Despite the official easing of restrictions to get a gun license in Israel, along with the explicit calls by elected officials, such as Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, for citizens to carry licensed weapons on them, and the much increased public demand for gun licenses in the wake of all the ongoing Arab terror attacks, 90 percent of the approximate 10,000 applications for a licensed weapons have been turned down, according to Vered Pelman, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 1.
The 10% who made it past the first stage of government filtering still have many months of waiting ahead before they will get their gun.
Israel has one of the most restrictive personal gun licensing requirements in the world, and ranks as number 70 out of 178 countries in terms of gun ownership, with only 7.3 personal guns per 100 citizens, in 2014.
Those numbers don’t include guns issued by the army or to guards via security companies.
Though unlike the US, once licensed, most gun owners can openly carry their weapons practically anywhere.
A significant percentage of Arab terrorists have been neutralized by civilian gun owners.
