A photo (above) showing what appears to be an armed Israeli school teacher next to her class during a school outing has gone viral, along with the assertion that Israel have not had any school shootings since 1974 when “they started arming teachers.”
This actually isn’t the first time this particular photo – or meme – has gone viral. It appeared back in 2012 and semi-regularly reappears online now and again, especially after mass-shootings in the US when the subject of gun control inevitably once again gets thrown into the spotlight. The photo/meme is often posted by those who oppose gun control restrictions or want to arm teachers in the classrooms within the United States.
However if your aim is to promote arming teachers in the classroom or at least promoting anti-gun control ideology, then this picture may do you more harm than good, since the primary assertion that teachers in Israel are armed is demonstrably false. Not only that, but despite the on-going conflict in Israel that often dominates its presence in the media, outside of this conflict, Israel has comparatively rarer violent shootings, as well as considerably stricter gun control laws and lesser civilian gun ownership rates than the United States (sources below), leading many to surmise that Israel is actually a more compelling argument for stricter gun control laws, not more lenient ones.
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To expand on the above points, with the exception of some areas of unrest within Israel, such as West Bank, teachers in Israel are not armed. Schools in Israel are typically protected by armed guards, and entrance into those schools is limited by fencing. This article from Israel Today provides a good explanation as to how schools are protected in the country.
Regarding gun control, citizens in Israel have to go through a much more vigorous screening process before being allowed a permit for a gun. This includes filling in forms, a doctor’s assurance that you qualify and are not on any kind of medication for psychological problems or that you do not suffer from many potentially debilitating conditions like epilepsy or heart disease. You also need to undergo a sanctioned training course for your particular gun, and you are limited to owning one gun, and that is a handgun, since rifles are extremely difficult to get a permit for and few civillians in Israel actually own one.
But perhaps most importantly, you need to prove that you actually need the gun in the first place, and claiming it is merely for self-defence would unlikely be a sufficient reason to get a permit unless you lived in a particularly dangerous area like West Bank which sees much of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. This is a good account of purchasing a gun written by an NRA member visiting Israel. This research paper also outlines gun control regulation in Israel.
Regarding the woman in the photo, we were unable to get any definitive information on exactly who she is, or whether she was indeed a school teacher. Many reports or comments online have claimed she was an armed guard, an escort or a parent. School trips in certain areas of Israel may require an armed escort for the purposes of that trip only, but that gun certainly would not be heading back to the school with the children and teacher.
Whatever your position on gun control laws in the US, we can at least all agree that spreading misleading or inaccurate information on the Internet helps nobody.