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ISRAELI HOMELAND SECURITY TIPS By JOHN R. LOTT, JR.
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
ISRAELI HOMELAND SECURITY TIPS By JOHN R. LOTT, JR.
November 12, 2001 -- WHAT should Americans do to protect themselves? We have all heard that we should be observant, and report strange events to the police. But one option has not been encouraged in the media, indeed, quite the opposite. News articles mention the jump in gun sales that have taken place since 9/11, but fail to mention the benefits and belittle those who buy the guns. We could learn something about responding to terrorism from Israel, and encourage more ordinary, responsible citizens to carry guns. Israelis realize that the police and military simply can't be there all the time to protect people when terrorists attack: There are simply too many vulnerable targets. (When the police or military are nearby, terrorists wait until they leave.) And when terrorists strike, their first targets include anyone openly carrying a gun. What Israel has found helpful in thwarting terrorist attacks is allowing law-abiding, trained citizens to carry concealed handguns. About 10 percent of Jewish adults there now have permits to carry concealed handguns. In large public gatherings, a significant number of citizens will be able to shoot at terrorists during an attack - and the terrorists don't know who has them. During waves of terror attacks, Israel's national police chief will call on all concealed-handgun permit holders to make sure they carry firearms at all times, and Israelis have many examples where concealed permit holders have saved lives. Americans only carry concealed handguns at a fraction of the rate of Israelis. To catch up, we'd have to grow from 3.5 million permits to almost 21 million. Thirty-three states now have "right to carry" laws, which let law-abiding citizens above a certain age obtain a permit for a fee. (About half these states require also some training in gun use.) If more states pass such laws, or lower fees under existing laws, America could greatly expand the number of law-abiding citizens carrying guns - and so become a safer nation. States that pass concealed-handgun laws experience drops in murder and other violent crime. Better still, they see particularly dramatic drops in the types of attacks most similar to terrorist attacks - multiple-victim public killings. Studying all these attacks in the United States from 1977 to 1999, Bill Landes at the University of Chicago and I found that deaths and injuries from multiple-victim public shootings fell by 80 percent after states passed "right to carry" laws. In their warped minds, both terrorists and the murderers we studied are kamikaze-like killers, who value maximizing the carnage they can create. Even if the killers expect to die anyway, having guns at the scene can help deter these crimes in the first place by reducing the expected return on their "investment." Just as in Israel, the type of person who is willing to go through the process to get a permit has proven to be extremely responsible. Permits are rarely revoked for any reason, usually very trivial violations, with permit holders losing their permits at only tenths or hundredths of 1 percent. Nor are permit holders vigilantes. Up to 98 percent of defensive gun uses simply involve people brandishing their weapon. It is only as a last resort that people fire their weapon and even most of firings are merely warning shots. Of course, the discussions of gun ownership have the normal dose of hypocrisy. Roll Call magazine reports that, since Sept. 11, some of the strongest congressional supporters of gun control have bought guns and gotten training. Congress certainly sees the benefits of armed individuals for its own safety: Members of Congress can carry guns around the capitol grounds. A new Zogby poll indicates that 66 percent of Americans support right-to-carry laws, so the real question is: Why the delay? (A full 88 percent support allowing retired police and military officers who are tested and qualified to serve as part-time air marshals carrying concealed handguns on planes. Presumably, the percentage is higher for these people to carry guns other places.) The mantra that people should behave passively when confronted by criminals seems impervious to all the scholarly research that indicates that passivity is definitely not the safest course of action. For terrorists whose only goal is to inflict as much carnage as possible, the passivity makes even less sense. Before we give up yet more freedoms, let us make the terrorists worry about who might be armed. John Lott is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of "More Guns, Less Crime" (University of Chicago Press, 2000). http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/34127.htm
November 12, 2001 -- WHAT should Americans do to protect themselves? We have all heard that we should be observant, and report strange events to the police. But one option has not been encouraged in the media, indeed, quite the opposite. News articles mention the jump in gun sales that have taken place since 9/11, but fail to mention the benefits and belittle those who buy the guns. We could learn something about responding to terrorism from Israel, and encourage more ordinary, responsible citizens to carry guns. Israelis realize that the police and military simply can't be there all the time to protect people when terrorists attack: There are simply too many vulnerable targets. (When the police or military are nearby, terrorists wait until they leave.) And when terrorists strike, their first targets include anyone openly carrying a gun. What Israel has found helpful in thwarting terrorist attacks is allowing law-abiding, trained citizens to carry concealed handguns. About 10 percent of Jewish adults there now have permits to carry concealed handguns. In large public gatherings, a significant number of citizens will be able to shoot at terrorists during an attack - and the terrorists don't know who has them. During waves of terror attacks, Israel's national police chief will call on all concealed-handgun permit holders to make sure they carry firearms at all times, and Israelis have many examples where concealed permit holders have saved lives. Americans only carry concealed handguns at a fraction of the rate of Israelis. To catch up, we'd have to grow from 3.5 million permits to almost 21 million. Thirty-three states now have "right to carry" laws, which let law-abiding citizens above a certain age obtain a permit for a fee. (About half these states require also some training in gun use.) If more states pass such laws, or lower fees under existing laws, America could greatly expand the number of law-abiding citizens carrying guns - and so become a safer nation. States that pass concealed-handgun laws experience drops in murder and other violent crime. Better still, they see particularly dramatic drops in the types of attacks most similar to terrorist attacks - multiple-victim public killings. Studying all these attacks in the United States from 1977 to 1999, Bill Landes at the University of Chicago and I found that deaths and injuries from multiple-victim public shootings fell by 80 percent after states passed "right to carry" laws. In their warped minds, both terrorists and the murderers we studied are kamikaze-like killers, who value maximizing the carnage they can create. Even if the killers expect to die anyway, having guns at the scene can help deter these crimes in the first place by reducing the expected return on their "investment." Just as in Israel, the type of person who is willing to go through the process to get a permit has proven to be extremely responsible. Permits are rarely revoked for any reason, usually very trivial violations, with permit holders losing their permits at only tenths or hundredths of 1 percent. Nor are permit holders vigilantes. Up to 98 percent of defensive gun uses simply involve people brandishing their weapon. It is only as a last resort that people fire their weapon and even most of firings are merely warning shots. Of course, the discussions of gun ownership have the normal dose of hypocrisy. Roll Call magazine reports that, since Sept. 11, some of the strongest congressional supporters of gun control have bought guns and gotten training. Congress certainly sees the benefits of armed individuals for its own safety: Members of Congress can carry guns around the capitol grounds. A new Zogby poll indicates that 66 percent of Americans support right-to-carry laws, so the real question is: Why the delay? (A full 88 percent support allowing retired police and military officers who are tested and qualified to serve as part-time air marshals carrying concealed handguns on planes. Presumably, the percentage is higher for these people to carry guns other places.) The mantra that people should behave passively when confronted by criminals seems impervious to all the scholarly research that indicates that passivity is definitely not the safest course of action. For terrorists whose only goal is to inflict as much carnage as possible, the passivity makes even less sense. Before we give up yet more freedoms, let us make the terrorists worry about who might be armed. John Lott is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of "More Guns, Less Crime" (University of Chicago Press, 2000). http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/34127.htm