Now more than ever, Jews must learn to shoot

An acquaintance messaged me on LinkedIn recently, concerned for my safety and worried. “What happened to the world? I keep hearing about all the things happening to Jews. And in America as well. It's like 1933 all over again. The persecution, the college campuses, and random acts of violence. Why an uptick on college campuses? That's a way to control the next generation. ... Please be careful with all that's going on!”

What came from the monstrous attacks on October 7 is a realization that what happened in Israel can and will happen here. It’s not like we didn’t have all kinds of evidence for that over the last 22 years. But now Americans are fearful. The focus is on Jews right now because of Israel. But it’s not just Jews who are targets for the jihadist terrorism and violence. It is everyone. If you’re not Muslim, you’re a target.

One major difference: America has a Second Amendment and Israel does not. Most people don’t realize that Israel has some of the most draconian gun laws imaginable. Only 2% of Israeli civilians can legally own a gun. And even then, after undergoing an extremely rigorous background check and licensing test, an Israeli is allowed only one handgun and, until recently, one box of 50 rounds of ammunition. In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, Israeli authorities granted new firearm license holders permission to purchase ... 100 bullets.

It is difficult to believe that people who have endured pogroms, the Holocaust, and decades of attacks from their neighbors are not allowed to defend themselves. Israelis believe the IDF will protect them individually. But the IDF defends the country, not individuals.

“If a few hundred Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto could hold off the Wehrmacht for almost a month with only a handful of weapons,” wrote Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski in a gun control case 20 years ago, “six million Jews armed with rifles could not so easily have been herded into cattle cars.” And if Israelis had been so armed on October 7, they would not so easily have been savaged and murdered by the barbaric Hamas terrorists.

Only because Hamas fighters had no reason to fear for their own safety, and knowing that Israelis were defenseless, were they able to pull off such an atrocity. Israel’s willingness to leave its citizens so vulnerable is simply incomprehensible. Was it not a mere 80 years ago when defenseless Jews were led to the slaughter?

An American style of gun ownership would allow citizens to defend themselves without relying on the police or military. It would enable citizens to be truly independent. October 7 in Israel would have been very different. If Israel had a Second Amendment, October 7 would have been just another Shabbos, and Israeli Jews could have celebrated Simchas Torah in peace.

I've always said and I believe that had the Jews in 1938 been armed, there wouldn't have been a Holocaust. But I fear something different this time.

I started Jews Can Shoot after eight years of holding monthly events in which I believed I was educating — and warning — people about all the cultural and political ways in which our civilization was being undermined and subverted. My hope — foolish as it seems now — was that people would take the information and do something to stop the coming calamity.

In 2013, I had a good sense that merely holding events wasn’t going to cut it. So I retrieved the .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver I had purchased five years earlier and determined that no one was going to be responsible for my safety but me. I decided to learn how to defend myself. I thought others might be interested in learning, too. I already had a good-sized database. So I found a trainer, sent out a notice, and Jews Can Shoot was born.

My idea was to offer firearms training geared specifically to beginners. In the first three years, more than 400 people came through the training I organized. Many continued with their training and purchased firearms. A few even went on to become certified firearms instructors themselves.

If there is any one people on this earth who must show the world that they can shoot, it is the Jews.

It breaks my heart that 10 years later, Hamas has proved the truth of the message that “nothing says ‘Never Again’ like an armed Jew.”

I believe the present fervor will die down when the headlines start to change. But if just 10% of the people who are now arming themselves continue with their training and preparation, I'll count that as a 100% success. But more importantly, I want to see the Jews in America step up and support our Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is our best hope for survival.