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Should a Jew Sell Guns?

By J. David Bleich (Sh'ma 11/214, May 15, 1981)

Mr. Isaac Goldstein,
Proprietor, Rocky's Pawn Shop
Elm Street
Dallas, Texas

Dear Mr. Goldstein,

Time Magazine reports that you are giving serious consideration to discontinuing the sale of handguns in your establishment. No doubt, the recent attempt upon the life of President Reagan is prompting such soul searching not only on your part, as proprietor of the store which sold that particular gun, but on the part of countless other gun dealers as well. Permit me to draw your attention to one aspect of Jewish teaching which should figure prominently in such deliberations.

Maimonidies (Hilkhot Rotzeah 12:12, paraphrasing Avodah Zarah 15b) declares: "It is forbidden to sell heathens weapons of war. Nor is it permitted to sharpen their spears, or to sell them knives, manacles, iron chains, bears, lions or any object which can endanger the public; but it is permitted to sell them shields which are only for defense."

Mr. Goldstein, a sticker on the door of your shop reads "Guns Don't Cause Crime Any More Than Flies Cause Garbage. " Maimonides disagrees emphatically. In explaining the premise upon which the provision of Jewish law is based, Maimonides tells us that in selling arms to a heathen "one strengthens the hands of an evil-doer and causes him to transgress" and "anyone who causes one who is blind with regard to a matter to stumble -- or one who strengthens the hand of a person who is blind and does not see the path of truth because of the desire of his heart violates a negative precept as it is stated, "You shall not put a stumbling block before the blind."

This precept was understood by the Sages as an admonition designed to protect not only the physically blind, but the intellectually and morally blind as well. A Jew is forbidden to take advantage of another person's lack of awareness in a way which causes harm to that person or to others. The Torah forbids us to mislead the blind and thereby cause them to stumble. We are forbidden to give the uninformed misinformation or poor advice; we are forbidden to prey upon, or pander to, the predilections of the morally blind.

These restrictions are part of Torah and accepted by Jews because such is the divine command, but they also happen to make good sense. Let me tell you a story.

Everyone remembers the assassination of Martin Luther King. Some, but probably not many, will remember the shooting of Martin Luther King's mother some time afterward. It is an event I am not likely to forget not because of the event itself, but because of an incident which occurred subsequently.

A short time after the shooting, my wife and I were sitting in a cafe in Prague. A young, highly intelligent medical student struck up a conversation with us. As he began to feel comfortable in our company, he leaned across the table and, in a conspiratorial tone, asked why American intelligence had sought the death of Mrs. King. I hastened to assure him that Mrs. King was a very private person, not involved in political affairs, and that it was highly unlikely that anyone beyond her immediate circle of family and friends had been more than dimly aware of her existence. Moreover, there was cause to believe that the man responsible for her shooting was mentally incompetent.

Our young friend was incredulous. I assumed that he suspected a plot to be lurking behind every headline. No, he assured me, he understood well enough that in the West not everything is controlled by the government. But this incident must have been government-directed, came the clincher to the argument, because otherwise how could the assassin have come into possession of a gun!

We had come to Prague via Vienna. In Vienna, but several kilometers away, we stayed in a hotel off the Graben on Dorotheegasse. The street was rather narrow and easily overlooked. Returning from our outings, we recognized the turn by means of a large neon sign outside a store on a corner. The sign was emblazoned with but a single word " Waffe." The young man's reaction to my account of how handguns are freely available in many western nations was that I must be a weaver of fancy tales or else Western society is plumb crazy.

The ease which handguns can be acquired in some Western countries is simply incomprehensible to persons who live in a more circumscribed environment. To them this is not a sign of freedom of the West, of which they are jealous and which they could replicate if they but could, but of an irrationality of which they wish no part.

Jewish law recognizes that indiscriminate sale of weapons cannot fail to endanger the public. The daily newspaper confirms this deep seated distrust far more often than is necessary. As the bearers of an ageless moral code Jews ought to be in the vanguard of those seeking to impress upon our legislators that handguns are indeed "stumbling blocks" which must not fall into the hands of the "blind". Criminals do commit crimes and it is precisely because "morally blind" criminals are disposed to crime that Judaism teaches that it is forbidden to provide them with the tools of their trade.

Yes, Mr. Goldstein, flies do not cause garbage, but garbage does attract flies. Guns may or may not cause crime, but crimes of violence cannot be committed without tools of violence. Self-restraint in the sale of weapons is a small enough price to pay for even marginal enhancement of public safety.

Sincerely yours,

J. David Bleich