Tablet Magazine Contributor Liel Leibovitz Advises Guns for Europeans (Jewish & Gentile)

Dedicated readers know that earlier this year the Jewish community began discussing the need for European Jews to arm themselves.  In January, I informed readers that European Rabbi Manachem Margolin had petitioned European leadership to make special accommodations for Jews to arm themselves in the wake of the Paris kosher supermarket shootings.  Later that month, Tablet contributor Liel Leibowitz wrote in support of that same notion.

My January piece also was clear that in my opinion, Margolin's aim was too narrow, i.e. I advocate that all Europeans should have a right to self defense with firearms.  Leibowitz has now reached the same conclusion in another Tablet piece.  Glad he came around.

It is worth noting that Leibowitz's motive for the expansion of gun rights in Europe is grounded in self-defense from terrorism (and one would assume, other violent crimes).  But this misses another major principle embodied in America's 2nd Amendment, which is the right of the citizenry to collectively defend themselves against tyrannical government.  It's beyond the scope of this blog to delve into this last issue, I merely point it out as one anecdote of where Jewish thinking may currently be on the subject.

I think it is worth a few minutes to click on the links above to Leibovitz's Tablet articles from February and yesterday.  The more influential Jews we have opening their minds to permissive firearms policies, the better.  And the more Europeans are allowed to arm themselves, the less we have to listen to the anti-gun lobby's irrelevant comparisons of US and European gun laws!

Rabbi Menachem Margolin and the European Jewish Congress are both wrong about guns!

In response to the slaughter of Parisian Jews last week at the hands of muslims:

A prominent Jewish leader has written to the governments of all the EU countries, calling on them to pass legislation giving special licence for Jewish people to carry guns.
In a letter sent to interior ministries around Europe and obtained by Newsweek, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, director general of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) and the European Jewish Association (EJA) – the largest federation of Jewish organizations and communities in Europe – writes:

“We hereby ask that gun licensing laws are reviewed with immediate effect to allow designated people in the Jewish communities and institutions to own weapons for the essential protection of their communities, as well as receiving the necessary training to protect their members from potential terror attacks.”

Speaking to Newsweek, Rabbi Margolin added that he believes that “as many people within the Jewish community as possible” should carry weapons.

In response, the "European Jewish Congress" rebuked Rabbi Margolin.

They are both wrong.

The correct answer is that all people, not just Jews, should enjoy their natural right to armed self-defense.