About guns, grief, and the global dilemma, what Minneapolis and Israel reveal about firearm policy. Two places, the armed man, one protects, one harms, why the difference?
Minneapolis, Minnesota School Shooting, August 27, 2025
On August 27, 2025, the quiet sanctity of Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was shattered when a shooter opened fire during the morning of the first day of school year Mass. Two children—8 and 10 years old—were killed, and 17 others were injured, most of them children. The shooter, armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol—all legally purchased—fired dozens of rounds through the stained glass windows. This wasn’t just another statistic in America’s long list of mass shootings. It was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children in a place meant for peace and prayer.
The 23 year old terror attack perpetrator, familiar with his target, was a transgender woman whose mother worked at the school where he opened fire at students.
In his disturbing manifesto, which he wrote prior to opening fire he blustered about murdering “filthy Zionist Jews.” He spewed other anti-Semitic vitriol in his journal pages, which was full of anti-Semitic slurs such as, “if I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist Jews; I hate those entitled, penny-sniffing k–kes.” Referencing the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust he wrote, “6 million wasn’t enough.” The domestic terrorist also mentioned assassinating President Trump and Jewish people — but concluded that targeting “children of innocent civilians” would bring him/her “the greatest satisfaction.”
In the past ten years there have been 835 incidents of school shootings in the United States, resulting in 536 fatalities and 1,117 injuries.
In the meantime, in the U.S we see more and more private security in front and inside of synagogues, Jewish events, banks and stores. I guess that schools and churches will now have to hire security officers as well.
Gun-Free Zone Is Ineffective
Even in designated gun-free zones across the United States—such as schools, hospitals, and certain public buildings—gun-related violence and deaths still occur, underscoring the complex nature of firearm access and enforcement.
These zones are intended to reduce risk by prohibiting weapons, but they rely heavily on compliance and enforcement, which can be difficult to guarantee.
Tragically, some high-profile mass shootings have taken place in gun-free zones, revealing that signage and policy alone do not deter an individual’s intent on causing harm.
This has fueled ongoing debates about the effectiveness of gun-free zones and whether additional measures—like improved mental health support, security infrastructure, or broader gun control laws—are needed to truly reduce the burden of gun violence.
This tragedy reignites a painful question: Is the problem the guns or the gun owner using the gun to shoot?
Gun Ownership in Israel
Contrast this with Israel, where National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has aggressively expanded gun permit access in response to rising security terror threats.
Since Minister Ben-Gvir took office, December 2022, there has been a significant jump in the number of gun license holders in Israel which has almost doubled from 155,149 people to 321,609. The data also shows that since the beginning of the October 7 2023 events, 372,046 new applications for gun licenses have been submitted, of which 194,111 licenses have already been issued.
Armed Israeli Civilians Save Life
In recent terror attacks in Israel, armed civilians neutralized threats before police could intervene, reducing response time and potentially saving lives. Often when a terrorist starts taking his action if there is a gun owner in the area, the attack comes to an immediate end with the gun owner neutralizing the terrorist and thus saving life.
The Ma’a Lot Netiv Meir School Terror Attack
The Ma’a lot Netiv Meir school massacre occurred on 14–15 May 1974, by three armed Arab terrorists of the Democratic Front of the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) who infiltrated Israel from Lebanon. The terror attack involved hostage-taking of some 105 Israelis, chiefly school children.
During the rescue attempt, 22 students and 3 adults were murdered, and 68 additional civilians were injured. The event, till October 7, 2023, was considered to be one of the most traumatic events in Israel’s history, and led to the establishment of the Civil Guard and the National Special Unit for Combating Terrorism, the YAMAM unit.
There have hardly been any shootings in Israel. The country has implemented strict policies to prevent such incidents, and the results are evident.
Since the Ma’alot massacre in 1974, there have only been two successful attacks at Israeli schools. These attacks were stopped by armed teachers, and the Israeli government has since strengthened its security measures to protect schoolchildren from potential threats.
It appears that in Israel, guns are framed as tools of defense, not destruction.
While in Israel they see guns as life savers; in the United States the repetitive argument is that guns kill and thus must be banned.
The Armed Man, Ongoing Gun Debate
So what can we learn from these two nations?
In the U.S., the conversation around guns and the right to bear arms is paralyzed by partisanship. Meanwhile, in Israel, the urgency of national security has led to a rapid, albeit somewhat flawed, expansion of civilian armament.
Both approaches carry risks. But only one—Israel’s—has shown instances where armed civilians have demonstrably saved lives.
The recent Minneapolis shooting, by contrast, underscores how firearms in the hands of a troubled individual turned into a mass murderer.
The question isn’t whether guns are inherently good or evil. It’s whether U.S. policies reflect the realities we face. In America, we must stop pretending that “thoughts and prayers” are a substitute for a needed effective reform policy that will efficiently decipher who can and who should not carry a gun.
And in Israel, the challenge is ensuring that life-saving tools don’t ever become instruments of chaos.
Until both nations strike that balance, the debate over guns could remain the tug-of-war between liberty and its loss.
