Chapter 1: What recent events prompted a discussion on gun control?
Last week, as I'm sure you are all aware, there was a terrible tragedy in Florida with another mass shooting in schools.
So whenever that happens, which unfortunately is happening with greater frequency, it seems, I'll advise that should be the last one, and it shouldn't happen with any frequency, but it always brings up the issue of gun control and the debate over the Second Amendment and what its limitations are or what its limitations are. ought to be.
So I thought it would be a reasonable topic for a time in the Lachash here to discuss whether the Torah has anything to say about this, whether there should be some limitations on the Second Amendment from a Torah perspective, and what those limitations are.
might be so uh by way of introduction it's just important to realize a couple of things first of all this is a highly political discussion in general you know uh and halakhic jews don't really define themselves politically uh or we shouldn't meaning we shouldn't say oh because i am a republican therefore everything that goes along the republican party line is something that i necessarily believe in because that's what i am i am a republican or because i am a democrat
anything that goes along Democratic Party lines. That's not the way we make our assessments of things in life.
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Chapter 2: How does Halacha view the concept of rights versus obligations?
It's not the way we make our judgments of what is a proper mode of action and what is an improper mode of action. We view things through one criteria and one criteria only. What is the Ratzan Hashem? That is it. Ratzan Hashem usually, as it expresses itself in the Halacha, often as it expresses itself even beyond the Halacha in the Ratzan Hashem, That's the way we are supposed to look at things.
So regardless, we can put all politics aside. And aside from that, from just the political element of it, the very idea of a Bill of Rights is not really a halachic concept. It's not really a Torah concept. It is an American concept, but it is not a Torah concept that we have rights to anything. We have obligations. In Torah, there's such a thing as mitzvos. as , as obligations.
We don't have such a thing, as far as I know, maybe someone could correct me, as the right to. We don't have the right to anything. gives us oxygen, so we have the right to breathe that oxygen. But we don't really have rights. We have obligations and assumptions about how other people are supposed to treat us because of their obligations toward us and toward society.
So to view it from a non-constitutional perspective seems foreign to many people, but when we're viewing things from a halachic perspective, from a Jewish perspective, we don't really view it through the Constitution. I also want to point out that I tried to do a little bit of research about... the Second Amendment and its limits.
Chapter 3: What does the Torah say about selling weapons?
I don't really fully understand the debate, to be completely honest. I don't even really partially understand the debate. I think that if you were to ask, at least in public, all the Democratic politicians, all the senators, let's say,
on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, I think they would all say that they believe in the Second Amendment in some form, that there is a right to bear arms. I think they would all, behind closed doors, I'm not convinced they would all agree that there ought to be a right to bear arms.
But at least in public, I think they would all admit that there is such, that they believe in the Second Amendment. I think if you were to ask everybody across both sides of the aisle whether mentally ill people should be armed I think most, if not everybody, would say that sounds like a terrible idea to arm mentally ill people. I think we're all in agreement about that.
And where exactly the debate happens, where in the middle that debate happens, is something that's confusing to me. I'm not really sure what exactly we're arguing about. Are we arguing about the extent to which we're willing to go to make sure that mentally ill people do not have guns? Is that what the whole argument is about?
I'm not really sure, and that's not really the topic of our conversation.
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Chapter 4: Who is prohibited from receiving weapons according to Halacha?
It should also be pointed out, also by way of introduction, that although school shootings bring this to the center of our consciousness, that is far from the leading cause of gun death in the United States. The leading cause of gun death in the United States is suicide, right? It's people taking their own lives with guns and gang violence would be next.
And school shootings just make it a very emotional issue because here you have innocent children going to school, doing the most innocent thing you can do, which is going to get an education in school in a place that is supposed to be the safest place for a child to be, which is in school, and they're gunned down and their lives are taken. And that certainly makes it a very emotional issue.
And I don't think it's inappropriate to discuss the issue when it becomes emotional, meaning when it becomes emotional and when it's something that talks to us, So maybe that is a time to have a reasonable conversation about it. So what does the Torah have to say about this? It has some explicit rules. about selling weapons, about who we can and cannot provide weapons to.
The Gemara tells us that one is not allowed to sell weapons to an Ovid Kol Chavin, nor is one allowed to sell weapons to a Kuti. And the Gemara is very clear that the reason one is not allowed to sell weapons to these people is because they will use those weapons against Jews. You have to realize that throughout much of Jewish history, in most places where Jews have lived,
We were not equal citizens with everybody else.
We certainly did not enjoy equal rights and we were subject to much anti-Semitism and often overt anti-Semitism where Jewish blood was cheap and if our enemies had the wherewithal to kill us, they took advantage of that ability to do so and therefore one cannot provide our enemies with weapons that they will in turn use against us or that they will at least likely use against us.
The Gemara goes on to say, that you're not allowed to sell to certain Jews either. If you have Jewish Listim, you have people who are bandits, and they go and they commit violent crimes, you're not allowed to sell a weapon to such a Jew. Not only that, even if they don't commit violent crimes, they just commit crimes. They're ganavim.
But they want to buy a weapon, you're not allowed to sell a weapon to them. Why are you not allowed to sell a weapon to a Jew who has no history of violence? He's just a criminal. Why is that he's not allowed to sell?
Rashi says because even though he won't use it, he's not a violent person, he won't use it to kill anybody, but he'll use it to scare people, he'll use it to impose his will on somebody, to rob people, and you shouldn't help him do anything. That would be an avera, that would be something that can harm other people. The Iran says, no, we're concerned he's actually going to kill with it.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of selling weapons to criminals?
And if that's the case, on a societal level, one could argue that it would be a better thing for more people to be armed. Whereas if it's an issue of lifne iver, so then anyone who there's a risk, even if he's primarily getting it for self-protection, but if there's a risk that he's going to commit an act of murder, it may be a violation of lifne iver.
I'm not convinced that that's really enough committee between the two, because I think the gemara is pretty clear. that you don't sell to people who are dangerous. You sell to, but you're allowed to sell to people who are not dangerous. You're allowed to sell to people who are not criminals.
And ultimately, on both levels, it's not going to be lifnaivar when you sell to someone who's not a criminal. Either there's a chance he'll turn bad and he'll become a criminal and he'll lose something. Yeah, there's a chance. There's a chance that that will happen. But it's not lifnaivar because you don't have to be choshesh for such a chance as long as he's a reasonably good person who is not
a criminal, and on a societal level as well. I don't think we have to be choshesh that it's going to be negative for society, it's going to be bad for society, if you are careful to sell to good people. In addition to all of that, though, there are other issues in the Torah, or mitzvot in the Torah, that relate to this topic, although not as directly as that sugyon avodzara.
That sugyon avodzara is as direct a hit on the topic that you're going to have. about selling weapons, mamish, meaning it's not about the rights to own weapons, because again, we don't have any issues of rights. We have obligations and Yisroel. So in Yisroel, to sell weapons in certain circumstances.
But then there are other broader topics, such as there's a mitzvah in the Torah called mitzvahs ma'aka. A person is supposed to build a fence around his roof. Why do you have to build a fence around your roof? Because you're supposed to have a safe environment there. in your house.
One has to see to it that their home is a safe environment, that the workplace is a safe environment, that the environment around them is a safe environment. The Chassi Yitzchak and the Chuvah and the Chelet Chas discusses reckless driving as a violation of this mitzvah, because you're creating an unsafe environment around you when you drive recklessly.
If you employ people in a workplace and there's unsafe fumes or unsafe Working conditions, that too is a violation of this general issue that one has to make sure that their home and everywhere around them is a safe environment. So one would imagine that based on that alone, if one does have a firearm, they have to make sure that it is very safe. If they have someone in their house,
who maybe is not responsible enough, either because they are not old enough to know how to use it responsibly, have not been trained to use it responsibly, not mature enough to use it responsibly, then one must keep it under lock and key. Then one has to make sure that it's an absolutely safe environment.
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Chapter 6: How does the concept of self-defense relate to gun ownership?
But either way, if one has a vicious dog, one has to chain up the vicious dog. And there are halachas about how to make sure that the dog, and the Gemara says that even if the dog is chained up, it could still be damaging because it could frighten people to the point where a woman may miscarry. if she's barked at too loudly by a dog.
So one has to avoid a frightening environment where innocent people might get hurt. On the other hand, there is also very clear in the a right to self-defense, even with lethal force, if necessary. If someone is coming to kill you, you're allowed to kill him first. It would be very hard to do that if you don't have the ability to kill him first. So yet one has the right to do that.
One has the right to defend oneself. So in broad strokes, like I said, on a political level, I don't even understand really fully the debate. I think everyone agrees that there is some level of right to self-defense. And by the way, there's good reason, even though that's not a halakhic issue, there's good reason for the existence of the Second Amendment.
There are people that in their heart of hearts say, we don't even need to just get rid of the Second Amendment. There's good reason for the existence of the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment was made so that we could avoid a tyrannical government that will one day do as they will with their citizens. When you have armed citizens...
a tyrannical government is going to uh have to think several times before they they try to uh the democracy falls by by the wayside so there is good reason for that and good governments have turned bad in the past so as wonderful and as the american government is and as lucky as we are to live in a free society there's the founders knew what they were doing there was a savara for it
So, you know, on a political level, people will agree to the Second Amendment, they'll agree that mentally ill people shouldn't have guns.
On a halakhic level, I think also, we can agree that halakhically, weapons are okay, people are allowed to have weapons, but weapons have to be kept in the hands of those who are responsible, and those who will use them responsibly, and a person, there should be limitations on
on uh on on who's able to get their hands on on weapons because there are limitations on who we are allowed to provide weapons to so the extent to which a background check must be done you know there's no exact halacha but we do see that you're not allowed to provide guns to criminals who stand to reason that we're allowed to make sure that the person is not a criminal before we provide them with a gun what types of guns what types of weapons you don't find much you know you only find that distinction
Potentially between a shield and a knife. You don't really find like between semi-automatic and handguns and things of that nature. So that I couldn't find anything, at least in Halakha, that comments on that element of the debate.
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