Too Late as Israel Learns the Value of Armed Citizens

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin That is definitely notable. But, like all trained skills, weapons proficiency is "use it or lose it." And if most of those folks don't have a weapon to practice with, well....

Sure, they'll do better than someone who has never handled a rifle before. But proficiency not maintained is proficiency lost.

It also plays into not just weapons proficiency but tactical proficiency. The likelihood of doing passable squad tactics with 9 random adults in Israel is far higher than with 9 random adults in the U.S. the likelihood of those 9 adults being WILLING to engage is also higher in Israel, due to past military service (and less diverse cultural ideology).

All of those are DEFINITELY factors in how well armed Israelis can defend themselves, and should not be discounted.

But even the US military - the finest military in the world - has been successfully ambushed many different times.

Not saying you do not bring up a very good and valid point, sir. It definitely shifts the casualty ratio more to Israel's benefit in a hypothetical attack. But IMHO it does not shift it far enough to overcome good planning and execution combined with the element of surprise.

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin - Yeah and a lot of soldiers are "trained" to shoot M4s, etc, but doesn't mean they're good at it.

Point taken, but note the premise of the original post. Had these people been armed and with my added point of the basic knowledge of firearms likely taught during their conscription, many of these tragic events could have been prevented. Note, there are reports of parents literally putting themselves in-between armed Hamas terrorists and their children. With essentially nothing to prevent Hamas from killing them. IMHO, had they been armed, fewer would have been murdered and/or taken hostage. Hamas may have even had to rethink even the attempts in the first place.

As a legal gun owner who promotes responsibility in gun ownership, I own firearms in order to not only participate in the exercise of the 2nd amendment, but to also keep any would be enemy (foreign, domestic, home invader, etc) guessing as to whether they will have to deal with me and my weapon before considering an attack on me, my home, and/or my family. I train on a regular basis, because that has been ingrained into me. I've had an actual home invader before, so I know the feeling of instinctually going for my weapon, fortunately to end up seeing the home invader run away before I shot him. Had I lived in Israel or any other strict gun control nation, who knows what that person might have done.

Hopefully, we can both agree that every one of Hamas and those who directly enabled them should be put down.

So by extension you’re essentially saying our military is useless? I don’t think anyone is saying every gun owner, American or not, is an expert or even sufficiently proficient with a gun. The premise of the post is guns ARE a deterrent and they do make an enemy think twice about whether they are willing to take on the challenge of dealing with an armed would-be victim.

Even a proficiently trained person has to deal with the realization of killing another person, an act which can also cause hesitation and the perception of incompetence with guns. But this isn’t the point. The point is, would an arm Israeli population have deterred many of the direct Hamas attacks, murders, and kidnappings. I say yes, it would have. Would some of them died defending themselves and their families? Possibly, but at least they’d have a better chance at defending themselves and their families. I’d rather go down going for or shooting my gun, than to watch helplessly, as terrorists gather me and my family to use us for their evil purposes.