Gun stores in Florida are seeing a surge in gun and ammunition sales, especially among the Jewish community, following recent Hamas terror attacks in Israel.
WPLG reported Hollywood, Florida, gun store owner David Kowalsky indicated guns and ammo are being sold as fast as he can stock (and re-stock) them.
Kowalsky noted the onslaught of customers consist of “Israeli and Orthodox Jews for the most part.“
He added, “[They are] just wanting to be trained to protect their families and have a firearm at home or on their person. Since last Saturday, we have seen a tremendous public display of how prevalent anti-Semitism is and hate speech and how they want to rid the world of Jews.”
Endi Tennenhaus spoke to WPLG and pointed out many men in her synagogue are arming themselves for safety but she wants Jewish women to focus on self-defense as well.
Tennenhaus said, “We said, ‘What about the women?’ We need to do the things we need to do to prepare. To stay safe and to be able to use a gun, God forbid if we ever should need one.”
On October 11, 2023, Breitbart News reported Israelis in the West Bank’s Samaria region were lining up for gun licenses, seeking to arm themselves for the defense of their own lives, their region, and Israel itself.
On October 10, 2023, Breitbart News pointed out Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced 10,000 assault rifles were being purchased and distributed to civilian security teams in communities along the country’s borders.
Ben Gvir has been criticized as an “extremist” in the past but he was elected in 2022 when he took a stand in favor of arming more Israelis–creating an armed “national guard”–in response to rioting by Israeli Arabs against Israeli Jews.
On August 10, 2023, the Times of Israel noted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stood against Ben Gvir’s “national guard,” calling it a “private militia.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.