2013 Resolution on Gun Safety
BackgroundThe horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT last week leaves us grieving. Our grief at the deaths of the twelve girls and eight boys (all aged six or seven), among the twenty-eight victims, impels us to offer this resolution, along with our prayers for healing and comfort for the families who now grieve unthinkable loss.
In the United States, we live amidst a growing epidemic of gun violence and mass murders. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg wrote this year, “Guns have murdered more Americans here at home in recent years than have died on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. In support of the two wars, more than 6,500 American soldiers have lost their lives. During the same period, however, guns have been used to murder about 100,000 people on American soil.” According to The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, approximately 30,000 people die in gun-related incidents in the United States each year. A Mother Jones investigation found there were 61 mass shootings in 30 different states between 1982 and 2012. Most of those murderers obtained their firearms legally, which only underscores the urgent need to change our gun laws. A significant portion of these deaths are children and teenagers — our future.
The problem is much worse here than in other countries. Last year, handguns killed 48 people in Japan, 8 in Great Britain, 34 in Switzerland, 52 in Canada, 58 in Israel, 21 in Sweden, 42 in Germany and 10,728 in the United States. The U.S. ranks first in the world in privately held guns per 100 citizens according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.
It is within our power as a society to prevent at least some of these deaths, and therefore that prevention our solemn responsibility. The tremendous disparity between the number of deaths by gun violence in the United States and the number of deaths in other industrialized countries supports this conclusion. Further, while correlation is not causation, states within the United States with strict gun control have significantly fewer deaths by gunshot than states without such controls.
What has been lacking is the political will and moral courage to make the necessary changes to save lives.
On this issue, we interpret the injunction in Vayikra, “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor,” (Lev. 19:16) to mean we must advocate at every opportunity to prevent the deaths and injuries caused by gun violence. Further, we concur with the majority of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that regulating private ownership of firearms does not violate the Second Amendment to the US constitution, which guarantees the right of American citizens to bear arms.
Although Jewish tradition forbids killing animals in such a way as to cause pain (which gunfire is likely to do), and therefore forbids hunting for sport, we recognize the existence of cultures and communities in the USA within which hunting is central. We recognize the validity of hunting as a cultural practice and as a means of sustaining and defending oneself, as well as the fact that marksmanship and gun collecting are significant activities for many people. It is important for any regulation of gun ownership to recognize these activities. We also recognize that guns can play an important role in defending society — witness the example of Israel, where reservists and off-duty soldiers have automatic weapons, but where private gun ownership is almost one fiftieth the rate of gun ownership in the United States. But we reject the logic which would hold that the right to bear arms means free and unfettered access to automatic and semiautomatic assault weapons.
Resolution and call for actionTherefore, be it resolved that:
We urge the swift passage of comprehensive gun control legislation on both the federal and state levels, which includes any of, and we hope all of, the following elements:
• a renewed and updated ban on private possession, sale or purchase of assault weapons, high capacity ammunition magazines, and hollow point bullets;
• licensing requirements to possess any firearms. Such gun licenses must be renewed annually and include background checks and character witnesses;
• eliminate the gun show and private sale loopholes on background checks;
• registration of all guns;
• tight regulation on sale of all ammunition, including amounts that can be purchased in a given period and possessed in total;
• universal gun-safety training and periodic refreshers;
• mandate safe storage of guns;
• hold gun owners liable if they are shown to have been negligent in storing their guns and a gun stolen from them is used to commit crime;
• create incentives for gun owners to voluntarily relinquish their guns, especially military and police style weapons;
• prohibit gun ownership by convicted felons and the mentally ill.
We are dismayed that the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban was allowed to expire in 2004, and insist that any new gun control legislation be passed without an expiration date.
We recognize that many of the perpetrators of mass killings in recent years have been people suffering from mental illness. We urge our legislators to restore sufficient funding so we may renew our societal commitment to diagnose mental illness accurately and to offer treatment and care to people with mental illness.
We urge that all candidates for federal or state office refuse and return all donations from the NRA until that organization stops its efforts block any meaningful gun control.
We pray for wholeness and healing for those who have suffered from gun violence, and for our nation as a whole.
Sources:
BackgroundThe horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT last week leaves us grieving. Our grief at the deaths of the twelve girls and eight boys (all aged six or seven), among the twenty-eight victims, impels us to offer this resolution, along with our prayers for healing and comfort for the families who now grieve unthinkable loss.
In the United States, we live amidst a growing epidemic of gun violence and mass murders. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg wrote this year, “Guns have murdered more Americans here at home in recent years than have died on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. In support of the two wars, more than 6,500 American soldiers have lost their lives. During the same period, however, guns have been used to murder about 100,000 people on American soil.” According to The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, approximately 30,000 people die in gun-related incidents in the United States each year. A Mother Jones investigation found there were 61 mass shootings in 30 different states between 1982 and 2012. Most of those murderers obtained their firearms legally, which only underscores the urgent need to change our gun laws. A significant portion of these deaths are children and teenagers — our future.
The problem is much worse here than in other countries. Last year, handguns killed 48 people in Japan, 8 in Great Britain, 34 in Switzerland, 52 in Canada, 58 in Israel, 21 in Sweden, 42 in Germany and 10,728 in the United States. The U.S. ranks first in the world in privately held guns per 100 citizens according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.
It is within our power as a society to prevent at least some of these deaths, and therefore that prevention our solemn responsibility. The tremendous disparity between the number of deaths by gun violence in the United States and the number of deaths in other industrialized countries supports this conclusion. Further, while correlation is not causation, states within the United States with strict gun control have significantly fewer deaths by gunshot than states without such controls.
What has been lacking is the political will and moral courage to make the necessary changes to save lives.
On this issue, we interpret the injunction in Vayikra, “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor,” (Lev. 19:16) to mean we must advocate at every opportunity to prevent the deaths and injuries caused by gun violence. Further, we concur with the majority of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that regulating private ownership of firearms does not violate the Second Amendment to the US constitution, which guarantees the right of American citizens to bear arms.
Although Jewish tradition forbids killing animals in such a way as to cause pain (which gunfire is likely to do), and therefore forbids hunting for sport, we recognize the existence of cultures and communities in the USA within which hunting is central. We recognize the validity of hunting as a cultural practice and as a means of sustaining and defending oneself, as well as the fact that marksmanship and gun collecting are significant activities for many people. It is important for any regulation of gun ownership to recognize these activities. We also recognize that guns can play an important role in defending society — witness the example of Israel, where reservists and off-duty soldiers have automatic weapons, but where private gun ownership is almost one fiftieth the rate of gun ownership in the United States. But we reject the logic which would hold that the right to bear arms means free and unfettered access to automatic and semiautomatic assault weapons.
Resolution and call for actionTherefore, be it resolved that:
We urge the swift passage of comprehensive gun control legislation on both the federal and state levels, which includes any of, and we hope all of, the following elements:
• a renewed and updated ban on private possession, sale or purchase of assault weapons, high capacity ammunition magazines, and hollow point bullets;
• licensing requirements to possess any firearms. Such gun licenses must be renewed annually and include background checks and character witnesses;
• eliminate the gun show and private sale loopholes on background checks;
• registration of all guns;
• tight regulation on sale of all ammunition, including amounts that can be purchased in a given period and possessed in total;
• universal gun-safety training and periodic refreshers;
• mandate safe storage of guns;
• hold gun owners liable if they are shown to have been negligent in storing their guns and a gun stolen from them is used to commit crime;
• create incentives for gun owners to voluntarily relinquish their guns, especially military and police style weapons;
• prohibit gun ownership by convicted felons and the mentally ill.
We are dismayed that the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban was allowed to expire in 2004, and insist that any new gun control legislation be passed without an expiration date.
We recognize that many of the perpetrators of mass killings in recent years have been people suffering from mental illness. We urge our legislators to restore sufficient funding so we may renew our societal commitment to diagnose mental illness accurately and to offer treatment and care to people with mental illness.
We urge that all candidates for federal or state office refuse and return all donations from the NRA until that organization stops its efforts block any meaningful gun control.
We pray for wholeness and healing for those who have suffered from gun violence, and for our nation as a whole.
Sources:
- “Gun advocates want to arm teachers,” by Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle, December 18, 2012.
- “Terror and fear American-style,” by Rina Ne’eman, The Times of Israel, December 15, 2012.
- Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
- “Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States,” by Ezra Klein, The Washington Post’s WONKBLOG, December 14, 2012.
- The Graduate Institute – Geneva; Small Arms Survey