Albert Einstein said purportedly that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," and this applies squarely to restrictions on firearm ownership.

United Kingdom, June 1940

There was a time in the United Kingdom when there were few restrictions on firearm ownership. In 1920, however, the UK required people to get a certificate for permission to own firearms. "Applicants for certificates also had to convince the police that they had a good reason for needing a certificate." In 1937, "…the Home Secretary ruled that self-defense was no longer a suitable reason for applying for a firearm certificate and directed police to refuse such applications on the grounds that "firearms cannot be regarded as a suitable means of protection and may be a source of danger." ("Crime and justice since 1750" elaborates on this.)

Then Germany overran France and drove the British Expeditionary Force back across the English Channel minus most of its heavy weapons. Now Britain faced the possibility of invasion by Nazis who would have done to its population what they had already done to Poland and France. The British Lion accordingly got on its collective knees to beg American firearm owners to "Send a gun to defend a British home." Luckily for the UK, the United States did not have "common sense gun laws" so we had extra firearms to share with them.

Did anybody learn from this debacle? Apparently not, as shown in 2022.

Ukraine, February 2022

As I wrote here when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022,

"Ukrainians are being urged to arm themselves to resist the unprovoked Russian invasion of their country. The immediate question is, 'with what?' noting that Ukraine has exactly the kind of gun laws the Democratic Left wants to inflict on the United States. Handguns are illegal unless licensed, and licensing is "may-issue" the same way it is in New York. It is also necessary to have a license to purchase a long gun (as is the case in Illinois with its firearm owner ID card), and authorities can exercise discretion as to who can have a license. There are at most thirteen firearms for every hundred Ukrainians…"

Ukraine should have seen this coming in light of previous Russian aggression in 2014 as well as Britain's example, but it's obvious that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Israel, October 2023

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, they went from house to house to slaughter unarmed families in their own homes. Hadar and Itay Berdychivsky, who had served in the IDF, apparently did have government-issued permission to own handguns and fifty rounds of ammunition, and they fought back. Both were killed, at a cost of seven terrorists, while defending their children. There are two obvious lessons here.

1. As stated by Colonel Jeff Cooper, "A handgun is merely a weapon used to fight your way back to your rifle -- which you shouldn't have left behind." It is quite likely that two Israelis with Army experience could have handled all the goblins (Cooper's term for violent criminals) with AR-15s, 30-round magazines, and spare magazines.
2. The fact that it took eight or more Hamas terrorists with automatic rifles to kill two Israelis who had only sidearms, and lost seven KIA to do it, underscores the inferiority of the Hamas invaders to the Israelis.

In contrast, this is what happens when terrorist rabble attack Israelis who have access to long arms and no ammunition limits: "The Hamas was no match for an intrepid 25-year-old Israeli woman -- who saved an entire kibbutz from harm by leading a group of residents to kill more than two dozen advancing terrorists, including five she slaughtered herself."

The BBC adds, "Israeli gun ownership is low at about 2% of the population. …Usually citizens are allowed to hold a pistol and a limit of 50 bullets" which underscores the gross incompetence of the Israeli legislators who were responsible for the laws in question. Ongoing attacks and infiltration by Hamas made the events of last week easily foreseeable but the government left this law in place. Israel's "commonsense gun laws" resulted in hundreds of preventable fatalities which brings to mind phrases like "dereliction of duty." Israeli voters need to hold those responsible for this disaster accountable in the next election.

Three Strikes and You're Out

"Commonsense gun laws" have three strikes against them, two with massive preventable fatalities in Ukraine and Israel; the UK got lucky because Operation Sea Lion never went forward. Anybody who still supports "commonsense gun laws" is a dishonest or incompetent quack like Joe Biden, who depicts knife-wielding assailants as "unarmed" and suggests that defenders shoot to wound. If your life is really in danger, you must shoot to center of mass to stop and, if your life is not in danger, you must not shoot at all. Advocates of magazine size limits are clearly incompetent quacks as proven by events in Israel and also Massad Ayoob's expert testimony in Fyock v. Sunnyvale.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history, and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way. He or she is remaining anonymous due to the likely prospect of being subjected to "cancel culture" for exposing the Big Lie behind Black Lives Matter.

Image: Backbone Campaign