Why Are Jews Buying Firearms?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the Second Amendment “right to keep and bear arms.” The Hamas terrorist massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, has affected different people in numerous ways. Lucy Gilbert at The Daily Signal reported the “many Jews around the world are choosing to arm themselves for self-defense.” This is a substantial change for the Jewish community because they “tend not to own guns.” 

The Heritage Foundation held a Jewish Gun Ownership and Self-Defense event last Thursday, and Karol Markowicz, a Jewish columnist for the New York Post and Fox News, was convinced to “become a gun owner and get both a handgun and an AR-15.” She was reported to say that “she believes the terrorist attack has created a shift in the Jewish community and now more people are inclined to arm themselves.”

“When I went shooting on Oct. 10, [there were] tons of Jews at the shooting range. [A] girl walks out with a Chanel bag and a big Jewish star, and we give each other kind of a nod,” Markowicz said.

“I don’t understand how one can look at Jewish history and think that leaving Jewish security unto others is a winning strategy,” said syndicated columnist and Newsweek senior editor Josh Hammer at the self-defense event.

“A core foundational component of American democracy is this idea of the natural law – that there are certain rights as human beings that we are endowed by our creator with – the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness – and out of this naturally flows this right of self-defense,” said Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Heritage.

Americans use their guns to defend themselves or others somewhere between 500,000 times to several million times a year, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, said Swearer.

The claim that guns are more dangerous than useful is not true, according to Swearer. It is only more dangerous to own a gun if you are actively suicidal or prone to violence.

“If you are a sane, sober, moral, prudent person engaged in basic levels of responsible gun ownership, then it is simply not true that possessing a gun exacerbates the likelihood that you or someone in your family is going to be killed or injured by that firearm. That gun is not going to suddenly whisper mean things into your ear and make you violent or suicidal,” Swearer said.

Jews are doing more than just purchasing firearms. Some are rethinking their position in the Democratic Party, and conservatives such as Jay Greene, Heritage senior research fellow, said that conservatives should welcome them. Greene continued by saying that Jews naturally belong in the conservative movement because that is “where their values are best represented.”

Hammer indicated that he does not know what will cause Jewish citizens to move toward the Republican Party if the massacre in Israel does not. He continued:

“I have yet to be at a pro-Israel rally that does not thank law enforcement for doing its job ... for protecting religious liberties for all. That’s a major difference, by the way, between pro-Israel rallies and the pro-Hamas rallies, which are typically burning the American flag and standing against American values,” Hammer said.

Markowitz added, “that’s the message that Jews should take away. No one is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves.”