This post got me thinking, now I've slightly changed my position in the
guns issue.
I think it should be ENCOURAGED by government that MadAgain has as many
handguns at home as possible. I further think banks should facilitate
Mikey boy getting credits for the purpose of buying handguns so long as
he has them lying around his home.
El 23/12/12 22:41, Charles Hart Enzer, M.D., FAACP escribió:
*Gun Law in Israel*
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/16/gun-law-in-israel.html>
Everybody knows that Israel has a lot of guns. But what you may not
know - I didn't until this article
<http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/07/24/3101546/despite-militarized-society-israels-strict-gun-laws-keep-civilian-violence-down>
- is that Israel also operates very strict control of civilian
ammunition.
Gun owners in Israel are limited to owning one pistol, and must
undergo extensive mental and physical tests before they can receive a
weapon, and gun owners are limited to 50 rounds of ammunition per year.
Not all Israelis, however, may own guns. In order to own a pistol, an
Israeli must for two years have been either a captain in the army or a
former lieutenant colonel. Israelis with an equivalent rank in other
security organizations may also own a pistol.
In addition, residents of West Bank settlements, and those who work
there, may own pistols for self-defense.
David Frum is a contributing editor at /Newsweek /and The Daily Beast
and a CNN contributor.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mythbusting: Israel and Switzerland are not gun-toting utopias
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/mythbusting-israel-and-switzerland-are-not-gun-toting-utopias/>
Posted by Ezra Klein
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/2011/02/24/ABifXwI_page.html> on
December 14, 2012 at 5:36 pm
/My post "12 facts about guns and mass shootings
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/>"
included a mention of Israel and Switzerland, societies where guns are
reputed to be widely available, but where gun violence is rare. Janet
Rosenbaum, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the School of
Public Health at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate
Medical Center School, has actuallyresearched this question
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22089893>, and she wrote to tell
me I had it wrong. We spoke shortly thereafter on the phone. A lightly
edited transcript of our conversation follows./
Ricky Carioti --- The Washington Post
*Ezra Klein: Israel and Switzerland are often mentioned as countries
that prove that high rates of gun ownership don't necessarily lead to
high rates of gun crime. In fact, I wrote that on Friday. But you say
your research shows that's not true.*
Janet Rosenbaum: First of all, because they don't have high levels of
gun ownership. The gun ownership in Israel and Switzerland has decreased.
For instance, in Israel, they're very limited in who is able to own a
gun. There are only a few tens of thousands of legal guns in Israel,
and the only people allowed to own them legally live in the
settlements, do business in the settlements, or are in professions at
risk of violence.
Both countries require you to have a reason to have a gun. There isn't
this idea that you have a right to a gun. You need a reason. And then
you need to go back to the permitting authority every six months or so
to assure them the reason is still valid.
The second thing is that there's this widespread misunderstanding that
Israel and Switzerland promote gun ownership. They don't. Ten years
ago, when Israel had the outbreak of violence, there was an expansion
of gun ownership, but only to people above a certain rank in the
military. There was no sense that having ordinary citizens [carry
guns] would make anything safer.Switzerland has also been moving away
from having widespread guns. The laws are done canton by canton, which
is like a province. Everyone in Switzerland serves in the army, and
the cantons used to let you have the guns at home. They've been moving
to keeping the guns in depots. That means they're not in the
household, which makes sense because the literature shows us that if
the gun is in the household, the risk goes up for everyone in the
household.
**EK: As I understand it, there's a stronger link between guns and
suicide than between guns and homicide. And one of the really
interesting parts of your paper is your recounting of the Israeli
military's effort to cut suicides among soldiers by restricting access
to guns.**
JR: Yes, it's very striking. In Israel, it used to be that all
soldiers would take the guns home with them. Now they have to leave
them on base. Over the years they've done this --- it began, I think,
in 2006 --- there's been a 60 percent decrease in suicide on weekends
among IDS soldiers. And it did not correspond to an increase in
weekday suicide. People think suicide is an impulse that exists and
builds. This shows that doesn't happen. The impulse to suicide is
transitory. Someone with access to a gun at that moment may commit
suicide, but if not, they may not.
**EK: I was surprised by one statistic in your article: You said that
Israel rejects 40 percent of its applications for a gun, the highest
rate of rejection of any country in the world. And even when you get
approved, you say that "all guns must have an Interior Ministry permit
and identifying mark for tracing." That seems like it might make
people think twice before they shoot from a gun they know the
government can track.**
JR: That's a requirement. I don't know a great deal about the
ballistics issue there. But that is in the regulations.
**EK: Israel and Switzerland are both small, highly cohesive
countries. So some say that the difference in gun crime shows that
there's something about American culture that's leading to these
atrocities. Do you buy that?**
JR: Israel is not a peaceful society. If there were a lot of guns, it
may be even more violent. Israeli schools are well known for having a
lot of the kicking and punching type of violence. I don't know that
Switzerland has that reputation. But Israel does, and it seems that
the lack of guns promotes the lack of firearm violence rather than
there being some nascent tendency toward peacefulness and cohesion.
That cohesion may or may not exist, but not having guns prevents guns
from being used in violence. People do still commit homicide and
suicide but they do it with less lethal means. The most common form of
suicide in Israel is strangulation, which is striking, because it's
not that common elsewhere.
****EK: Not to derail the conversation, but given that most
industrialized countries have quite strict gun laws, if they don't use
strangulation, what do they use?**
JR: I don't know what other countries have, but I've read about
suicide in Israel, and it's striking there, because there's an age
discrepancy. Between ages 18 and 21, when people are in the army and
have access to guns, firearm suicide is very common. At other ages,
strangulation is very common. So it does seem to suggest that people
commit suicide with what they have access to even in the same society.
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