See if You Can Figure Out What You're Doing Wrong

I am reading about the Muslim terrorist attack on Jerusalem's Merkaz Harav yeshiva. Two things about the report stand out: one of the first armed responders at the scene was a yeshiva student with a pistol, who may have wounded the murderer and made it harder for him to kill more innocents. And the man who is believed to have killed the attacker was a military officer who kept a weapon in his home. In Israel, as in the US, the police and the military are separate organizations. So two of the most effective defenders on the scene were armed citizens not connected with the police. One had a gun in his home, and the other carried a gun on school property.

Armed citizens work, and I won't say they "even" work at schools. That would imply that there is some reasonable doubt. They obviously work at schools, just as they work everywhere else. A while back, terrorists attacked another school in Israel, and what happened? Armed counselors took them down and prevented them from killing anyone. Here in America, armed citizens with deer rifles pinned down University of Texas sniper Charles Whitman, enabling the police to kill him more easily. The best statisticians we have say millions of violent crimes are prevented every year by armed American civilians. How many crimes do citizens with guns have to prevent before Americans accept the obvious truth? Armed is better than unarmed.

Think about the Virginia Tech massacre. Imagine yourself in the classroom building during the attack. One man is wandering around shooting people. He can't be everywhere at once. He doesn't have eyes in the back of his head. He's vulnerable the vast majority of the time. There are many, many opportunities to kill him, wound him, or force him to take cover. There you are, watching all this unfold, wondering how many seconds you have left to live. Let's say a genie appears beside you and offers you a loaded AK-47. In your wildest dreams, would you even consider turning it down? No, you would not. And neither would Sarah Brady, unless she's insane. Rosie O'Donnell wouldn't; she hires bodyguards who carry guns. Gun grabber Diane Feinstein certainly wouldn't. She used to have a carry permit.

Sitting at home in front of your Mac, eating tabouli and drinking grass juice without a care, you might reflexively turn down the right to bear arms. In a bloody hallway at Virginia Tech, you'd give everything you own to hold a gun for just one minute. You'd sleep with Rush Limbaugh for a box of cartridges.

Let's play a game. I have a gun, and I'm in the hallway outside your bedroom. Try to call the police. Step, step, step, BANG. You lost. You'll always lose. What could be clearer? What if you called them two or three full minutes before I entered your bedroom? You still lose. What if you pepper spray me? Then my eyes really hurt. While I shoot you. What if you blow a rape whistle? My ears hurt. While I shoot you. This is a pretty one-sided game.

You can always cooperate, right? Okay, here's a good example of someone cooperating.

That's a video of a store clerk being shot in the leg while cooperating with a robber. The leg, not the face. Whew. Good thing he was a nice robber. Of course, many robbers aren't that nice. And many criminals aren't robbers.

Maybe cooperation will help when someone shows up to steal. What if he just wants to rape or kill you? Cooperation means he gets to do those things. To you, to your spouse, to your kids, to your guests...as long as he has a gun and you don't, he might as well be God Almighty.

I honestly don't know if I could shoot another person, even in self-defense. As a Christian, and even though killing in self-defense is not a sin, maybe I'd prefer to take my chances with the Lord's mercy than kill someone living in an unsaved state. But that choice should be mine to make. Not Diane Feinstein's. And if I have a wife and kids, that goes double.

I have been told that Israel has adopted a number of ridiculous gun laws since I lived there. I'm very sad to hear it. Dating back at least to Saul, Jews have always had an uncanny knack for sabotaging themselves politically. I still remember an attack that took place while I was in Israel. Some murdering Muslim idiots started shooting up a square in Jerusalem, and armed citizens opened up on them and put a quick end to their nonsense. A surviving terrorist told the police they would never have tried it had they known ordinary citizens were armed. If any statement ever deserved a "duh," that one does.

I'm glad to know there are still some privately held arms on the street over there. I mean, other than the ones carried by terrorists. I hope the Israelis don't appease and liberalize themselves into the Mediterranean.

If you want to support Israel in its struggle against terror, let me suggest you visit the International Federation of Christians and Jews. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who runs the organization, continually expresses frustration over the media's increasingly warped, pro-terror, anti-Semitic coverage. A lot of the IFCJ's efforts go toward wonderful things like helping impoverished Holocaust survivors, but they also fight anti-Israel bias in the press. The IFCJ is one of my absolute favorite service organizations. Feed the poor, help the sick, bless the Jews, combat journalists who bear false witness...how can you go wrong with an outfit like that? And they are helping spread a vital message: Bible-believing American Christians are some of the strongest, most devoted friends the Jewish people have. Wonderful organization. Check it out today.

More

Found some interesting material from the IFCJ, for religious Christians and Jews. They have a DVD series about the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. You can order the DVDs free of charge, and you can also see videos online at this link.

More interesting items, provided by my old friend Aaron; I haven't checked these out yet, but I think they should be fascinating.

1. The Rubin Edition of the Prophets: Joshua and Judges. This is a rabbinic commentary on some books of the Old Testament. Aaron suggested it because I expressed amazement that God would tolerate and help a person like Samson.

2. Torah Anthology - The Book of Ruth. Obviously, this is commentary on the Book of Ruth.

3. Mechon Mamre. This site contains a translation of the Hebrew Bible, plus the Mishneh Torah (Restatement of the Oral Law), by Moses Maimonides.

A Christian who is ignorant about Judaism is like a fat guy who has never seen his feet.