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All Jewish Spaces Need Armed Guards

'Queasiness' aside, only guns can stop would-be killers

By Ambreen Ali,  Newser User

Posted Jun 11, 2009 3:12 PM CDT

(Newser) – Yesterday’s Holocaust Museum shooting should stifle the queasiness American Jews feel around weapons, Jeffrey Goldberg writes for the Atlantic. “One of the lessons of the Holocaust to me is that it is more difficult to kill an armed Jew than an unarmed Jew,” he says. Had the guards been unarmed, “the Holocaust Museum would have been the scene of a massacre.”

“The guards responded to [James] Von Brunn just as they should have, and shot him immediately without hurting a single bystander,” Goldberg says, calling on the Jewish community to arm guards at all their institutions. The guards should be Jews, he notes, “because it’s our responsibility to defend ourselves.”


A woman holds a candle as members of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington hold their interfaith solidarity gathering at the DC Holocaust Museum.
A woman holds a candle as members of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington hold their interfaith solidarity gathering at the DC Holocaust Museum.   (AP Photo)
James von Brunn opened fire inside the crowded US Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Washington yesterday.
James von Brunn opened fire inside the crowded US Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Washington yesterday.   (AP Photo)
FBI investigators and Washington police investigator George Klein Jr., with camera, photographs bullet strikes in one of the museum doors.
FBI investigators and Washington police investigator George Klein Jr., with camera, photographs bullet strikes in one of the museum doors.   (AP Photo)
A special police security officer makes a sweep with his K-9 dog outside the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington earlier today.
A special police security officer makes a sweep with his K-9 dog outside the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington earlier today.   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 18 comments
Stuart
Jun 12, 2009 12:58 PM CDT
Gee Observer, do you blame women for rapes too? Anyone who has any understanding of Jews and the term Chosen knows that it means chosen for a specific task. Only the ignorant or the hateful try to use it as spite to 'justify' Jew hatred.
memphibian
Jun 12, 2009 8:52 AM CDT
Thank your right-wing court that anyone who can talk can buy guns. But on the Shabbat we can't be armed and we can't be working as guards. We walk to Shul if possible. Better if we find and shoot neonazis during the week.
psycada
Jun 12, 2009 7:12 AM CDT
Annie, sadly, you and the rest of the anti-gun folk mis-understand the necessity or reasoning behind the second amendment. If it were not the case, then you would not be anti-gun, unless of course your part of the government who is afraid of power wielded over the central government by armed citizens. Also,how long will it take you to realize that even if guns were outlawed, they would still be available to criminals via the black market, leaving us regular, law abiding folk at even greater risk since we could no longer defend ourselves against the criminals. Anti-gun logic never did and still doesn't make any sense against the logic behind the second amendment.

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