True as it goes, but private ownership has until now been heavily restricted; for example, a senior IDF officer upon retirement may purchase his military sidearm, but that is the ONLY handgun he is permitted to own.
And those hot IDF chicks slinging M-4’s over their bikinis are reservists, responsible for their issued weapons.
This is only seventy years late IMO, to allow private handgun licenses, but only for combat veterans (plenty of those in Israel). There is no such thing as a private arms collection in that country. “You want to look at guns, we’ve got arms museums for that” is the response.
“This is only seventy years late IMO, to allow private handgun licenses,”
See my posts above.
The problem with private ownership of weapons is 25% of our population is Arab. They are overwhelmingly nice people. But there are a lot of clunkers in the mix who would undoubtedly suffer from Sudden Jihad Syndrome one day. Christian Arabs only recently started joining the IDF (in fact, I believe it is now mandatory). Muslim Arabs are not required, and seldom, join the IDF.
By limiting civilian firearms issuance and ownership to reservist/retired officers or by geography (e.g., a settlement), we effectively are just keeping guns away from Muslim Arabs.
Cumbersome, but a 2A just would not work in Israel.