check and licensing test, an Israeli is allowed only one handgun and, until recently, one box of 50 rounds of ammunition. In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, Israeli authorities granted new firearm license holders permission to purchase … 100 bullets. …

Only because Hamas fighters had no reason to fear for their own safety, and knowing that Israelis were defenseless, were they able to pull off such an atrocity. Israel’s willingness to leave its citizens so vulnerable is simply incomprehensible. Was it not a mere 80 years ago when defenseless Jews were led to the slaughter?

An American style of gun ownership would allow citizens to defend themselves without relying on the police or military. It would enable citizens to be truly independent. October 7 in Israel would have been very different. If Israel had a Second Amendment, October 7 would have been just another Shabbos, and Israeli Jews could have celebrated Simchas Torah in peace.

I’ve always said and I believe that had the Jews in 1938 been armed, there wouldn’t have been a Holocaust. But I fear something different this time.

[Doris Wise founded Jews Can Shoot not just to teach reliable self-defense to fellow Jews but to emphasize the need for it. That was ten years ago. The necessity has never been greater in that decade than right now, both in Israel and in the US. — Ed]