A major point of contention between Israeli gun owners and the police is that the police almost always automatically take away a citizen’s gun when they use it in defensive situations. The civilians are also typically interrogated under caution. It doesn’t matter if they shot in the air to scare away a terrorist attacking them, or if they killed a terrorist who was committing a massacre, the citizen’s gun was confiscated, often for weeks and even for months.
The issue came to a head in March 2022 when the police confiscated the gun of the civilians who stopped and killed an Arab terrorist who murdered 4 people and wounded 2 more people in Be’er Sheva.
One of the civilian heroes refused to leave the police station until his gun was returned. The police actually threatened to detain him if he didn’t leave. The civilian pointed out that his life was now in danger, as his face, name and home address were publicized, and he would have no way to defend himself from a revenge attack by other terrorists without his personal sidearm.
After much public outcry, the police agreed to return his gun the next day and they would personally escort him safely to his home.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir introduced a new policy change and the police agreed to adopt it. In fact, they did so just a day before the recent terror attack in Tel Aviv, in which a passing civilian killed the terrorist who had just wounded seven people and caused a pregnant woman to lose her baby.
The purpose of the change is to encourage citizens to carry their guns with them for increased public safety, without worry of repercussions – so long as they act properly.
Moving forward, the police will no longer confiscate guns or open investigation under caution against the civilian heroes if the following four conditions are met when the gun was fired:
- The situation was a terror attack.
- The shooter acted in self-defense.
- Only the terrorist was wounded or killed.
- The civilian stopped shooting after the situation was no longer life-threatening.
Unfortunately, it’s only a matter of time before we get to see if and how the police actually implement the changes and under what exact conditions they will decide to apply it.
Since taking office, Ben Gvir has sped up the gun license process and ended a backlog of thousands of gun license applications.
