The issue of gun regulation has been a source of debate among the Israeli public – and Right and Left sectors of Knesset – for the past several years, following former public security minister Gilad Erdan’s reforms in policy.
Bar Lev is currently examining the possibility of restricting the criteria, after gun permit requests rose dramatically in recent years.
In 2018 Erdan included all ex-combat IDF soldiers into the criteria, allowing more than half a million civilians to requests gun permits. Erdan’s position, backed by former Justice Minister Amir Ohana, was that, “the more skilled civilians carrying weapons, the greater the chance of thwarting [terror] attacks.”
Other criteria for gun permits include residence in the settlements or border cities, agriculture workers, senior-rank IDF veterans and volunteers in national emergency services.Erdan’s reform came after an era of ‘lone-wolf’ attacks, during which knife terror attacks were commonly carried out by individuals with no affiliation to a recognized organization, which made tracking and preventing these spontaneous attacks difficult. At this time, Erdan and others praised civilians who managed to prevent attacks through vigilance and quick thinking, sometimes using weapons in their possession to disable the perpetrators.Another spike in requests for gun permits came in May, following Operation Guardian of the Walls. During the riots that broke out in mixed cities of Arabs and Jews, some armed citizens organized in private, civilian efforts to respond to events in Ramla, Lod, Acre and other points of friction, while police were struggling to respond to all the simultaneously occurring incidents.
Ohana at the time supported the civilians taking up arms and said in a tweet, “law-abiding citizens who carry a weapon strengthen the ability of the authorities… the greater the number of armed civilians… the higher the sense of security.”
Other politicians took the opposite view; Yair Lapid, at the time attempting to form a government, tweeted, “The first and foremost law – only the country can wield power. Once citizens take the law into their own hands, it's the end of the nation."
Bar Lev decided to examine the criteria in accordance with the stance of Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit. Following an appeal by social organizations to the High Court of Justice claiming that decisions regarding gun laws require the approval of the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee, the Attorney-General concurred that these regulations are subject to Knesset Committee approval. Bar Lev intends to study the matter and regulate the definitive criteria through the Internal Affairs Committee.
Approximately 140,000 civilians in Israel are currently permitted to own and carry guns, in addition to those who carry arms for work. Gun carriers undergo training, are subject to background criminal record checks, and require a doctor’s approval to apply.