Horrific Attack In Israel Shows Critical Importance Of Second Amendment In America | David Hookstead
The killing of innocent Israeli civilians is a brutal and bloody reminder of the importance of the Second Amendment in America.
Hamas fighters carried out a devastating sneak attack in Israel several days ago that resulted in the evil slaughter of hundreds of innocent men, women and children. Dozens more were captured as hostages and taken to Gaza. Their fate is in the balance.
The chilling videos show Hamas terrorists roaming the streets gunning down and killing people on sight. They also went into neighborhoods that look similar to the suburbs in America, going door-to-door looking for Jewish families to murder. At least 260 innocent people - mostly on the younger side - were slaughtered at a music festival as the attack began.
All of this horror is an important reminder of why civilians have fought to keep their right to bear arms in the USA.
Israel is at war following a massive terrorist attack carried out by Hamas. (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Israel attack is reminder why we need the Second Amendment
What happened in Israel would be significantly harder to pull off in America for one simple reason:
Our country is flooded with private gun ownership, and people have access to weapons similar to what the military and police have.
While gun ownership isn't banned in Israel, it is heavily restricted compared to America and there is no individual right to gun ownership.
One of the first things Israel did after the horrifying terror attack was to loosen its gun laws to get as many weapons into civilian hands as possible. It's the same thing Ukraine did as the Russian invasion unfolded. The Ukrainian government handed out rifles to anyone in Kiev who could get their hands on one.
The logic is simple. Armed people are harder to kill than unarmed people. Bullets flying in both directions giving bad guys something to consider before attacking.
The terrorist attack in Israel is a great reminder of the importance of the Second Amendment. (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)
Americans have a long record of defending the innocent from bad people
However, here in America, there is a long track record of armed people killing bad guys, including in religiously targeted attacks. If none come to mind for you, that's because the media in general doesn't like to spotlight anything that validates how important civilian gun ownership is.
But to cite just a couple:
Stephen Willeford used an AR-15 to engage a gunman who was carrying out a massacre at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The first line of defense wasn't a police officer. It was Willeford - an armed civilian - firing rounds on the murderer to put an end to the carnage. If he had not intervened and engaged the shooter, the killing spree would have continued much longer.
Sutherland Springs wasn't the only shooting in Texas an armed civilian put an end to. A man entered the West Freeway Church of Christ in 2019 and killed two people. Jack Smith, another armed civilian, unholstered his weapon and killed the shooter. How many more people would have died if Smith hadn't been there? It's hard to say for sure, but it definitely would have been more than two.
More than 20 million AR-15s are in circulation in America. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
It's not a surprise that my assessment of the critical role the Second Amendment plays is backed up by the NRA and Gun Owners of America. NRA spokesman Billy McLaughlin told me, "Crime can happen anywhere and at any time. That is why the NRA believes it is prudent for law-abiding people who choose to have an effective means of defending themselves and their loved ones to be able to do so. As we are reminded daily, being an instant responder to atrocity is one’s best chance of survival."
GOA senior vice president Erich Pratt, "The conflict in Israel demonstrates the truth found in the Second Amendment—that the right to keep and bear arms is ‘necessary to the security of a free state." Ironically, gun control advocates in this country were calling for gun restrictions here, at the same time Israel began slashing its. This underscores the perennial problem with gun control: firearms restrictions never stop criminals from possessing guns, and they put good people at the mercy of heinous terrorists—both foreign and domestic."
A lot of people who pay attention to history certainly agree with the NRA and GOA on the issue.
Americans wouldn't hesitate to shoot terrorists roaming the streets
While the IDF and Israeli police did the best they could to beat back and kill the Hamas terrorists during the heinous surprise attack last Saturday, the simple fact of the matter is the more guns in the hands of good, law-abiding people, the safer we all are.
While some states like New York and California have restrictive gun laws and bans on many popular semi-automatic firearms, there are still civilian gun owners in those states.
In states like Florida or Montana, people are locked and loaded across the board. My brain can't even comprehend 100 terrorists roaming through a Florida community and not being chewed to pieces by armed civilians.
Americans own a lot of guns, and people embrace the Second Amendment. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
It's believed there are more than 24 million AR-15s in private hands in America, it's estimated roughly one million Glock handguns are sold annually in the USA, and there's a total of 76 million rifles and 64 million shotguns in private circulation. In addition, it's believed more than 22 million Americans carry weapons on their body outside of the home. That figure doesn't include states where no permit is needed for concealed carry.
It would be "Red Dawn" in the streets if a terrorist organization or foreign army ever showed up looking to kill innocent people, and the Second Amendment is the reason why.
Evil people target unarmed people. The Second Amendment levels the playing field
The fact is also that bad people don't want to shoot up places where they're likely to meet armed resistance. They choose schools, music festivals and other soft targets where few, if any, guns are likely to be found. Do people attempt mass shootings at gun stores or gun shows? No, because they wouldn't get far at all.
The Nashville mass shooter even scoped out a different school, but opted to not target it because of its security measures.
Bad guys don't want bullets coming their way. They want defenseless and easy targets.
Guns and the Second Amendment save lives
While I won't get into specifics, it wouldn't take long to arm a lot of people very quickly in the event of an emergency.
I know many people who could hand out guns in a matter of minutes - if not seconds - if they looked out their window and saw terrorists roaming the street killing people.
The Hamas terrorists in Israel went door-to-door executing innocent civilians and taking hostages. Breaking into a house in America is a great way to end up dead.
As the famous saying goes, "God made man. Samuel Colt made them equal."
Americans own a lot of guns thanks to the Second Amendment. (Photo by GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images)
Look at the areas where the riots in 2020 did the most damage in America. It was mostly in areas with strict gun laws like Washington D.C., New York, Portland and other liberally controlled areas. A violent mob tried to burn Kenosha, WI to the ground and Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people.
Another great example is the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. Koreans took to the streets and rooftops armed with weapons and beat back the rioters. Without those weapons, who knows how many might have died.
The bad guys tested their resolve, the Koreans opened fire and stood their ground. Again, bad guys don't like being shot at.
Some people seem to hate the Second Amendment and the fact that millions of Americans are armed, but their attitude will quickly change if they need help. If anyone ever tries what happened in Israel here in America, they're going to immediately learn why the Second Amendment exists. That's something I'm very grateful for.