Rabbis want more gun control

My reactions to this story about leftist Rabbinic organizations calling for more gun cntrol
1. We already have enormous laws on the books. They need to be enforced.
2. There is no evididence strict gun control laws reduce crime. In fact studies show the opposite. Strict gun control means only criminals have guns. Chicago for example has the stricitist gun control laws in the nation and its murder rate by guns is exploding. Conceal and carry states have lower crime rates with guns. the criminals are more afraid evidently. If people had been able to have guns in the theater in Colorado or the Sheikh Temple, fewer might have died
3. In terms of hateful rhetoric, when the President and his cohorts accuses MittRomney of causing a cancer death, wanting dirty air and water, not caring about the elderly etc. that is what must be reined in.
4. These Rabbis are not political experts or social scientists. They don't have evidenc to back up their assertions. Non Orthodoxy is suffering horribly  from assimilation. Better to stick to worrying about that

Rabbis Unite for Stricter Gun Laws


By JTA

Published August 19, 2012.

Print Email Share Reform and Conservative rabbinical leaders called for increased gun controls in the wake of a spate of shootings.



“Our tradition teaches: ‘Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor’ (Leviticus 19:16),” said a statement Thursday issued by Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly. “As people of faith, the Rabbinical Assembly unequivocally calls upon lawmakers to take all available measures, to ensure the safety of the public to limit the availability of guns and the permissibility of their concealment.”
A statement the same day by Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of Reform’s Religious Action Center, noted the shooting attack Wednesday by a man on the Family Research Council, in which a guard was injured, and alluded to shootings this summer at a cinema in Colorado and a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin that have claimed 18 lives.
“Guns are too pervasive in our society and too easily obtained by those with mental illness, nefarious goals – or both,” Saperstein said. “Abiding by the principles of the Constitution need not be incompatible with sensible gun control.”
Saperstein’s statement also noted increasingly vicious political rhetoric as an element; the FRC attacker reportedly opposed the group’s opposition to gay marriage, and the Wisconsin shooter was a white supremacist.

“This trend of violence threatens us all and violates the values of respect for others that must be paramount in American civic and political life,” he said.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/161397/rabbis-unite-for-stricter-gun-laws/#ixzz2440HuBpe