Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
UPDATE: The JPFO Alert was reissued to emphasize the following statement: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE JFPO IS NOT A SPONSOR. THE JOINT STATEMENT HAS BEEN ISSUED ONLY BY THE RABBIS AND GOLANI CLUB WHO SIGNED IT.
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Rejecting calls for more federal gun laws by the Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Union, a dozen rabbis have issued a joint statement rebuking the position of those groups, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership announced Monday in a member alert and press release.
"Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Rabbi David Bendory, and ten other rabbis, together with the members of the Golani Club, a Jewish shooting organization based in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, affirm the importance of armed self-defense by Jews and all Americans," the release explained. "The RCA and OU should promote legislation that offers law-abiding citizens full protection of their right to self-defense, both inside and outside the home, especially in the most restrictive states, which contain large Jewish population centers."
Offering their statement "in support of Jewish law, Jewish life and Jewish self-defense," the dissenting rabbis refuted justifications given by the religious groups for promoting disarmament edicts. Noting that strict existing gun laws are already in place and raising points that those laws have proven ineffective at stopping violent crime, the rabbis reminded the organizations of the equalizing and violence-deterring effects of gun ownership, as well as some uniquely Jewish considerations for rejecting "gun control."
"Jewish history supports self-defense," the rabbis declared. "It is remarkable that the RCA and OU have ignored the long Jewish history of persecution.
"We have a duty of self-defense under Jewish Law," the rabbis argued. "The Torah recognizes armed self-defense as a requirement for a free people ... the Tanach praises self-defense [and] Channukah celebrates self-defense. [The RCA and OU should] reconsider their prior positions, and instead encourage Jews to remain ready, vigilant, and armed.
http://www.examiner.com/article/rabbis-reject-calls-for-gun-control-by-jewish-religious-groups