Update, from friends in Israel:
“My daughter, an IDF veteran, carried an FN/FNS (9mm, now out-of production, replaced by the FN 509 Series) for several years.
She has since switched to a Beretta Bobcat (22/rimfire), which she prefers for concealed carry, due to its small size and light weight**
Under our ‘Old System,’ she was granted a permit based upon where she lives. Our government had deemed her neighborhood ‘Dangerous,’ and she thus qualified under the ‘Self-Defense Reason’ for owning a firearm.
However, since 7 Oct 23, this requirement to ‘qualify’ for gun-ownership under a specific, arbitrary government-approved ‘reason’ has pretty-much vanished. Most ‘ordinary citizens,’ who can pass a police background-check and jump-over a few other low-hurdles, are now eligible for a license.
Such license-applications went from 40k/year, to 40k/month after 7 Oct 23!
One still needs to pass a safe-handling test, and modest marksmanship firing-course, in order to obtain a license. The Range Master has to sign-off on your application. He then he hands you a ‘temporary license,’ good until your permanent license arrives in the mail. You then walk out of the gun-store with the pistol you now own, together with a fifty-round box of ammunition (hardball).
Yet, competent concealment is still a big issue here!
It is not uncommon to see someone walking about with the butt of his pistol plainly sticking-out from the small of his back.
Terrorists always scan bystanders before they attack. They predictably shoot first anyone visibly armed! I therefore sternly advise all my students to keep their carry-pistols discretely out of sight. I know discrete concealment is the norm over there in The States, but we’re still learning here.
You might find it interesting that women who are members of our ‘Israeli Rifle Association’ all routinely go armed and are extremely competent.
In addition, the vast majority of our IDF’s ‘Precision Marksmanship Instructors’ are women!”
** I don’t recommend any rimfire pistol for serious defensive purposes! As we see, they are popular owing to their small size and light weight. But with their short barrels, they are pitifully underpowered, and small pistols chambered for 22/rimfire are only marginally reliable. Accordingly, they represent poor “life insurance”
/John
