American Jews are rushing out to buy guns and practice shooting in the face of terrorism abroad and anti-Semitism at home
In the wake of and amid Hamas’ recent terrorist attacks on Israel rising Despite anti-Semitism at home, scores of American Jews are making sure they are not left defenseless when unrest breaks out.
Firearms instructors and gun sellers reported a large influx of Jewish customers.
David Prince, the owner of the Eagle Gun Range in Farmers Branch and Lewisville, Texas,
told WFAA-TV reported that it saw a 300% increase in gun sales following the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Something has really changed in the last three or four days. … People come in and say they are afraid for their lives because they expect to be attacked because of their religion,” Prince said.
“As long as they want to protect themselves and their families, that’s all we care about,” Prince continued. “We don’t care about anything else. We sell them for defense purposes, and that’s what we’re here for.”
“We’ve definitely seen a huge increase in religious Jewish and Orthodox people buying firearms,” said David Kowalsky, the owner of Florida Gun Store in Hollywood, Florida.
told NBC News. “I have noticed an increase in interest in both individual training and group training.”
Local synagogues have turned to Kowalsky to host training and shooting sessions.
“These are mothers, teachers, most of them are people who have never been around firearms or thought about owning them,” the gun seller said. “There are safety concerns. I think people are nervous about what’s going on and what could happen.”
Rabbi Yossi Eilfort, who runs Magen Am, a Los Angeles nonprofit that provides firearms training to the Jewish community, said his organization received over 600 calls in the past week alone.
“The demands for self-defense training, situational awareness training – ‘How do I make my business or institution a more difficult target?’ – was just really, really non-stop,” Eilfort said.
Endi Tennenhaus, a preschool director in Hollywood, Florida, told NBC News that she helped organize gun safety training for 25 to 30 women at her synagogue last week.
“If all of our husbands are going to buy guns, we want to make sure that we also know how to use them and that we are also able to protect our children and keep guns safe in our homes,” the mother of seven said .
Political strategist
Hank Sheinkopf pointed out that this trend contradicts the alleged tendency of American Jews to support gun reform and gun control and overall “to oppose personal gun ownership,” adding, “Jews with guns have always been viewed as a strange occurrence.”
An unidentified Jewish woman who has long advocated for curtailing Second Amendment rights said death threats in recent days prompted her to take an interest in the target practice. She said it wasn’t a happy decision, but rather no decision at all.
“I have no choice,” the anonymous woman said. “It’s a very sad thing.”
The Telegraph
reported that there have been reports of hundreds of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States since the Hamas attacks earlier this month.
Every time a Middle East conflict breaks out, there is an increase in anti-Semitic crimes in the United States. For example, during the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021, anti-Semitic attacks reportedly doubled.
reported ABC News.
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