Sheriff Clarke Omits Details From His Guns-In-Israel Account

Sheriff Clarke admired the presence of armed guards in Israel and an absence of what he called gun control "talk to prevent violence."

I was in Jerusalem last year.  You couldn’t go too far without seeing an Israeli border patrol agent, national police officer or security guard all armed with Uzi’s.  It was impressive and I felt safe.  They don’t talk about gun control in Israel to prevent violence.  They dare gun toting perps to bring it.

Two things:

Unlike here, Israel has extremely tight and tough controls on civilian ownership of guns, as this Jerusalem newspaper report explains:

Israeli gun control regulations 'opposite of US'

According to Yaakov Amit, the head of the Public Security Ministry’s Firearms Licensing Department, the difference between the gun laws in the US and Israel are as clear as night and day.

“There is an essential difference between the two. In America the right to bear arms is written in the law, here it’s the opposite... only those who have a license can bear arms and not everyone can get a license.”

Amit said gun licenses are only given out to those who have a reason because they work in security or law enforcement, or those who live in settlements “where the state has an interest in them being armed.”

And the story goes on to acknowledge a relationship between strict gun controls and reduced mass shootings:

Aside from Israel’s strict gun laws, reasons for the lack of mass shootings can be attributed to the country’s closely knit family structure, small size and intimacy and informality between strangers or the universal health care which makes mental health services available for all.

When asked why Israel doesn’t have such killings, Amit said “you can’t prevent this entirely. You can’t ensure that someone won’t someday go crazy and do something like this, but we do our best to prevent it from happening.”