Guns

“I’m sorry I don’t speak Hebrew.”
“Do you have a gun?”

I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that question before, especially upon entering a university lecture hall.

Guns are inescapable in this country. Soldiers, in and out of uniform carry them. Chaperones accompanying school groups carry them. Security guards at the entrance to most public buildings (e.g. grocery stores, restaurants, post-offices, universities, etc.) carry them.

So why aren’t there more deaths from firearms in Israel? The conservative Cato institute points out that obtaining a license to possess a gun is relatively easy in Israel, yet “rates of homicide...are low despite rates of home firearm ownership that are at least as high as those in the United States." (Cato Institute: http://www.cato.org/ pub_display.php?pub_id=4706)

The Centers for Disease Control compared the United States to 25 other industrialized countries in rates of firearm death for children less than 15 years old, “The overall firearm-related death rate among U.S. children aged less than 15 years was nearly 12 times higher than among children in the other 25 countries combined...The firearm-related homicide rate in the United States was nearly 16 times higher than that in all of the other countries combined…the firearm-related suicide rate was nearly 11 times higher…and the unintentional firearm-related death rate was nine times higher.” (MMWR, February 07, 1997, 46(05), 101-105). A table in this article indicates that when the 25 countries are ranked on these combined rates, Israel is number four. Between Israel and the United States are Northern Ireland and Finland.

Availability of weapons does not seem to account for the differences between Israel and the United States. Given my experience in traffic, there does not seem to be an appreciable difference in the patience of Israelis (at least Israeli drivers) and drivers in the United States. So what accounts for these differences?

My suspicion has to do with cultural limits or norms. There seems to be a line regarding the use of guns that most Israelis will not cross, even when under the daily stress of modern life. I’m not sure if this is related to religion.

I find the widespread availability of guns coupled with the low rates of gun fatalities to be intriguing. It also would seem to run counter to some stereotypes of Israelis found in the media.