The sentiment is reflected in a phrase that is repeated ad nauseam in the US as Americans grapple with the fallout from the Florida shooting: “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”Huckabee’s tweet was liked over 28,000 times and retweeted more than 10,000 times.In 2012, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, Wayne LaPierre, leader of the NRA, made a similar claim, arguing that Israel’s experience points to the need for more guns, not fewer. Following US President Donald Trump’s lead, LaPierre proposed arming teachers as a measure to prevent school shootings.“Israel had a whole lot of school shootings until they did one thing: they said, ‘We’re going to stop it,’ and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then,” LaPierre said on NBC News. Apart from the fact that Israel never had more than the two school shootings mentioned above (which were terrorist-related incidents), LaPierre fails to make a distinction between strategic protection and an armed citizenry.Referring to the US, Levinson says: “Armed teachers would be a feasible solution only if they were initially screened and vetted. They must also undergo regular training and recertification. Then these civilians could effectively intervene in gun violence.”Because, as Levinson points out, the most critical time is of course between the emergency call and the intervention of the police. The case of the Maryland shooting earlier this week demonstrated the life-saving potential of having armed professionals on the premises who are ready at a moment’s notice. Gaskill, the school resource officer, responded to the shooter in less than a minute.Yigal Palmor, a Foreign Ministry spokesman during the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, said: “We’re fighting terrorism, which comes under very specific geopolitical and military circumstances. This is not something that compares with the situation in the US.”Amos Shavit, spokesman for the Education Ministry, had a similar reaction to Trump’s suggestion. He stressed that the guards stationed at schools are under the authority of the police: “The guards are there for other reasons, mainly terrorism. Professionals deal with the security. Not the teachers.”We shall see how the debate over guns plays out in the US. Perhaps it will soon reach the boiling point, if it hasn’t already.Will Israel’s gun policies serve as a model for pro-gun lobbyists in US? Or did they simply get their facts wrong about guns here? Israel, after all, ranks 81st in the world for per-capita firearm ownership, with fewer than one in 10 Israelis owning firearms. The US ranks first, with one firearm for every person.As we have seen, Israel has much stricter regulations. While in 30 states in America, surprisingly, a child can legally own a rifle or shotgun, federal law generally does not allow handgun ownership by any person under 18. Yet there is no minimum age for long gun (rifle and shotgun) ownership. Perhaps this fact alone is enough to underline the significant discrepancies between the two countries.Just waking up in Israel to news of heartbreaking school shooting in FL; Reminded that Israel pretty much eliminated it by placing highly trained people strategically to spot the one common thread--not the weapon, but a person with intent. #PrayForParkland
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) February 15, 2018