[T]he Paris attacks once again put lie to the claim by Obama and other Second Amendment opponents that our respect for the individual right to keep and bear arms has rendered us a nation uniquely prone to mass violence.

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Habitually exploiting tragedy for potential political gain, sermonizer in chief Barack Obama made the following claim on June 18 of this year: 

"Sometime as a country, we'll have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence doesn't happen in other advanced countries." 

Actually, it happens fairly frequently.  Seven years of Obama's saint-on-the-cheap moralizing has become tiresome enough, but he could at least do us the favor of getting his facts right. 

To wit:  Just five months earlier, Islamic terrorists had slaughtered twelve people in the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo using semiautomatic weapons.  Obama also curiously ignored a similar horrific attack in Norway during his presidency that left 77 dead.  And two months after Obama's lecture, yet another attack on a Paris-bound train was stopped only because three heroic Americans intervened. 

Isn't it odd that Obama, a man who claims to learn about such things as the IRS targeting of conservative groups, the Veterans Affairs failures and his own Secretary of State Hillary Clinton using her own email server from news reports, seems unfamiliar with such obvious counterpoints to his assertions? 

Regardless, the Paris attacks once again put lie to the claim by Obama and other Second Amendment opponents that our respect for the individual right to keep and bear arms has rendered us a nation uniquely prone to mass violence.  As we have highlighted, America's murder rate doesn't differ significantly from other advanced nations, whereas nations like Brazil, Russia and Mexico that outlaw firearms actually do suffer significantly higher murder rates.  We have also shown that mass shootings actually occur with higher frequency in European nations like Norway and Switzerland that Obama elevates as more enlightened than the United States. 

Unfortunately, the obvious lessons of the latest attacks in Paris will soon be forgotten among hardened opponents of Second Amendment rights, who falsely claim that America suffers an exceptionally high murder rate.  More rational people, however, will recognize that mass shootings are something that afflict almost all cultures.  What does distinguish America isn't its murder rate, but rather our greater right to defend ourselves against such attacks via our individual right to keep and bear arms. 

Meanwhile, the Paris attacks have also reframed the ongoing debate over Israel's efforts to combat terrorism. 

Since its birth as a nation, Israel has been targeted for destruction by vastly larger enemies aligned against it, and for murderous rampage by individual terrorists both within and beyond its borders.  What America experienced on 9/11, and what we just witnessed in Paris, have been a continual aspect of Israeli life. 

Whereas western nations pledge unity with one another in the aftermath of such attacks, however, Israel is subjected to admonition and accused of "apartheid" for protecting itself from assault. 

Just last year, for example, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius demanded "utmost restraint" from Israel in responding to terrorist attacks.  "France is extremely concerned," Fabius said, "by the Israeli decision to launch a ground offensive in Gaza, and it calls on Israel to show the utmost restraint." 

After France itself was attacked last week, however, French President Francois Hollande pledged anything but "utmost restraint," and rightfully so.  "We are at war," Hollande thundered, and said, "France will be merciless towards these barbarians from Daesh." 

Understandable enough, but if Hollande really does want to respond effectively, he will take a lesson from Israel. 

By 2002, suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks occurred with regularity, and thousands of Israelis had been murdered and disfigured.  But then Israeli leaders ignored international critics by constructing a border fence and ruthlessly targeting terrorist leaders. 

The result?  Suicide bombings have been eliminated, and terrorists have now been relegated to isolated attacks with knives.  Whereas bombings at restaurants and shopping malls were once routine, today they are nonexistent.  Rather than receiving appreciation or emulation, however, Israel has for years been slurred as "apartheid" and a "bully" by the likes of the United Nations, Jimmy Carter and effete critics including the French. 

Unfortunately, the Paris attacks are unlikely to permanently rehabilitate Israel's critics or stubborn Second Amendment antagonists.  Nevertheless, they are instructive for the greater number who remain willing to learn.