Jews with guns - not only in the Israel Defense Forces
Increasing number of Jewish Americans buying guns amid fears of growing anti-Semitism.
By Natasha Mozgovaya Tags: Israel news anti-SemitismWASHINGTON - In the year after the election of Barack Obama as president, more than 14 million weapons were sold in the United States compared with 12.7 million the year before. Gun-shop owners have argued that the rise in sales is linked in part to concerns that the Democratic administration will try to restrict the rights of Americans to hold weapons under license.
The Obama administration has not taken a clear stance on the issue, but in some U.S. states legal battles over the right to bear arms has begun in earnest.
So far Obama has been forced to sign into law the right to carry weapons in national parks, and also the right to bear arms in train compartments. Virginians, meanwhile, were given the right to carry concealed weapons in bars and restaurants, while a 17-year-old law banning the right to buy more than one gun per month was revoked.
In Indiana, companies may no longer prevent their employees from keeping arms in their cars parked on company property. Starbucks became the site of demonstrations by supporters and opponents of gun control after the coffee chain decided to allow customers in states where carrying arms is legal to enter its cafes carrying unconcealed weapons.
Much of the Jewish community has remained outside the debate: Some 90 million U.S. residents hold 200 million firearms, but only a tiny minority of American Jews have guns. However, there appears to be a revival among supporters of the right to bear arms among Jews who say that attitudes are changing because of new threats they face.
One of them is Dovid Bendory, an Orthodox rabbi, 42, from New Jersey. Not only did he buy a gun, he also became an authorized shooting instructor and is giving lessons to members of the Orthodox community. He also distributes material that explains, on the basis of biblical texts, the right of Jews to self-defense.
"I did not grow up with guns, not even with toy guns," he says. "I think that the first time I saw a real gun was when I visited Israel at age 16. But I began to think about weapons seriously after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As far as I'm concerned, the Twin Towers disaster changed the entire scene, because until then we thought that the terrorist threat existed only outside the United States."
Another turning point was the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, where one of the targets was the Chabad House.
"I realized that this is no longer political terrorism but anti-Semitism," he says. "In May 2009 they arrested people in Riverdale, New York who wanted to blow up a synagogue in that neighborhood, which is a 40 minutes drive from my community."
Bendory says the understanding that terrorism can reach America's Jews, too, led to his decision to be ready.
Bendory took part in courses offered by an Israeli instructor, and then decided to disseminate his discoveries among the country's Jewish community with a Web site and his "Ten Commandments for Self-Defense."
"I think that in view of our history, every Jew who is physically and psychologically capable of carrying a gun should do so," he says. "We must be ready to defend ourselves, and God will make sure we will never need to do so. I am not a supporter of Kahane, but I also do not want to find myself on the wrong side of a gun."
About 30,000 people lose their lives in the United States as a result of gunfire every year, but in more than half the cases the shots are self-inflicted.
"I can't see how restrictions on carrying arms would have helped in cases like the shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington in June 2009," Bendory says. "As a felon, the shooter was not permitted to carry arms anyway, but he did not care about the law, and the only thing the law did was that none of the people in the Holocaust Museum had a weapon to protect themselves.
"It's strange that so many Jewish Americans are proud of the IDF, but when a Jewish American speaks in favor of guns, they think he is mad. However, when I speak in the synagogue about the need for self-defense, suddenly people come out of the closet and admit that they have guns," Bendory says.
"I put guns in the hands of dozens of people who held one for the first time. In my latest course I taught 12 Orthodox women to fire for the first time in a range," Bendory says. He adds that non-Jews also contact him and encourage him.
William Daroff, director of the Washington office of the Jewish Federations of North America, believes that support for guns in the Jewish community is a marginal phenomenon; he says his organization does not have a set position on the matter.
Aaron Zelman from Wisconsin, who set up the organization Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership 20 years ago recalled with nostalgia his first experience shooting a gun at a Jewish camp in Tucson, Arizona, where he grew up. "It would never happen today," he says.
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As a Jew, a life-long gun owner and an NRA Life Member, I am disgusted by the cowardly, pacifistic head-in-the-sand attitude shown by many American Jews. Trying to make nice to those who would kill us was not the response of the Maccabees or of the founders of Israel. Most American Jews are spoiled and delusional regarding guns and self-defense. Here's a heads-up: even paranoics have real enemies!
paying the price and an applicable tax
So, we have to protect ourselves when they aren't
When it comes to the Constitution of the USA, all the amendments are important, but the most important one is the 2nd amendement, the one which includes the "right to keep and bear arms", because it is that amendment that protects all the other amendments.
We do have the right to rocket launchers (destructive devices) and automatic weapons. There is a $200 transfer tax.
that America sent it's soldiers to defend your homeland in WW2 because you didn't have the ability to do the job In that very same War, England begged American sportsmen to send over some our guns because the Brits were unprepared and were in short supply
the media is good at feeding fear into the people, and most people fall for it. I mean really if the gov't claims one thing than turns and does the exact opposite what can the people do but to react negativly. maybe we should all turn our guns on our gov'ts and be free of their crimes.
"However you let law abiding citizens arm up, and violent crime goes down everywhere it is legal to own and carry a weapon." Violent crime rates are highest among all western countries in your beloved gun-toting US ...
Well since you're so brave, take a ride through the shetachim and tell us how you make out, if you survive Precaution is the better part of valor, just in case you haven't heard Are you trying to tell us that there are no guns in your Kibbutz? AP Ammo is great, it will cut through a car and it's occupants without a problem
Those that are on record and those that aren't I have a number of each, along with adequate ammo to go along with them There's an old saying "Better to be tried by twelve than carried by six" Of course, those that have criminal intentions or mental defectives should be allowed to buy or use them
An armed populace is a polite populace. If a criminal knows no one can own a gun the criminal will attack whoever he wants. However you let law abiding citizens arm up, and violent crime goes down everywhere it is legal to own and carry a weapon.
An armed populace is a polite populace. If a criminal knows no one can own a gun the criminal will attack whoever he wants. However you let law abiding citizens arm up, and violent crime goes down everywhere it is legal to own and carry a weapon.
gees, you'de think a "smart" country like america would learn after all the massacres, we in oz land had an amnesty and retrieved thousand of illegal firearms after our massacres, it's done well,although knife attacks have become widespread now, we have another new law, anyone carrying a knife in public will be hit with a 1000 dollar fine, that WILL lower knife carrying morons, personally, if your found carrying a knife in public then that is pre-meditated and NOT self defense, capsicum is self defense.
USA gun culture leads to 30000 deaths,just imagine if USA public had the right to have rocket/grenade launchers...............the mind boggles at idiocy
"Anybody got a former US military A10 gunship for sale?" - Mark B. It would have to be 'demilitarized' if you could buy it at all. Unlike the average gun nut, the armed forces of the US practice control of arms and munition and try very hard to keep them out of the wrong hands.
I don't think everyone needs one. But I was just reading about the shooter who recently attacked the Pentagon. It seems to me that there is definitely going to be a need for armed guards everywhere from now on. People should have the right to bear arms. But armed security guards and police better be well trained and ready to take down the dangerously crazy people that have them before they hurt anybody. It's a dangerous World we live in.
Shouldn't own guns. Their wrists are so weak and bent, that they would always shoot the ground. Let everyone know, that if you threaten me or my family; I can shoot the gnat off a flie's ass in motion. Statistics have proven; a well armed community, is a safer community. Also, the more gun training you get, the less likely you'd draw your weapon.
The Jews of the years 70 and 135 were not pacifists and were proficient with the weapons of the day. That's why they made such stupid moves and millions of them were killed or sold into slavery after wars they started but couldn't possibly win.
Anybody got a former US military A10 gunship for sale?
In 1948, in South Africa, my mother trained to to use machine guns and mortars at the age of 18. They were a group of young Jews who were headed to Israel to help in the 1948 war. These weapons were "borrowed", smuggled out from a South African Army base near Johannesburg illegally on Friday and returned on Monday morning. Many of that generation saw the need to learn to use guns.
The Pals do keep and bear arms and rockets, mortars, firebombs, IED's and a myriad of other weapons. Now if you read the news(which I find doubtful in your case). The son of Hamas,s founder just gave an interview on CNN. As a double agent working for Mossad he clearly stated the difference between Israeli policy and that of Hamas. Israel he said targets terrorist's only and sometimes civilians get killed in the process. Hamas he said TARGETS innocent civilians, and he couldn't understand how anybody could not see the difference. Clearly Israel was Good and Hamas was Evil, he blamed the teaching of Islam for the Evil in Hamas and his people.
I was a little taken back by the Rabbi's comment about the anti-semitism; because I don't think it's true. The article says that there are 30 thousand gun deaths per year, (I beleive that it's closer the 21 thousand.) These 30 thousand are not all Jews. I believe that anti-semitism is a sub-category of the types of hatred and discrimination in our society. There still is vigorous hatred towards blacks, gays and other minorites in America. A screwy notion circulated in the USA before and after the Obama election, where citizens and others bought a large number of guns, and ammo was in short supply. But it wasn't anti-semitism, it was another fear--or the primal drive of survivalists. Another questionable label occurred in Los Angeles where a random shooting of two elderly jewish men, who were on the property of their synagogue. There was no evidence that it was anti-semitic, but the L.A. police classified it as a hate crime. This anti-semitic gets used and over used.
Not afraid to admit that I have a small schlong but this GUN really makes me feel better! BAM!!! BAMM!! :)
My parents made sure I got a thorough Jewish education, but they also sent me to YMCA camp in the summer - why? The Jewish camps didn't offer riflery and the YMCA camps offered target shooting with .22's. My Dad was a WW2 veteran, proud of old photos of him with his M2 carbine (not a typo, that's the full-auto version), and after the Holocaust, he decided that every Jew should learn to shoot, at least be comfortable handling a gun. Today, I don't have a big gun collection or an NRA membership, but I have a few (locked up, not under the pillow), and I practice occasionally with the cheapo FMJ ammo from WalMart. The expensive hollow-point ammo I always keep loaded in some of my clips is...not for practice. That doesn't make me a gun nut, it makes me a very typical American. The Jews of the Torah were not pacifists and were proficient with weapons of the day. Like modern Israelis. The Jews of the Holocaust, the pogroms - not so much. More Jews should take this to heart.
I have a couple of guns and most people in my parish are armed to the teeth so if anything happens - out economy or society collapses which is plasible - we can have our catholic crew protecting its people - we are gun obssessed here and I love it.
Please inform us about the meaning of the phenomenon 'black helicopters' in the American mindset. It is something worse than the IRS? Commies in Dem disguise? Lberals I bet to turn the land of the gun-free into some Eurotrash welfare state. Is it often mentioned at Tea Parties?
The other option is to move up north, to Canada. Unlike south of the border not every idiot carries a gun, and murder rates are way lower.
Twenty years ago Texas had pretty restrictive gun control laws. Now we have very promiscuous gun anti-control laws. There has not been a drastic rise in the murder rate. nor any dramatic drop. Regional cultural values have the most impact in murder rates, not the presence of guns. The top ten states by murder rate are Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Delaware. The bottom ten are Main, Montana, Oregon, Minnesota, Hawaii, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, New Hampshire, North Dakota. The rate in the top ten averaged 7.8 per 100,000 population, while in the bottom ten it was 1.6 Conclusion, it's the people not the guns, though the most violent states tend to be southern 'gun rights nut' states.
Whew, stop the presses. American citizen buys gun in the United States. 14.6 million guns purchased in the US in one year alone. 90 million firearms in the entire nation. As a nation, we rival Yemen for per-capita firearms consumption. Yes there was a rise in gun & ammo purchases, but that's already tapering off in the recent quarters.
Hamas does not belive they should. That is why they rounded up all the guns when they took Gaza Hostage. They did not want to get shot at when they through all their Fatah Brothers off roof tops.
6 million Jews in Europe probably would not have agreed with you. Unfortunately since Hitler had gun control, they are not here to tell us.
I am alive today because an 80 year old lady had a gun. She pulled it, Shot and missed, my attacker ran away. The attacker had been released from jail because of overcrowding. He had killed before and was released early on a manslaughter conviction. When arrested he shot at police. Now I have a gun. I am Jewish and White, The 80 year old lady was Black and Cathlic. She would have killed a black man to save me.
In America gun owners tend to kill themselves, friend, co-workers and family far more often than anyone not associated with them. This can be considered a very Darwinian form of improving humanity.
". . . armor piercing bullets to go hunting deer?" - had enough The armor piercing bullets are for the Kevlar Clad Storm Troopers in the Black Helicopters.
"80 gun deaths per day in USA." - had enough That's why we need more guns.
As a confident heterosexual I know the difference between my pistol and my penis. The the paranoid latent homosexuals who have to compensate for their deepest fears by owning arsenals and stockpiling munitions have a problem.
Did you really just ask that question? Just go to Sderot and watch out your window. They do more than bear arms---they have rocket launchers. Seriously. If you're going to read the news, read ALL of it. As for this American, we too just purchased handguns and completed concealed carry classes. I would encourage the purchase of a lovely Jericho 941 from IWI---you can protect yourself and support Israel with your puchase. The added benefit is that these are FANTASTIC guns.
It is interesting he doesn't think he saw a gun until he was in Israel at age 16 since in New Jersey all police carry guns.
at least in bordering area's. With similar proceedures to keep them like in the european union. Everyone has the right for self-defense
not to mention all of those school shooters or workers going 'postal' and the Rabbi is worried about Al quieda? and armor piercing bullets to go hunting deer? really...
There are many Jews who own Guns and have permits. Here in NYC, one just has to go to the Range and see that Yids can shoot. Best place for ammo is Walmart and the best place to meet wonderful friendly people is at the Range. I joined the local Gun Club and now I am a crack shot. I don't work on Shabbos and I carry my NRA card!
Interesting numbers. By my figuring, you're 20 times more likely to die from a gun if you own one. Perhaps they should make anti-depressants mandatory with every purchase. Another reason to pursue peace.
If they want guns, they have every right to buy them. The only problem is that buying ammunition is difficult. We have about 4 guns in our community for every man, woman, child and baby. That is not at all uncommon in this part of the country. We also have an ammunition factory in town. But nobody can find ammo even at the local Walmart, except on the day the shipment arrives. Many are convinced that the US black helicopters are going to show up and confiscate all the guns and ship the owners to the FEMA Re-education camps. It really is amusing for those not paranoid or scared by rumor and politicians. The non-paranoid includes every executive and worker at the ammunition plant where they are running two shifts. If they ran a third shift, the price of ammunition would go down. Can't have that.
"Dovid Bendory, an Orthodox rabbi, 42, from New Jersey. Not only did he buy a gun, he also became an authorized shooting instructor and is giving lessons to members of the Orthodox community." I wonder if this so-called man of God thinks the Palestinians should have the right to keep and bear arms to defend themselves? Nah, what was I thinking.