As the world mourns the loss of human life in Israel at the hands of Hamas, an important reminder about fighting tyranny is emerging in the news.
While nations must establish defense systems and prepare for attacks from belligerent nations, individuals and families must also arm themselves for unexpected attacks. The Second Amendment in the United States provides an important avenue for individuals to exercise such protection.
In a barely noticed article in The Jerusalem Post just days after the brutal attack on Israel, the National Security Ministry reported “that it has received over 7,946 new requests to carry arms since fighting with Hamas began in Israel’s South this Saturday.
Over 545 permits for personal handguns have been processed, with 970 new licenses being issued overall. . . . ‘Every city resident will be able to get an armament license,’ National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said this morning at the Sderot police station. ‘We are facing operation Guardian of the Walls 2, so we will be ensuring that we are prepared, with guns on every street corner,’ he added. . . .”
The tragic lesson for all of us is that after the attack it is too late to obtain a gun permit. The time to be prepared for a hostile invasion of your home or office is before the attack ever happens.
It is often argued that the Second Amendment only relates to state militias, but nothing could be further from the truth. Our founders understood, and the Supreme Court has reiterated in recent decades, that the Second Amendment was an individual right — not a collective right for a militia or a state. In 1791, Representative Roger Sherman confirmed the thinking at the time that the Second Amendment protects “the privilege of every citizen, one of his most essential rights, to bear arms, and to resist every attack upon his liberty or property, by whomsoever made.”
The horrifying attacks by Hamas, as militants blew off Israeli families’ doors, shot children, and took hostages are a reminder of the need to protect the Second Amendment — a foundational individual right.
