In the wake of the largest single slaughter of Jews on American soil, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Jews across Pittsburgh have embraced gun ownership to defend themselves. Anti-Semitic attacks across the country and notably in Western Europe have been on the uptick in recent years, both due to ethnic nativism and radical Islamic terrorism. It seems that Western Jews have finally taken up arms.
The Inquirer spoke to a Conservative Jew who went to his first gun-safety training at the Cherev Gidon gun facility, who said, “Now, we’re at war. We’re being targeted. We had a great run here in the United States. For 200 years we weren’t openly targeted as Jews. But it’s over, and now it’s time for us to arm ourselves.”
Evidently, he’s not in the minority.
Rabbi Moshe Rube of Birmingham, Ala., told TMZ that he’s discussing arming a member of his temple to defend the congregation if the worst were to come.
The Masada Tactical gun store reportedly has a majority Jewish clientele, with the owner, Tzviel Blankchtein, telling Forward that Jews are increasingly motivated to acquire guns as anti-gun activists ramp up the tone and tenor of their cries for regulations.
Yonatan Stern, the founder of Cherev Gidon and a former Israeli Defense Forces officer, told France 24 that local Jews have submitted more requests for training in the aftermath of the Tree of Life shooting than in the entire time he’s run the facility.
While the Left swears that banning guns will end gun violence, it certainly won’t end black markets or stop terrorists with other strategies or weapons. After all, France has no right to bear arms and prohibitively rigorous gun restrictions, yet Islamic terrorists managed to wreak devastating carnage at targets chosen specifically because of their links to Judaism, such as the Bataclan theater and Kosher supermarkets in Paris, and they still hunted and killed Jews in the streets of Toulouse and Montauban. Furthermore, the comparatively restrictive gun laws of New York City haven’t stopped a massive uptick of non-gun-related violence against Jews.
The horrific legacy of anti-Semitism has continued to live on, but the Jewish people are stronger than they’ve ever been. And apparently, they’re getting ready to fight back.
