After reading Freehold
, I often contemplated whether or not such a society could exist within the confines of the “modern” world. Unfortunately, the product of those times of introspection was essentially, “No.” The theoretical country would have to be just as selective, just as isolationist, just as protective, and just as well-heeled as Freehold was within its book, and I honestly doubt such a thing would operate successfully in our world. Too many people would be too jealous. Too many people would be too interested in acquiring it before it could have gotten sufficiently off its training wheels. Too many people would be too hateful. Too many people would be interested in gaining access by non-legal methods (just see how easy it is here in America). Such a concept, I thought, would not effectively survive its development in our world, much less force other nations to come to terms with its existence. Human rights organizations would go ballistic. Hoplophobes around the world would project sufficiently to power an IMAX screen. Bands of workers with mops would have to be dispatched to lawyers’ offices due to the drool. Such a thing could not be.
Well, I had completely forgotten about Israel.
Herb; “But, but, why do you carry a gun?! And a machine gun for that matter?! You’re an American!!! We don’t do that sort of thing!”
I replied; “Well, then your obviously not from the same part of America that I’m from! Where I come from, people do that sort of thing everyday.”
Marge; “We’re from New York, and people don’t even own guns where we live!”
Me; “Oh yes they do! Half of everybody you know owns a gun. They just don’t talk about it or carry it.”
Herb; “No, that can’t be! There’s NO WAY! We’d know about it!”
Me; “Would you?”
Marge; “Well, I guess not. Not if they don’t talk about it.”
Me; “Approximately half of all New Yorkers own guns, statistically speaking.”
Herb; “Well, then… I guess you learn something new everyday.”
Me; “In my case, I carry both here in Israel and Stateside in Connecticut. Although, admittedly, the style of carry and the weapon selection is vastly different between those two locations.”
Herb; “Yeah, I’ll say! You sure don’t see kids walking around with automatic weapons in New York!”
Me laughing; “Sure ya do! They’re just breaking the law there. There’s a big difference.
Marge; “No, he means doing it legally!”
Me; “I wish that we did though. I like the Israeli method better.”
Marge; “Really!! But imagine how much crime there would be!”
Me again laughing hysterically; “Oh yeah! Take a look around you! Do you see shootouts and mass murders in the streets?!! Okay, okay…. aside from the Palestinian terrorists attacks, do you see OK corral shootouts and mass murders in the streets here?!”
Herb; “Well no, but…”
Me interrupting him; “But nothing! Aside from the terrorist attacks, Israel has essentially NO violent crime! Our citizen-on-citizen violent crime rate is the lowest in the entire developed world! Why do you think that is? It’s cause EVERYBODY’S armed! No criminal in their right mind is going to try to mug or rape a Jew in Israel. They know that they’ll get shot about 50 or 60 times before they can even get going! Imagine if that was the case in America. Every law-abiding citizen walked around with a gun. There would be NO CRIME!!! Criminals would be scared shitless of doing anything wrong to anyone!”
Herb; “Well yeah, I guess that you have a point, but I would be too scared in America to go outside my house if I knew that everybody that I met was armed!”
Me; “Well, how do you feel right now? Do you feel scared, or nervous, or do you feel calm and relaxed?”
Marge; “Well, right now I feel calm and relaxed, I guess.”
Me; “Yeah, well guess what. EVERYBODY around you right now is armed!! (There were about 40 or so people in the coffe shop at that moment, about half of them with automatic weapons over their shoulders or on their hips, but I approached a random guy wearing a kippah sitting in a chair, no weapon visible, reading a Tenach (the old testament).
Me, to the random guy, speaking in Hebrew; “Hey sir, what’s your name?”
Random guy; “Moshe Latsman, why?”
Me (showing him my IDF ID card); “Corporal (my hebrew name), Israeli Army. Are you armed?”
Moshe Latsman; “Of course!”
Me; “Let’s see that weapon and permit.”
Moshe stands up, opens up his suit jacket, reaches with his right hand to his left shoulder holster, and pulls out a glock 23 (.40 caliber compact) and hands it over to me. Herb and Marge look stunned! The look on their faces were priceless! I look over the guys permit and gun, tell him he’s all set (even though the gun he was carrying WASN’T the Heckler and Koch USP .45 that he was registered for, but I couldn’t give two shits less) and he goes back to doing his thing.
Me (to Herb and wife); “See, I told you. EVERYBODY that you see is ARMED! Now tell me, do you feel any less safe than you did a grand total of thirty seconds ago?”
Herb; “Well, no, I guess not, but I still don’t like guns.”
Me; “And that’s your perogative and you’re welcome to it. Just don’t force that on other people, or allow our politicians back in the States to force it on us!”
Read the whole thing. It is worth it.
However, I will break it down for those unwilling to do so. First, the author of the piece is a dual citizen in both America and Israel. Israel requires military service from their citizens (three years, I believe it is), and then after that, everyone is still considered to be part of the officially-recognized “populus militia” (I do so like that phrase.). The person in question served out a year and a half (due to his dual citizenship, he could choose whether or not he wanted to serve, and, if so, for how long), and was relating an experience he had while in Tel Aviv recently. In fact, it appears he was sworn in at Masada… For the uneducated, that would be much the same as an American being sworn in at the Alamo, or maybe Pearl Harbor. Only bigger.
The experience was thus: Just about everyone over the age of 14 or so in Israel carries assault weapons, in an open-carry manner. Let me repeat that, just for emphasis: Almost everyone within the Israeli state, all the way down to 14 year olds, and all the way up to… whatever the oldest guy may be, carries assault weapons, open and in public. And when I say “assault weapon”, do not mean the idiotic, aesthetically-defined nonsense put out by Kalifornistan, but rather firearms that are fully-automatic, military-grade pieces of hardware. Uzis (Which are remarkably cheap over there… after all, they are constructed in Israel.). Galils. Tavors. Probably a few AKs or even M16s. Maybe an FN or two (… really, I only included that link because that gun just looks so damned cool.) But fully-automatic variants. Carried by civilians. Ex-military members, the majority of them (if not all of them), but now “just” citizens. And carried in the open, not in a concealed manner, in public, and obviously so. In fact, concealed carry is viewed in a negative light in Israel – as if the person doing so has something to hide. It is permitted, with the appropriate investigation, interview, and authorization, but it is few and far between… and when you can carry just about anything you want on your hip/thigh or shoulder, why would you bother with the effort of concealed carry?
Alright, at this point, we should probably give the hoplophobes reading this post the chance to pick themselves up off the floor. Take your time. We are in no rush.
So with the majority of Israeli adults (like 90% of them) sporting weaponry that many a Marine would be at least slightly envious of, do they experience shoot-outs, and blood running in the streets, and all of the other hyperbolic situations the hoplophobes in America are painting when people propose more firearm ownership / changing the laws to be a little more allowing? Well, yes, but those situations are the product of Palestinian suicide bombings, shootings of civilians, and continuations of the conflict. However, when it comes to actual crime in Israel, and citizens shooting other citizens… well, in a few words, it just does not happen. In fact, in the late 1990s, Israel was the fifth-safest place in the world for murders. And since those late 1990s, physical crime has only decreased every year (with general crime only seeing a recent increase). If you wanted to go so far as to compare different year’s statistics, when both sets of statistics are out of date, Israel’s murder rate in general is 40% of America’s, and it’s murder-by-firearm rate is 19% of America’s.
Now, no, numbers never tell the whole story. The country of Israel is at war, on its own soil, and that alone skews the numbers considerably. People tend to be more concerned about shooting the other guy than shooting each other, so the shifted focus has to be accounted for. That said, the situation is still pretty convincing.
So, to recap…
Real, honest-to-God assault weapons. Like the automatic variety, not the made-up-definition variety.
Everyone has them.
Everyone carries them.
And they carry them in the open.
And, oddly enough, people do not shoot one another with them terribly often.
…
Someone get the paddles, I think I just induced cardiac arrest in a few hundred people around the nation.
Now, no, Israel is not nearly the same society as postulated in Freehold. In fact, there are so many differences I wonder if I should even be comparing them. But, still… the very thought is enough to make me happy. Primarily because it will ruin so many other people’s days, but can you blame me?
Of course, later in the thread, the Israeli-American had this to say about the situation in America:
Connecticut and the United States in general tend to be VERY frustrating for Israeli Jews, who are used to OCing [open-carrying] automatic weapons all the time! Over there, if you CC you tend to feel a mix of guilt and concern. Israelis can usually tell when someone is hidding a weapon (jee, I wonder why?) and anyone who does is immediately cause for suspicious. Real men have NOTHING to hide and OC their assualt rifles and submachine guns. A pistol is NOT going to stop some crazed, jihadist Arab high on brown-brown, hell-bent on committing public suicide and taking out as many Jews with him as possible! Thats the job of AUTOMATICS!
When I CC semi-auto pistols over here, to tell you the truth, I feel like I’m doing something wrong! Men protecting their families and friends carry full-auto and have NOTHING to hide! I’m just itching to move out of this People’s Republic state and into the south, where its acceptable to at least OC!
Well, if that is not a commentary, I am not sure what is.
(Hat tip to… well… everyone. I am kind of behind on this topic, today.)
recent comments