One year later, how did Ben-Gvir's gun reform impact Israel? - analysis

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s gun distribution reform issued about 188,000 gun licenses, with about 138,000 people receiving the weapons they were waiting for in the past year. Overall, 365,000 people applied during that time period, a Friday report from Walla noted.

In 2022, there were 154,458 people in Israel who had an unlicensed firearm, but by 2024, this number has more than doubled to 315,756. The National Fraud Investigation Unit in Lahav 433 is investigating the issuance of licenses in violation of the established criteria, and several individuals from Ben-Gvir’s office have been questioned.

However, more than a year later, one question remains: who is receiving these gun licenses?

Dozens of communities were added to the list of eligible areas in the gun distribution reform. A petition against the reform was filed by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and the Labor Party in the Knesset, demanding that the names of the eligible communities be disclosed. In an update filed last month by the prosecution, a sealed envelope containing the list of eligible communities was given to the judges, but the information has not been made available to the public.

Supplementary workers, mostly women in national service who worked at the National Security Ministry between October 8 and December 2, were recruited after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and it was later revealed that they had not undergone appropriate training.

Their activities were halted by the instruction of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. According to the criteria, IDF veterans with a combat certificate would be eligible to apply even if they had only completed level-3 rifle training.

Amount of improper weapons distribution still poses a danger

The list of eligible people was expanded to include employees in rescue organizations and volunteers in fire and rescue services – meaning even those in national service are now eligible, and the three-year waiting period for new immigrants living in eligible communities was canceled, causing a significant surge in applications for gun licenses.

Police investigation revealed that supplementary workers were issued 23,000 temporary gun licenses, 458 of which are suspected to have been issued in violation of two criteria during the two-month period. The workers also issued 15,424 permanent gun licenses, 688 of which are also suspected to have been issued in violation of two criteria, for a total of 1,146 questionable licenses.

The investigation is still ongoing, but sources close to Ben-Gvir say that even if this is proven to be correct, it represents a negligible number compared to the hundreds of thousands of licenses issued legally according to the criteria.

However, a former senior official in the Firearm Licensing Department at the ministry stated that even 1,000 licenses distributed improperly could pose a danger.

“This is very troubling. In these matters, there is no room for mistakes. When mistakes happen, even at a small margin, it can be catastrophic. We’re talking about human lives. Every case must be thoroughly investigated. A weapon in inexperienced or unqualified hands could cause a disaster,” he said, adding, however, that, “In recent attacks, we saw that citizens with weapons neutralized terrorists, sometimes before the police arrived, and there’s no doubt that the fact that there are more armed citizens reduces response time.

“In general, I say: A firearm in the right hands, in the hands of people who have been checked and found qualified and trustworthy and are handled properly, adds to personal security and improves public safety. But can you ensure all of that when handling so many requests? There’s much less supervision. It’s very disturbing that the checks on license applicants are done over the phone. I also wonder how high the skill level of the interviewers is and whether they underwent proper training and refreshers.”

Violence against women

Women’s organizations are also raising alarms about the danger of flooding the streets with firearms. Since the beginning of the year, 34 women have been murdered, two more than last year. It should be noted that none of these women were killed by a weapon provided under the reform, but according to Rebecca Neumann, the Advancement Division Director at the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO), this is a disingenuous claim.

“The presence of a gun in the house is the issue. It changes the balance of power. A gun doesn’t need to threaten. The threat is always there, and it can be used at any moment. The experience of women and children, when there’s a person in the house with a gun and a short fuse, is living under constant threat,” she accused.

“You don’t need to do anything or say anything. It’s there: a physical and tangible threat. It’s a game-changer – you can’t ignore that. It’s simply a complete lack of understanding of the dynamics within homes or a lack of care.”

The 2023 personal security survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), in collaboration with the National Security Ministry, presented an alarming picture regarding public trust in the police. It should be noted that Ben-Gvir took office in January 2023, and the survey was partly conducted as the reform came into effect. It found that most crime victims in Israel do not report to the police, and each year since the first survey was published in 2014, there has been a continuous decline in the reporting rate.

In 2014, the reporting rate was 36.9%, and by 2023, it had dropped to 25.6% – the lowest rate in the last decade, which indicates not only a lack of trust in the police but also a sense of insecurity among the public.

Other troubling findings from the survey show that a third of women do not feel safe walking alone in their neighborhood at night, and only 18% of citizens, both women and men, reported to the police about being victims of a crime, compared to 21% the previous year.

In other words, according to the survey, a large majority of victims of violence or threats of violence do not contact the police.

Recently, in a discussion in the National Security Committee, Police Commissioner Danny Levy, who took office about five months ago, declared that crime data is on the decline.

“Crime data is in excellent shape compared to what it was,” he said, despite the fact that the year is not yet over, the number of murders in the Arab sector is currently the same as last year, and the number of women murdered is higher than in both 2022 and 2023. Given these statements, it is impossible not to wonder whether in the 2024 national security survey, the year the firearm distribution reform was already in effect, there will be an alignment between the number of weapons flooding the streets and the public’s sense of personal security.

Ben-Gvir’s associates have claimed that the sense of personal security has increased, and that this truth will become clear in a few months when the findings of the broad CBS survey are published. Meanwhile, in a recent survey conducted by WIZO ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which is marked annually on November 25, only 36% of female victims of domestic violence reported to the police about the violence they experienced.

Ben-Gvir’s office stated in response: “We refer to the visible data: More than 180,000 people who received a gun license speak for themselves. The number of hundreds of thousands who obtained a gun license proves that the public has full trust in the reform.

“Let’s remind everyone: no woman has been killed by a weapon provided under the reform,” his office emphasized. “The murders of women occurred with illegal weapons or kitchen knives. In contrast, in all recent attacks, it was proven that armed citizens are the first to neutralize terrorists and prevent greater disasters.”