Crazy isn’t it?  I couldn’t imagine being in that situation as shown on tv and my govt says I get one rifle and only get a short 2 mag loadout with no pistol backup.

Yes, please.

Liberal does not mean authoritarian.

It's the opposite.

You're more likely to die of the 'Beetus and heart failure than Islamic terrorists.

Yep. I've got more rounds than that in a Surefire quad stack mag on my desk here.

Sound be required 1 gun and at least 50rnds.

US should have a law that everyone should be issued 1 gun and 50 rounds. We'd be better off.

and this policy directly contributed to the death toll in Israel this weekend

We’d be better off with a Citizenry that was motivated to seek training, practice and buy whatever firearms worked best for them and as much ammunition as they think they needed AND VOTED LIKE THAT, TOO!

And they think this will help?  If I pass the phone interview I only have to wait a week?  I have always supported Isreal, but they need to support themselves first.

Okay Karen. Have a hot chocolate and take a sleeping pill.

I took thought that Israeli had reasonable gun laws.  I was wrong, I think their ridiculous gun laws need to be changed.

Just like Ukraine found out, disarming your base citizenship weakens you.

Let them fight, and let them learn.

This.  Lets see how the psychos in Hammas do on their rape and murder tour of Switzerland?  The Swiss would be stacking them like cord wood.

If they cannot trust the Muslim with a gun, then the Muslim does not belong there.

Well then, Fuck Them and call me a radical.

I'm sure I'm the 100th person to mention this, but the myth probably comes from all the pics of IDF carrying their carbine to and from work dressed in civies.

Also, as someone said in another thread, having 25% Arab population could lead to some laws that most countries just won't do today for obvious reasons.

It was two parents who died fighting to save their children (which they did).  I had read they ran out of ammo.  I would want that verified.  I also read they killed seven of the roaches before they were killed.  Those are the numbers you need with widespread gun ownership.

Sad part is, I don’t see them changing shit, or making things easier than what they just did.   Interview my ass.  You have people in your midst that wanna do this shit to you and yet keep restrictive laws in place?  Fuck that stupid shit.  Like it’s said, when you need help, the cops (army) are minutes away.  In this case, help didn’t come.  At a terrible price.

Israel has a 21% Arab population, do you really think they should give them guns?

Arabs already had guns.  I don't think resident Arabs with guns would have done as much damage if their neighbors had firearms as well.  21% Arabs versus armed Israelis aren’t causing the same damage that was done in this attack.  21% armed Arabs versus 79% armed Jewish population .  Because there was no armed opposition.  Any responding units that  were gonna provide help were already late getting there.

Eh, a decent round number limit is fairly standard.  Northern Ireland CC permits specify 50 rounds, France's old law about a handgun for home defense had a 50 round limit, in India, the biggest country in the world with fairly liberal gun laws, the general limit for rounds on hand is......50.

Seriously, that doesn't even meet my kitchen or armchair loadout.  

My ideal for armed USA citizens.

Every citizen is given a M-4, light and IR laser.
Every citizen is given 12 magazines and 500 rounds of ammo. Ammo is sent out annually.
Any citizen will be given a tax credit for rifle / pistol training up three times a year and max amount of $ 4500.00 / year for classes and ammo.
Any citizen will be given a basic PC with plates, med kit and battle belt.
Any citizen is given 12 cases of MRE every year.
Every year a week long weapons check happens. Drive by and someone checks your weapon serial number and your good for another year.

Volunteer for State Guard / Militia and after one year you will be issued one NVD, one pistol and six pistol magazine.

Citizens will keep these as long as they are legally a citizen. If gear is lost or sold IRS comes after the amount of said gear. Use any of the above in a crime, automatic five - ten years in prison.

It is a far fetched idea, but hey I can dream.

Just a few photos why

Sounds similar to US Jews. Seems like most of them are left leaning and want to take away guns.

"What we need... are heroes."

All those youngsters are in the IDF.  Females MUST serve 2 years, males 3 years.  The only exceptions are Muslims & Palestinians; they are not allowed to serve, with a few exceptions (one of them being Bedouins, who have a long history of service to Israel.  They are excellent at field-craft, esp. tracking).  Ultra-Orthodox Jews are not required to serve, and Jews with serious criminal records are not allowed to serve, either.

As soon as their IDF service is over they turn in those guns and don't get to carry them any more.  Or own them, with a few exceptions.

Israel is worse than California/NY/NJ in many respects, incl. 2A.

Pretty sure the restrictions are a recent event.

I worked in a factory years ago where our plant manager had been in an Israeli facility of the same type. Pretty much all the factory workers were armed at work. The guys generally carried Galils the gals uzis. A guy carrying an Uzi was just asking to be shamed lol.

Only became that way recently, didn’t used to be like that. Complacent leftist shitheels likely.

Gun Owners of America: Israel Needs A Second Amendment

https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/11/opinion-israel-needs-a-second-amendment-aidan-johnston/

The Israelis just got a big dose of the gun free school zone theory.

Unfortunately alot of people died to prove this theory.

People forget that Israel was founded by socialists, and they are very left wing to this day. All those photos of soldiers in civi clothes walking around with M4's, notice how the M4's are always unloaded? Yea, the idea that Israel is a gun lover's paradise is far from true. Israelis look at guns as a tool for the present situation they are in, they are not looked at necessarily as a necessity or something they necessarily want to have to carry around.

It actually slightly analogous to China. Everyone is afraid of the CCP (as they were Russia), but do you really think some Chinese kid born in 2001 really wants to pick up a rifle and fight the US? The vast majority of Israelis growing up do not want to fight in the IDF; they want to have fun with their friends, get an education, a good job and start a family. Chinese kids are the same way, in fact Chinese kids are quite Americanized with their iphones, coca-cola, levi jeans, watching disney and the NBA. Most Chinese have friends and/or family or they themselves have been in the US or lived in the US.

Gun culture, and military culture is not common outside of the US. Ironically it is probably more common with our and Israel's enemies.

Those are IDF on "off" days. Photos are VERY misleading. If you want to know what gun ownership in Israel is, imagine NY gun laws, only 10 times worse.

Israel's Gun Reforms: Too Little, Too Late?
Reports that Israel opened up gun ownership and are passing out guns are NOT true.

https://www.firearmsnews.com/editorial/israels-gun-reforms/483628

I wish Israelis could own the very Israeli Service Rifle I own and wrote an article about.

???????? – The Israeli Mauser and Its History



Israel is a nation born from and a people forged by conflict, bloodshed, and hardship. Originally a backwater of the Ottoman Empire and later a crucial part of the British Empire the region we know today as the nation of Israel was born on May 14, 1948. But how did that happen? Let’s go back a couple of years before that.

At the end of World War II, the British empire was crumbling. They were economically ruined from the war and didn’t have the political or economic strength to keep their colonies in check. The Yishuv (Jewish residents of the area prior to the creation of Israel), in an attempt to strengthen home rule, actively recruited and smuggled European Jews fleeing the horrors after the Holocaust. Many tried to reach Palestine but many were turned away or rounded up and placed in detention camps in Atlit and Cyprus by the British Government since the empire wanted to keep the peace in the region.

Jewish immigration to the region was a contentious for the British both before and after the war since the local Arab populations weren’t terribly welcoming. That, despite the fact that though Jews assisted the British in conquering the area from the Ottomans even helping suppress an Arab revolt against British rule in the 1920s. By the immediate post war period, the Crown simply wanted peace in the region. The Jews in Europe and in the Holy Land wanted home rule and a place to call their own.

Two groups, the Haganah and the Irgun (the forerunners to the Israeli Defense Forces) launched an attack on the British administrative headquarters in the King David Hotel on July 22, 1946. A total of 91 people were killed, 46 injured. The location was also he site of the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan.

At the time, it was considered one of the “most lethal terrorist incidents of the twentieth century.” The end result was that in 1947, the British announced they would withdraw from Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews. The newly-formed United Nations stepped in and attempted to split the region between Jewish and Arab residents. On May 15, 1948, the armies of four Arab countries (Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq) entered what had been British Mandatory Palestine, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

A hard and brutal conflict was fought, but the end result was Israeli victory.



The newly-formed Israeli government was short on funds and worse, short on arms. Prior to the establishment of the IDF, the Haganah and the Irgun used whatever they could get their hands on. British Enfields, American M1 Carbines, Italian Carcanos, etc. They’d buy them from friendly supporters, smuggle them in, and outright steal them if they had to. The war taught them an important lesson. They needed to standardize.

Being that the new nation was also poor at the time, they couldn’t go out and buy the latest and greatest designs. But this was the late 1940s. Europe was awash in arms including German 98k Mausers. The Germans, during their expansionist era, set up a number of arms plants in occupied territories across Europe.

One of the largest was in Czechoslovakia, a nation with a long history of arms production, where they cranked out Mausers for the Third Reich. After the war, the Czechs and Slovaks were hurting for work and had an ample supply of parts, machinery, and the skilled labor to turn out rifles. Thus, a business deal was struck and the rest is history.



Israel bought rifles from Czechoslovakia and other European nations through surplus sales and contracted with FN Herstal of Belgium to make brand new Mausers. By 1954-1955, Israeli was looking to update their front-line units with FN’s new darling, the FN FAL.

Israel then had an issue. What to do with the thousands of Mausers and 7.92x57mm ammo they had? They could keep them original and have two separate supply lines of arms and munitions to equip front-line troops and reservists or they could convert the Mausers to 7.62x51mm NATO and make ammunition logistics far easier.

They went with the logical option and converted the Mausers. That process started in 1956 and didn’t end until the cessation of hostilities of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.



Israeli converted Mausers were reworked from top to bottom. The rifles were stripped down to their basic components and anything not serviceable was thrown away. Keeping rifles original by serial number wasn’t a concern for the IDF. Everything was literally simply thrown into large parts bins and when rifles were being rebuilt, parts were pulled and rifles were assembled. In fact, every collector guide states that if you run across a serial-matching Israeli Mauser, it’s a fake. The bolt and receiver might match, but everything else surely won’t.



The Israelis made brand new barrels, new internal magazines, and new front sights due to the different ballistics of the 7.62x51mm NATO. If the original stock wasn’t serviceable, a newly manufactured beechwood stock was used. The Israelis also scrapped the cleaning rod. The new stocks didn’t even have a provision for them since the IDF issued a pull through cleaning kit for the FN FAL.





The Israelis even went so far as to make new parts and even complete leather slings for the Mausers if the original ones were ratted out.



A common myth associated with the Israeli Mausers is that the IDF purposely struck any Waffenamt markings, thus purifying the rifle of any Nazi connection. That wasn’t the case. A number of WaA markings are found intact on my rifle and others I’ve seen and handled. But one “fact” that is true…all converted Mausers had 7.62 marked on the receiver to clearly alert the shooter that the gun was no longer chambered in 7.92x57mm.





The Israeli Mauser saw service in the Israeli War of Independence of 1948, the 1951–1956 Retribution Operations, the Suez Campaign of 1956, the Six Day War of 1967, and finally the Yom Kippur War of 1973.



In the Six Day War, the FN FAL was the front-line standard for the IDF, but the numerous reservists called to active duty were issued the Mausers. This was the last large scale use of the Mauser. It served with distinction alongside the FN FAL and Uzi SMG.



IDF Soldier with FN FAL.



IDF in combat with Mauser Rifle.



IDF in combat with Mauser Rifle.



IDF at the Western Wall with Uzi SMG.

By 1973 and the Yom Kippur War, the Mauser was only assigned to rear communication specialists as a defensive weapon. After the war, they were pulled from service and mostly given to Guatemala as military aid. Israel and Guatemala have always had a close relationship due to the small Central American county being the tie-breaking vote to admit Israel to the United Nations. The Guatemalans rode the Mausers hard and put them away wet. You can tell an Israeli surplussed gun versus a Guatemalan one due to the condition.



Typical Guatemalan Condition

My rifle is a Czech-built gun. With a 1944-dated receiver and a near mint re-arsenal overhaul. I got mine around the 1999/2000 time frame. In fact it was the first gun I purchased with my own money.

I got mine at the Fort Lauderdale Gun Show, the very one the gun-grabbers recently shut down. I worked hard and saved up my pennies for a military grade rifle in .30-06 Springfield or .308 Winchester. I was hankering a M1903 and ran across one at a table. The vendor had it priced at $300 and poor teenage me couldn’t afford it.

I saw plenty of Mausers, but didn’t want one since they were in 7.92x57mm and I didn’t want to buy and stockpile another chambering. But luck shined upon me. The vendor who had the M1903 also had an Israeli Mauser for $225 and was willing throw in 500 rounds of surplus 7.62 NATO. I had a budget of $250 and was set. There was a loud BANG! when my wallet broke the sound barrier. I took the rifle home and have enjoyed it ever since.

Whether it was reenacting WWII Partisan activity or taking part in local rifle matches, my Mauser trucked right along. As I grew older, the Mauser migrated from the front of my safe to the back, but it was never forgotten.

A real treat with my Mauser happened thanks to an elderly neighbor I had in Miami. He was a veteran of the 1948 Israeli War and retired from the IDF just before the Six Day War and moved to sunny South Florida.

He always saw me loading up and going to the range and asked one day what I had. When he saw the Mauser, he suddenly opened up and went back to being a young IDF soldier fighting for Israel’s freedom. He told me about how he was tired, scared, and hungry, but full of hope and pride with the belief that his sacrifice would be for the betterment of his people.

I could tell by the glint in his eye that he remembered carrying a Mauser just like mine. Sure enough, he had fond memories of shooting one at the range.



In the end, these rifles are a gem to have. They tell a story of hardship, struggle, and rebirth. A rifle originally made by a government set to eradicate a specific people were later used by those same people to gain independence and secure their freedom.

It’s an amazing story and the Israeli Mausers proudly belong in anyone’s armory of liberty. Mine is a beaut and a hell of a shooter. If you run across an Israeli Mauser in good condition, give her a good home and some range time. You’ll be glad you did. Trust me.



To all of our Jewish readers in America, Israel, and across the world.  ????? ??? – Happy Hanukkah!

Awesome!  Thank you for that!

I had some FAL magazines.  Several had the little Hebrew cartouche on them.  Firearms can be history texts if one knows what to look for.

Agee! Of all countries that should have access to guns, they should be right behind us.

Didn’t we arm their military with surplus M16’s before they got their Arsenal up and running?

Whoopdi do! One week waiting period, only 100 rounds, interview, and all the other hoops to jump through. Plus that means less than 1% are allowed?

The armed teacher thing is bullshit. Those pictures that are often seen are actually IDF or Police escorts for school outings. I have a friend over there in the school security business who laughed when I asked him about armed teachers.

Apparently only the "professionals" are allowed to own those icky guns.  1 gun and 50 rounds?!  WTF.  I'd be snatching weapons off of my kills and arming my neighbors with those, plus stashing some for future use.

I'd be pissed if I was an Israeli. The government over there clearly gives zero fucks about their people.

50 rounds, oops, now 100 rnds ( ), and a pistol. If you meet their bullshit criteria, and that's a big IF. Meanwhile people are being slaughtered. Don't worry, the Army will be there in a day to mop up after the fact. Where's the outrage?

I've worked with Israeli SOF. Their firearms handling was fucking TERRIBLE to say the least. No surprise why after seeing their gun regs despite being surrounded by people that want to kill them.

Now all of  “100 bullets” is fully legal.

Would that load-out have been enough for one of those home owners near the Gaza strip to fight off multiple Hamas thugs armed with AKs?

The website to even start the process isn't up and running.

I've never understood why hunting has anything to do with the desire to own guns and to be able to defend one's family, community, and even country.  I've never had any interest in hunting, at all, yet I used to be a real zealous defender of being armed to the freaking teeth, for homeland defense purposes to be sure.  Who cares about hunting?  Being able to shoot criminals or tyrant wannabees in the face, priceless ability.

Most of the young people I've known who got into guns had ZERO interest in hunting.  While not all of them were as zealous about being able to defend oneself/country - mainly they got the guns because they had seen them in video games and thought they were cool.

For a very long time, hunting was the gateway drug to gun ownership. Prior to the urbanization of America in Post-WWII America, the vast majority of Americans owned firearms to put food in the table. The humble shotgun was capable of protecting hearth and home along with bagging the day's meal and taking large game for winter too.

The fact that you don't grasp the historical context is your own failures.

Un Europe, hunting was heavily regulated and gun control was part of it. The people who ruled stayed in power if the people they ruled over were starving and unarmed.

Being armed with firearms capable of taking large game meant those arms could also be used to take rulers too.

I don't personally know a pro 2nd amendment Jew. My Aunt/Uncle are Orthodox Jews and are absolutely anti gun.

Crazy

GOA has a number of staff who are devout to the Second Amendment and the Torah.

I get the historical context.  I contend that for most people in non-rural areas in the USA, it is obsolete.   I've lived in suburbia my whole life, seen some folk here who were hunters, but they were a small number.  I've met far more people who were armed for other reasons.  Hunting was a non-factor.

I've been exposed to rural life, having spent summers at the grandparent's farm in the boonies of WV, so while I don't live in a rural area (do live in a semi-rural area outside of a town of 15k), I am comfortable with country folk by and large.  Iget why more of them would be hunters.  But being as they require the Kings License to hunt the King's game, are they really that much more independant than we suburbanites?

They seem to be the exception not the rule.