And it - combined with extremely vigorous Israeli military action against terrorist camps - ended the problem.  After which Israel gradually ratcheted its restrictions on civilian firearm ownership back to where they'd been, and beyond.  

But then came October 6 - and the video of largely-defenseless Israelis being murdered in the largest pogrom since the Holocaust caused some Israelis to remember the past that their government policies condemned them to repeat.  

And, in some cases, to revisit those policies.  Israeli National Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir came to the US to talk security, with President Trump and Florida Representative Brian Mast - who is a veteran of both the US and Israeli militaries:

Chairman @RepBrianMast met with @itamarbengvir today to discuss America’s shared national security interests with Israel. pic.twitter.com/tMDDmRdn0b

— House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority (@HouseForeignGOP) April 28, 2025

Ben-Gvir - called "ultra-right" by American liberals (his Wikipedia entry is a case study in liberal dog-whistling) - is a hard liner on defense.  

And he noticed something about American security culture:

Prior to his meeting with Mast, Ben-Gvir had the chance to visit [Rep. Mast's] home state where he saw something that he wanted to take back with him to Israel: gun culture.

Ben-Gvir has long been an advocate for wider distribution of firearms in Israel, and while he was visiting the U.S., he took time to see how America handles guns. He had the opportunity to visit both a shooting range and a gun store, which he said was "fascinating."

"I was surprised by the quantity and types of weapons available. Even I haven’t reached that level," Ben-Gvir told Fox News Digital.

To be clear, Ben-Gvir considers that a feature, not a bug.  

American liberals, snug in their blue-city condominiums, are not amused:

Compared with the U.S., Israel has relatively restrictive firearm laws. It also has a mandatory national military service requirement for citizens over age 18, and with few exceptions, guns are restricted to Israelis with weapons training or in security professions. Untrained civilians, including the vast majority of Palestinian citizens of Israel, who are exempt from military service, don't qualify.

Israelis have "a defense mentality rather than an offense mentality" when it comes to guns, says Jonah Mink, 38, a physician who grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., but moved to Israel five years ago and became an Israeli citizen. In Israel, he says, "there's actually something real and immediate to defend against and not just an abstract notion of defense from bad guys."

It's hard not to hear the misguided condescension in Dr. Mink's voice; the logical response from American gun owners is "Abstract threats?  Dang skippy, And we're here to do our best to keep it that way".  Abstract threats - the ones that don't kill you - are the best kind of threats!

Ben-Gvir is undeterred:

"We need to allow as many citizens as possible to be armed. It gives people a sense of security—when someone has a weapon in their pocket, they feel safer," Ben-Gvir told Fox News Digital.
He added that he had been fighting to arm communities near Gaza but said people "didn’t listen to me. After Oct. 7, I was proven right. It became clear how necessary it was to provide more weapons to civil defense squads."

There's a bit of dark humor among American shooters:  "when seconds count, the police are minutes away".   It's true with the IDF as well.