What Could American-Style Gun Culture Do to Israel?

An Armed, Internally Divided Nation Is Not One That Makes Peace Easily

mong the core Israeli national narratives fractured by the October 7 Hamas terror attacks and the months of war and violence that have followed was the notion that Israel’s ethos on firearms differed from that of the United States.

Both countries were gun-centric democracies, that narrative allowed, but the U.S. was a land of too many guns and too few laws—while Israelis “trust their state, and don’t fear each other.”  A common refrain emphasized that “in Israel it is not a right to bear arms, but a privilege.”

I knew this mentality …

Why ‘Good Guys with Guns’ Don’t Make Us Safer

Right-to-Carry Laws Increase Firearm Theft and Reduce Police Effectiveness—Which Leads to More Violent Crime

In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court ushered in a new era of gun regulation when it struck down New York’s century-old concealed carry law. The New York State …

Newsom’s Gun Control Amendment Is the Most Important Idea in U.S. Politics

A Violent Country Desperately Needs Constitutional Protection to Fight This Epidemic. How Serious Is the Governor?

Gavin Newsom’s new campaign for a 28th Amendment is the most important political idea in the country today.

But you wouldn’t know that from reading media reports following the California governor’s …

An altar to the victims of the Monterey Park shooting. Flowers, candles, small pictuers, and notes fill the table. Above the altar are three larger photos of three different victims, framed with flowers.

What Mourning Looks Like in Monterey Park

Bound by a Culture of Welcoming ‘Immigrants and Lost Ones,’ a Community Comes Together in the Wake of a Mass Shooting

On a radiantly sunny afternoon in late January, I visited the parking lot of Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park. It had been less than a week since a …

Our Favorite Events of 2021

New Ideas, a New Home, and a New Hybrid Event Format Connected Us With Angelenos—and Audiences Around the World

Over 18 years and 650 events since we hosted our inaugural Zócalo event in 2003, Zócalo Public Square remains as fiercely committed as ever to bringing people together around ideas. …