Why Are American Jews So Anti-Gun?

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I have had hard time reconciling this article's theory, with the insitance of American Jews to arm Israel to the teeth. Jews have be persecuted (sp?)for thousands of years all over the world. Why they think it can't happen here is absurd.

I guess they must of missed the news broadcasts coming out of Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964.
 
Please re-read what you just said, because you just contradicted yourself.



Incidentally, I see no problem with making the statement: most American Jews are opposed to firearm ownership.
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I do not see where I contradicted myself.... I was pointing out that it is not a religious issue, but rather a philosophical/political view point that comes from a period where a nation walked away from its religion and sought other answers.

Todays Jews are not a unified group, with ideals based on their religion and theology, but rather a diverse group as a majority of Jews in the world today have sought answers away from traditional sources.

As Jews become more religious as a group (demographics point this out.... currently there are 5 million secular and 1/2 million Orthodox, but due to a smaller birth-rate and rising intermarriage among secular Jews, and a rising birth-rate and increasing numbers of people who have become Orthodox in the last 20 years, the numbers should revers themselves in about 60 years), I would theorize that since Judaism insists on self-defense, as well as self-responsibility for any actions taken, that they will embrace firearms as a religious obligation.
 
I live in an area without a lot of Jewish folks, but through work and travel I have made my share of friends in the Jewish community. The vast majority have been anti or at the very least un-supportive of 2A rights. Most are quite liberal in their political leanings, and most don't even like thinking or talking about the whole H thing. Now none were Orthodox, and most are not just secular, but non-practicing, but really when you think about it, how many folks keep up the traditions of their family? Most in our society have enbraced progress, few give serious study or even more than just a passing glance at the events of the past, especially those event that are so horrible! Easier to sit back and believe the myth that our society if progressing and those scary acts are just a thing of the past..... baaa, baaaa! Sad but it is not only a Jewish phenomona, but much more wide spread.
 
You're mistaken. Jewish folks in New Jersey have their own private gun clubs. These familes are defiantely armed. A former customer told me that what happened in Nazi Germany to the Jews would not happen in USA. Firearm ownership and training backed up this statement.

TR
 
I think that it may be that Jewish people in general express thier opinion more. From the friends I have had over many years, most were either Catholic or Jewish, the jewish ones seem to make thier opinion more vocal than the Catholic. It may be that because the struggle of thier parents went through, they were brought up that way. That's not to say that others didn't struggle as much, my dad fought in two wars, but he didn't talk about it.
 
I'd like to point out the parallel between Jews and Blacks. Sadly, the history of black society in America starts with slavery and continued with virulent oppression and segregation.

How many young black kids in the 50s were killed trying to get others to register to vote? I submit that fewer would have died if they were armed.

I grew up in NYC and had many jewish friends. Guns weren't even discussed as they were hard to get and no one's parents had them anyway. It wasn't until I grew up and moved away that I learned that two of them were armed.

Both were business owners: a funeral home owner and a jeweler. The funeral home director had to jump through hoops in NYC to get a carry permit. For whatever reason, he was transporting a lot of cash for business purposes.

As the article stated, I think a lot of it is the "It can't happen here or to me" mentality that fuels many anti-gunners, race or religion aside.
 
There is a pretty large Jewish community in South Florida where I used to live. What I have noticed is, suprise suprise, there's all kinds of Jews. There is a large number of elitist liberal Jews that are anti-gun. Not suprisingly most of them hail from New York originally. I don't know whether they got their beliefs from New York or gave them to New York but I don't think it is shocking to discover that anti-gun people are coming from an anti-gun city. As for the holocaust angle, humans on a large scale tend to be dumb and forgetful. Well that doesn't sound very nice but you can rephrase that any way you want. History has shown societies just don't tend to learn from history. On the other hand I have a few Jewish friends who definately do get it, are pro-gun and cite the holocaust as one of the reasons they own firearms.
 
My wife and I are both Orthodox Jews and we drive to shul. The only reason we drive is because the only Orthodox shul we like is in DC and since I value my gun rights we live 45 minutes away in VA. I will agree that most jews we know are liberal and don't think I should have my AR, etc because they are dangerous. Aside from my wife, my mom and dad, and one of our friends who is a LEO I don't know any other pro 2A jews. To make things even more interesting my wife is from the UK (born and educated) and she is still pro 2A.

I guess many jews forget history.
 
I do not see where I contradicted myself.... I was pointing out that it is not a religious issue, but rather a philosophical/political view point that comes from a period where a nation walked away from its religion and sought other answers.
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You contradicted yourself here:

To place a political stereotype on a religion is just wrong.... The problem isn't Jews being anti-gun, it is that socialists and modern liberals are anti-gun, and starting in the late 1800's, there was a huge movement among Jews toward such groups...
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Effectively you just said the majority of jews are liberals and socialists.

Again, this is not incorrect, but you said it is wrong to do. I quite agree it has nothing to do with the Jewish religion. You will note that the author does not say it has anything to do with the Jewish religion, in fact he points out that Isreali's have found that the Jewish religion supports self defense.

My point was that you made the same type of argument as the article and criticized the article for making that type of argument.
 
It's probably a city thing, there's huge cultural centers in NYC and Boston, and those are the cities about as anti-gun as they get. Plus, as was said, what's the utility when you live in a high-rise and how do you go shooting when you're elbow-to-elbow with your neighbors? Environmental conditioning.
 
My father converted to Judaism, and he liked guns. My mother, who was born Jewish, didn't. It varies. In general, Jews tend to be pretty liberal, but I think a lot of the hate crime stuff in Europe has led to lots of us questioning our assumptions on gun control.

I have liberal Jewish friends who are sympathetic to folks with concealed weapons permits being able to carry on campus. They'd probably never go for Vermont-style carry, but the general attitude toward guns isn't as harsh as it used to be.
 
It was said before, every group has its vocal minority and silent majority which unfortunately stereotypes the group. I have found that many of the more vocal minority are closet gun owners. I don't know what the word to describe them would be but I can't think of kind ones. Dianne Feinstein is one good example of an anti that carried frequently.
 
Many Reasons

I'm Jewish, and my father is Jewish.

My parents taught me that we didn't need guns. Guns were dangerous. Guns were only for hunting and Jews don't hunt, since there are strict laws on how animals must be killed.

Once my parents retired an moved to South Florida, my dad met a bunch of Jews that went trap shooting every week.

Next thing I know, my dad is purchasing a shotgun and 50 cases of shells for a season of clay sports.

The first gun I owned was my Dad's shotgun when he passed away. I now have several, and go to the range on a regular basis.

I friend of mine from Temple was shocked to find out that I shoot, but was excited when I offered to take him to the range and teach him how.

I think for many Jews, we come from an Urban environment were we didn't have the experience of guns, except for guns used in crime. Hence we were taught guns were bad.
 
I think one of the reasons that American Jews support Israeli Jews is the urbanization again... "Well, they're the ones who need the guns." Same as they'd call a police officer...

IMHO, there is a definite parallel between American Negroes and many non-Israeli Jews - they were both oppressed for decades/centuries, and their societies learned to "get along to go along." They never "switched on" to the mindset that "we -can- protect ourselves."
 
1. You don't know all Jews - at the NTI - there was a nice group of nice Jewish guys - probably higher than the population proportion.

2. Read my sig for a URL I wrote that contains a discussion of such issues.

3. Quick and dirty reason - The right wing has been clearly anti-semitic for most of its history. Only recently has this 'save Israel' rhetoric surfaced. Gun rights have been totemic as a right wing issue. Unfortunately, the right has not been sympatico to civil liberties and antidiscrimination. Thus, many American Jews saw gun rights NOT as a civil liberty but just another bit of craziness from the right - which has no use for them.

3. In the USA, it has been the legislative process that gave most protection to minorities - not guns. You saw no armed rebellions for civil rights, no armed groups rose up to get my mother a job when she was discriminated against and her boss praised Hitler before WWII.

In today's world, the need for self-defense is changing views. The NYTimes has articles on armed Jewish neighbor groups. You see the past president of the NRA being Jewish, etc.

It is true that the majority of Jews are towards the left - this is correlated with the view of helping folks and civil liberties that usually comes with the religion. Those principles have not been strong points of the right.
 
My question is, will the author of that article be arrested? He's in Berkeley, after all.
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HA! No kidding. I was just in Berkeley this week. Gosh! What a dump!

IMHO, there is a definite parallel between American Negroes and many non-Israeli Jews - they were both oppressed for decades/centuries, and their societies learned to "get along to go along." They never "switched on" to the mindset that "we -can- protect ourselves."
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I would agree with you. A lot of gun control laws were set up to prevent black folks from owning guns. Guns were used by the white man, the oppresor, and were therefore bad. Also, with a lot of the violence in predominately black neighborhoods, black people might be more inclined to be anti-gun.
 
My Mother was a Jew although she converted to Catholicism. I have raised the same issue several times. Nearly all of local Jews are very liberal Democrats and most are members of the Brady Bunch. Most have never read Lucy Dawidowicz's bood The War Against the Jews, and seem to have some idea that taking guns away from their enemies will assist them.
 
Quick and dirty reason - The right wing has been clearly anti-semitic for most of its history. Only recently has this 'save Israel' rhetoric surfaced. Gun rights have been totemic as a right wing issue. Unfortunately, the right has not been sympatico to civil liberties and antidiscrimination. Thus, many American Jews saw gun rights NOT as a civil liberty but just another bit of craziness from the right - which has no use for them.
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This is a flat out lie.

Please cite your sources. Classical Liberals (who are now referred to as "conservatives") have always been opposed to discrimination. Where have classical liberals been "anti-semitic"?
 
Bogie observed:
IMHO, there is a definite parallel between American Negroes and many non-Israeli Jews - they were both oppressed for decades/centuries, and their societies learned to "get along to go along." They never "switched on" to the mindset that "we -can- protect ourselves."
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Well-put and cogent.

I'm not Jewish, but raised in an all-Jewish neighborhood in NYC in the late forties. Still in touch with one of my old buddies. We alter kakers talk for a couple of hours on the phone every year, and the last time, he mentioned that he wished he could get a gun for protection: "neighborhood's gone downhill, can't ride the Transit system anytime outside of rush hour," etc.

Yeah, sure. In NYC.

Kind of a complete turnaround for him.

All I could do was commiserate with him.

Say, Passover's coming up soon... I've got to call him.

And yes, my sister married one. :)
 
I'm surprised this came out of the city of Berkley. I sincerely hope this guy was writing with a pen name, otherwise the locals will chase him to the hills with pitchforks and torches.

Great article though. Dianne Feinstein was already mentioned, but don't forget about Charles Schumer. I've often wondered why they would forget the lessons learned from their grandparents or great-grandparents.
 
Interesting read....

and I do not perceive any slight against Jewish Americans (especially noting that the author is one).

It does seem to me that there are a lot of Jews in the anti-Camp....but then again, there also seem to be a lot of Jews in the camp of liberal politics, and perhaps being an anti is just part of the package.

I'm curious if this "perceived" anti trend holds accrros the spectrum of American Jewry (i.e. cultural, liberal, conservative, orthodox, ultra-orthodox, etc...).

I personally have no Jewish friends or aquaintances who are right of center, so I'm left to wonder, with no anecdotal experience to draw upon.

Shalom
 
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