The background of this was Israel’s adoption of most British laws upon independence, as well as some of the Brit’s Turkish predecessors. Unauthorized firearms carried a death sentence under the Brits, and I don’t think many were authorized other than to government employees. So it was a matter of liberalizing zero tolerance laws, a long process. And while from 1948 Israelis with firearms were common due to the necessity of survival. Due to mandatory military service, I suspect a far higher percentage of Israel’s population is comfortable with and has fired a firearm than the US. But a culture of private ownership can’t develop under circumstances where private ownership is severely restricted.
In my earlier response I unfortunately just emphasized the unarmed bus driver.
No one on the entire bus had a gun! That's what shocked me.
You may recall the photograph of the female Israeli school teacher with an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder that went viral a few years ago?
There was instant political blowback from the American Left on that.
Bottom Line - the American Left claimed that personal gun ownership in Israel was much more restricted than the American Right implied, and I wondered if those “restrictions” had anything to do with a bus load of unarmed Israelis.