Shofar Shevat/Adar 5771
Jewish Family Congregation www.jewishfamilycongregation.org
February 2011
From the Rabbi’s Desk In the days following the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, many people chimed in with opinions about the events. Some were quick to blame the heated rhetoric that accompanied the most recent election cycle, and some attributed political motivation to the perpetrator. After a few days, it became clear that the shooter was mentally ill, and that he had no discernable political leanings. That discovery prompted others to wag their fingers (and their tongues) at the commentators who had blamed the aggressive language and tone of certain candidates from the right, and particularly from the Tea Party movement, for influencing the shooter. Listening to a call-in radio show that week while running on the treadmill, I heard one caller make a very interesting point. He said that the intensity of the political discourse around the last election reminded him of what it was like in Israel just before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated (the caller had lived in Israel at the time). In 1995, Rabin was working toward some kind of negotiated settlement to end the standoff with the Palestinians, and there was reason to hope that this would lead to the creation of a state that the Palestinians would accept and cherish. But there was then, as there is now, a faction within the Israeli Jewish population that considers ceding any of “greater Israel” a sin. And they demonized the prime minister to such a degree that an Orthodox Jew gunned him down on November 4 of that year. In that instance, there certainly was a political motivation to the killing. And while it may be true that the troubled young man who killed six people and wounded 19 others in Tucson was not politically driven, it may also be true that he was nonetheless influenced by candidates for election who spoke of “Second Amendment Remedies” to various situations, by commentators who spoke about the candidates they particularly wanted to defeat, publishing a map with cross-hair targets on the congressional districts From the Rabbi’s Desk Service Schedule President’s Message JFC Adults JiFTY A Voice Still Heard Chanting Torah The Religious School Early Childhood Center ECC pictures
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they were targeting. It is chilling to note that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was one of those targeted, and that she spoke out about that at the time. Those politicians and commentators who had used the inflamed language and wild-west imagery of gun fights insisted that this was just their style, with no intention of inciting someone to actually shoot anyone. But this does not absolve them of responsibility for creating an atmosphere that encourages people to carry and use weapons. Nor does it take into account people like Jared Loughner, the Tucson shooter, who do not have a firm grip on reality. The long list of shooting incidents in this country, going back to the attempts on the lives of Presidents Ford and Reagan, clearly shows that people who are mentally unstable will and do respond to voices sanctioning solutions using “bullets, not ballots.” The other side to this story is about the ready availability of guns and ammunition in this country. It appears that Mr. Loughner went, the morning of the shooting, to a chain discount store and bought the bullets he used. Arizona apparently has some of the most lax gun laws in the country. Though he had been kicked out of his Community College because of bizarre behaviour, and though he had been turned down by the army because the recruiters saw something off in him, Mr Loughner had no trouble buying guns and bullets. In other countries, Canada conspicuously amongst them, there are restrictions about the kind of weapons available (no extended magazines, like Loughner used to fire 31 bullets, uninterrupted) and applicants must both licence and register their guns; they are required to take a course on gun use and safety, and then there is a month’s waiting period before they can have the weapons. If nothing else, this reduces the spontaneous use of guns to settle
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