Second it is the anniversary of the killing of five innocent people in a quiet cul de sac. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}I knew one of them. I saw her brother and sister-in-law when they came to our synagogue to say Kaddish for her yahrzeit two weeks ago. Her death was shocking, happening just five months after the JCC shootings. I think the entire Kansas City metro was in shock after these two mass killing events.
Finally, it is something her nephew posted. Saying that his aunt was an activist. She was. And she would want us to do something about the gun problem in the United States. And I believe she would.
So I will say something.
I have used a M-16 during target practice. It is a gun meant to use to kill. I have walked a path along the dorms at Mount Scopus at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, holding an Uzi. I was taught to hold it to my hip and spray in a half circle if I needed to shoot. It was 1974. The Yom Kippur War was still on everyone’s mind. And those of us who lived in the dorms had to do guard duty once a month. Usually I held the lantern. But we had to know how to use a gun, just in case the other person was injured or killed.
I know that guns can be used for protection. But I also know that guns can be used to kill. And I do not believe in senseless killing.
I do not think anyone in the 1700s thought that one day there would be guns that could shoot out multiple rounds of bullets in seconds. I do not think that they imagined a nation that exists now. When people do not have to have guns to provide food for their families or that militias no longer are needed. They wrote the Constitution in different times.
I believe that people are misinterpreting the Second Amendment because they are unwilling to accept what is needed: stricter gun laws. The Amendment states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The right to bear arms is tied to the need for a militia. We have no need for a militia now. There is no need for all these guns to be out in the public.
I am not against people owning guns for sport, although it is not a sport I am interested in. I do not think that all gun owners would kill innocent people. But we see time after time, guns getting into the wrong hands.
I am sick of the NRA’s intense lobbying of our legislative representatives. And how their gun money is swaying the votes to go against common sense. They do not want regulations; they do not want more background checks; they do not want licenses.
To drive a car in this country, you have to have a license and insurance. You have to pass a test to prove you know how to drive. You should have to take a test to prove you know how to use a gun before you can buy one!
To move into an apartment for the first time, you have to have a background check. My son did: to rent an apartment, not even to buy a gun.
In some states, people can just go into a store or go online or go to a gun show and buy a weapon of death. It has become too easy to kill in the USA.
We have seen time after time innocent children and adults going to school, or going to the movies, or perhaps shopping at a mall, or to the gym, or in the case of my friend Susan Choucroun just standing in her driveway at the wrong moment.
When will it stop?
When will we say to the men and women who serve in our state and national legislatures that we will not vote for them if they take money from the gun lobbies?
That is what I plan to do.
I think that enough is enough. Every one of us must make a stand and no longer remain silent. The NRA and gun owners should not be running our Congress. WE, The PEOPLE should be running Congress.
Ellen Portnoy is a member of Kehilath Israel Synagogue and on the board of a variety of Jewish organizations. She frequently posts to her blog, zicharonot.wordpress.com, where this article was originally published.{/mprestriction}
