Americans have been gravely misled about foreign gun ownership and the severity and effectiveness of foreign gun bans. It simply is not true to state that "the U.S. has more gun availability and far less restriction than any other modern industrial nation."
That honor goes to Israel where, nevertheless, murder "rates are much lower than in the United States despite ... [Israel`s] greater availability of guns to law-abiding civilians," writes Israeli judge Abraham Tennenbaum (formerly an official with the Israeli National Police and then a professor of criminology).
Israel
Israeli law requires that a person have a license in order to own any kind of firearm, but the license is readily available to any law-abiding adult who can show he or she has had firearms training. (Israel has universal military training for Jews of both sexes). And if you legally possess a gun, Israel allows--indeed encourages--carrying it. In effect, Israeli law nearly parallels that of Florida, Pennsylvania and 28 other U.S. states where licenses to carry a concealed firearm are available on application and passing a background check. (Vermonters have the right to carry without obtaining a license).
Nevertheless, though rapidly growing, gun ownership is low in Israel--because it is unnecessary. Israel is a socialist country, so the government is supposed to provide people all their basic needs, including guns for self defense. Israel loans out guns by the millions to its citizens.
Israelis going to a dangerous area routinely stop by a police station or communal armory to pick up an Uzi or a pistol. Israeli policy is that armed guardians should be near every place there are potential victims. Schools may not send children on field trips unless the children are accompanied by at least one teacher or parent carrying a gun.
At night, many neighborhoods are patrolled by "civil guards"--teenage volunteers carrying government-issued guns. If someone has disappeared (and possibly has been kidnaped), dozens, scores or even hundreds of civilian volunteer searchers are assembled and issued firearms to carry while searching for the missing person.
So widespread is this issuing of arms that it fundamentally affects Israeli firearms training. Since most pistols are not personally owned, Israelis are trained to keep them in "Condition 2" (cartridges in magazine, but not chambered). This is because the pistol a trainee may be issued at any particular future time could be any of the myriad of guns in Israeli arsenals: a Browning M-35 (Hi-Power); a Walther P-38; a Beretta Modello 1951 (Brigadeer); or even the French Modeles 1935A or 1950, or the Polish Pistolet wz/35 (Radom) or Czech CZ vz/27.
No matter how unfamiliar the recipient may be with a pistol issued him, one technique suits all: Condition 2 is a safe method of carry when there is no need for immediate use, and when all one need do is jack the slide to have the firearm ready for use.
Israel`s "guns everywhere" policy accounts for incidents such as the one in which three terrorists opened up with AK-47s on a Jerusalem crowd. The terrorists were able to kill only one victim before they were themselves shot down by handgun-carrying Israelis.
The surviving terrorist was bitter when he spoke to the press the next day. Their plan had been to quickly kill 20 or 30 people at a series of public places, always escaping before military or police could arrive. They hadn`t known Israeli civilians were armed. The terrorist felt that it just wasn`t "fair."
Incidentally, this occurred within three weeks of the massacre of 21 unarmed victims in a San Ysidro, California, McDonald`s fast-food restaurant.