Miguel sent me the link to this article in The Jewish Standard, Change still can happen: working toward saner gun safety laws. It was written by Sarah Nanus, who is the local group leader of the Bergen County chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. It was posted from Moms Demand Action’s Facebook page.
The article is full of all the usual lies and bullshit that the MDA claims is the justification for more gun control.
We still demand universal background checks before all gun purchases. There’s another false American mantra that goes, “We just need to enforce the gun laws that already exist.” But unfortunately, many of those “laws” actually don’t exist, and they never did. Now, under federal law, background checks are required only for sales conducted by licensed dealers. That means that convicted criminals and other dangerous, prohibited purchasers, and even kids, are able to buy guns online or at gun shows without a background check, no questions asked. Nearly 40 percent of all gun sales in this country occur without a background check.
As the internet says… FFS!
“Background checks are required only for sales conducted by licensed dealers.”
Yes, because everybody else is private citizen. We can’t buy from wholesalers and sell retail. We can’t buy, sell, or ship across state lines. What we can do is sell the occasional gun face to face to somebody else without losing resale value to the local gun store.
The closest approximation would be, since the antis love the car-gun comparison, being required by law to sell your old car to a dealer instead of selling it privately. If you are somebody like me who has invested in lights, a winch, off road tires, Magnafow exhaust, etc. you know the dealer won’t take that into account and will give you Blue Book at best. I can do a lot better putting my Gen 3 Glock 23 with Trijion HDs and two replacement Storm Lake barrels up for sale on Gunbroker than I will at the Cabela’s gun library.
But I digress…
“That means that convicted criminals and other dangerous, prohibited purchasers, and even kids, are able to buy guns online or at gun shows without a background check, no questions asked.”
FFS again! Because the only thing that stops somebody like me from selling my old Glock to a 12 year old or the gang banger with the prison neck tattoo is a being mandated to do a NICS check on the buyer. Most private sellers are not the irresponsible. Those that are willing to sell a heater to a teenager know what they are doing is a crime and are doing it anyway.
This is typical big government loving “we can’t trust people to do what’s right unless we have a hard and fast one-size-screws-all law in place.”
But again, I digress…
This is where my ire gets up.
The MDA post says “A New Jersey Moms Demand Action volunteer explains how her Jewish faith makes her more resolved than ever to keep fighting for gun safety.”
As the Talmud asks us, “If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” Our country, our families, our children need us now more than ever. As moms, as dads, as grandparents, as Jews, we have both an obligation and a very special opportunity right now to tap into new audiences of concerned citizens and emphasize to them just how critical engagement and working toward change is needed now. It is time, more than ever, to embrace and be proud of our basic Jewish principle of tikkun olam.
Tikkun olam is a phrase that means “repair the world” and has been adopted by liberal Jews as a justification for social justice. In fact most definitions of tikkun olam reference social justice.
However, these liberal Jews have been called out.
Professor Steven Plaut of Haifa University wrote about “The Rise of Tikun Olam Paganism” (The Jewish Press, January 23, 2003), calling it a “pseudo-religion,” “social action fetishism” (The Jewish Press, November 19, 2008) and a “vulgar misuse and distortion by assimilationists.” He concludes that Tikkun Olam is quite clearly “a theological notion and not a trendy socioeconomic or political one,” observing that, “It would be an exaggeration, but only a small one, to say that nothing in Judaism directs us to the pursuit of social (as opposed to judicial) justice.”
This is where this big mess of an idea in my head starts to coalesce into a thesis.
Moms Demand Action posted two other Jewish related items around the beginning of Chanukah.
First was their Hanukkah greeting:
Hanukkah is the celebration of the victory of the underdog. It is about rededication of the Temple. It is about the miracle of the oil burning for eight days.
Bullshit!
The Seleucid Empire, a Hellenistic (Greek Speaking) state founded by Seleucus I Nicator, conquered the Holy Land. The local magistrates of the area of Judea forbid the Jews, who had been there for about 1,000 years already, from practicing their religion, even engaging in the Mitsvah of brit milah (circumcision).
In 160 BC, a young Jewish priest names Judah, got tired of being oppressed and engaged in a seven year long guerrilla war against the Seleucid Syrian-Greeks and won. Judah earned the name Judas Maccabeus, which means “Judah the Hammer” because of his ferocity in war. The victory of the Maccabees gained the Jews their religious freedom, which they celebrated by fixing up the holy temples and circumcising all the Jewish males. Ancient Jews were badasses
The real meaning of Hanukkah is Jews kicking ass.
A good portion of Jewish holidays have to do with our total destruction of our enemies.
Purim, we defeated Haman and outsmarted the King of Persia.
Passover, we called down the power of the One True God to smite the Egyptians on our behalf. Jews, because God is our close air support!
Since then, we’ve mellowed out a bit too much. Eight days of presents is fun, but maybe the world will go back to taking us more seriously if we celebrate Hanukkah with fire and circumcision again.
Going back to the Sarah Nanus’ article, she says:
We are still the same Davids, up against the NRA Goliath. Leviticus 19 tells us, “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” Though the election may have thrown us off balance, we will not let it throw us off course.
This is another story of Jews kicking ass that she and MDA got totally backwards. The Philistines army was trying to destroy the army of the Jews and conquer Judea. They were locked in a stalemate. Goliath of Gath was a great Philistine warrior who challenged the Jews to single combat, letting the victory of the war depend on the outcome of the fight between Goliath and one chosen Jew. David, a shepherd boy, then killed Goliath with a rock and his faith in God, and the Jews drove the Philistines from the Holy land.
It’s not just a victory for the underdog. It is a story of a people fighting off oppression and subjugation.
Moms Demand Action is not David, fighting off the well funded NRA Goliath. Moms Demand Action and the rest of the Bloomberd hydra are the Philistines trying to oppress and subjugate everybody that doesn’t believe like they do.
Which brings us to our last post.
The Jewish community of Whitefish, Montana is being harassed and threatened by some White Supremacists/Neo-Nazis.
My instinct is to raise money to buy the Jews of Whitefish a truckload of Ar-15’s and cases of ammo.
A local rabbi called on supporters to put a menorah in their window to show solidarity with the Jews of Whitefish, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which is in touch with the Jewish families. In response, Anglin told his followers to put Nazi flags in their windows and to put the Nazi swastika on their cars, homes and businesses, the ADL wrote in a Friday release.
You know what would go up in my window. A menorah and one well perforated Q-target.
I had a neighbor in South Dakota that used to say Antisemitic shit to me. Then I went to the range and spent some time on my front porch, while he was working on his car, cleaning my guns. What I do know is that he didn’t anything to me again and neo-Nazis are chicken-shit cowards.
Sarah Nanus, Michael Bloomberg, Moms Demand Action are all on the side of the Nazis of Whitefish, trying to take the Jews’ guns away.
This is why my dad taught me to be a gun owner. Jews are subjugated and oppressed and made to live in fear until we arm ourselves and start kicking the living shit out people.
It is the true lessons of Hanukkah and David and Purim and the modern state of Israel.
Nicely written Sir. I am sick and tired of hearing how ” anyone can buy a gun on line or at a gun show” yeah?? F in TRY IT!! Gotta luv morons..
AMEN! From another “Shootin’ Jew”.
davidhuntpe.wordpress.com
anyone know what the reciprocity is for Montana and Utah’s out of state carry permit?
I feel like taking a trip out there and standing with the shoulders of good people of Whitefish.
Only thing worse than a Montana nazi is an Illinois nazi.
I’m just going to repost a comment I left on this blog back in 2014:
“You shall not stand by [the shedding of] your fellow’s blood. [Do not stand by] watching your fellow’s death, when you are able to save him; for example, if he is drowning in the river or if a wild beast or robbers come upon him.” — Torath Kohanim 19:41; Talmud, Sanhedrin 73a (in an expansion on Leviticus 19:16)
We all long for the day when we shall “beat our swords into plowshares,” but G-d repeatedly reminds us that doing so unilaterally is a mistake!
In Sanhedrin 72a you’ll find the plainly stated rule, “If someone comes to kill you, kill him first.” If we are told by the Almighty to defend ourselves, then clearly we must possess the means with which to do so.
The Lord is my shepherd, but he made us tool-using, self-aware apes and not grass-grazing, herd-minded cattle. David had a sling to find off wolves and Philistines. He saved the prayers and his harp for peacetime.
Ish – You have a good post here, but what’s with the G-d? Do you feel God is a nasty word? I see this on occasion and always wonder why it is written this way?
In the Jewish tradition (largely observed only by the more conservative and/or orthodox but not unknown to others) its highly disrespectful to casually write the name of G-d. Remember that whole “shall not take the name of the Lord in vain” rule?
Jewish tradition builds in this, so that culturally it’s also standard practice to avoid erasing or defacing any name of G-d. If I wrote the name “Robert,” something might happen that accidentally altered it to be “ober,” which would be kinda sorta disrespectful to Robert… And that’s bad enough for Robert, it’s a lot worse to be disrespectful to G-d.
Now, I don’t always follow this practice. I grew up a Roman Catholic and still have a lot of that tradition and culture deeply ingrained in me. But, I figure that whenever I am actively talking about Jewish religious practice, it’s probably best to adopt this practice, out of politeness/respect to any more observant Jews who should wish to join in the conversation.
You know what they call the things that get thrown by war slings like David’s?
Bullets.
You know what they call people who are ignorant of or hostile to culture, history, and art? Philistines.
I’m fairly comfortable with being part of an analogy that casts me and the gun rights community in the role of David and the anti-gun authoritarians in the role of Goliath.