“There exists in the United States a powerful lobby that supports the right of any crook or any wife beater to buy almost any weapon at almost any time, no questions asked. It is, in effect, the criminals’ lobby…” — Rabbi Eric Yoffie, December 18, 1999

By urging the Congress to strengthen “gun control,” Rabbi Yoffie and his supporters at the Union of American Hebrew Congregations jeopardize law-abiding Americans’ lives and, in the wider World, promote genocide. For any Jew to back “gun control” is self-destructive: since the destruction of the Second Temple in the Year 70, disarmed Jews have repeatedly been victimized, in a wide range of countries.

In our own era, “gun control” promoted the Nazi genocide against 6,000,000 Jews and 7,000,000 Gentiles, in which 1.5 million Jewish children were murdered. The Nazis inherited a “gun control” law — complete with detailed registration lists — from the centrist Weimar Republic, which enacted “gun control” to curb political violence. Those registration lists enabled the Nazis — who gained power through the ballot box — quickly to disarm their opponents, to gain an iron grip on Germany, and to make sure that no one could challenge them.

“Gun control” promoted at least seven other major 20th Century genocides, including those in Rwanda, Cambodia, and the ex-Soviet Union. In just 103 days, 800,000 Rwandans were murdered in 1994, including several hundred thousand thanks to “gun control” (laws of 23 November 1964 and 1 May 1979). In these eight major genocides, a total of 57 million children, women, and men were murdered by officials of governments “gone bad,” thanks to “gun control.” Rabbi Yoffie’s advocacy of “gun control” — a euphemism for the step-by-step total disarming of civilians — directly promotes genocide. That is disgraceful for any person, and especially so for a Jew.

The Rabbi asserts that the “gun lobby” is the criminals’ lobby. Nonsense. Criminals hold the law in contempt, and will surely disobey a law commanding them to disarm. Fortunately, the Second Amendment gives members of the law-abiding majority the civil right to self-protection. By seeking to subvert that civil right, Rabbi Yoffie is helping to empower the very criminals he claims to dislike, much as the pre-Nazi German regime’s efforts to combat political violence through “gun control” helped the Nazis. Rabbi Yoffie has learned nothing from recent history.

“Gun control” undercuts 140 years of American jurisprudence. At least since 1856, the average American has had no right to police protection. The Supreme Court so held in deciding South v. Maryland. The police have only a general duty to enforce the law and to try to arrest criminals. Thus, in the US, a police force cannot be liable for failure to prevent a criminal’s act. A person who dials “911” to get help, and does not get help in time or at all, may sue the police force, but the case will surely be dismissed.

That is why even in Rabbi Yoffie’s home state of New Jersey — where the purchase of firearms is severely regulated — the law empowers a citizen to use deadly force against a criminal attacker in ones home (NJSA 2C3:4 et seq and 2C:3-6 et seq). The statutes recognize this right to personal protection because NJSA 59:5-4 immunizes local police forces against liability for failure to provide protection to the average person.

In sum, because general civilian ownership of firearms is the only way to prevent genocides, and because Americans have no civil right to police protection, Rabbi Yoffie’s efforts to promote “gun control” are deeply immoral in America and in the wider world. We call upon him, and his followers, to re-think their position, and to abandon their support for “gun control.”

Rabbi Yoffie, Jewish law mandates self-defense. In no less than three places in the Talmud, the Code of Jewish law, the injunction to self-defense is clearly stated: “If someone comes to kill you, anticipate him and kill him first.” (Tractate on Blessings, p. 58a and 62b; Tractate on Sanhedrin [Capital Punishment] 72a).

Rabbi Yoffie, your support for “gun control” helps common criminals and promotes genocide, and so violates Jewish law and American jurisprudence. We urge you to turn away from evil-doing, abandon your support for “gun control,” and stand with the tens of millions of righteous American firearm-owners in defense of their civil right to be armed.

The writers are two of the three authors of Lethal Laws, that thoroughly documents the connection between gun control laws and major genocides in the 20th century. The book, published by JPFO, is available at the above link from Gun Owners Foundation in association with Amazon.com