Stop running advertisements and articles which advocate the sales of guns and going to gun ranges. Particularly in this period of increasing antisemitism, we should not be promoting the use of firearms.
Living here we are not defending Israel, we are not fighting in Gaza, we are not settlers or defenders of kibbutzim. We do not need weapons of death. Here in Teaneck we live in peace with our neighbors, many of whom are people of color or Muslim or of Middle Eastern heritage. We do not need to provoke violence with the excuse of Second Amendment “rights” or false home defending perceptions. We should not be influenced by the very politics of those who would find little excuse to hate us more: the NRA, the KKK, White nationalists, religious fundamentalists, etc.
Heaven forbid if a member of our community, influenced by your promotion of such weapons, should become involved in a shooting incident, whether it is a suicide, an accidental discharge or a criminal act against another individual. Should such a tragedy occur, persuaded in the purchase of a weapon by your tacit approval, you become complicit as an accessory to the crime. Just as a bartender who sends an intoxicated person out to drive and that person has an accident, or a mother who sends her child to a school shooting with a gun, both have been found guilty; so too you would be culpable. And so too would our community.
Our faith should be in Hashem, not in the barrel of a gun.
