On the afternoon of Feb. 14, a young man armed with an assault rifle intruded onto the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where he had been expelled, and began spraying bullets into a crowd of terrified students and teachers.
By the end of the six-minute massacre, 17 people were killed and another 15 injured. The suspected shooter was later identified as Nikolas Cruz, a disturbed young man with an alleged history of mental illness. In the days that followed, as anger, grief and calls for gun control legislation reverberated throughout the nation, we asked members of the Jewish community — among them rabbis, politicians, activists and psychologists — to respond to the plague of gun violence.
From Indignation to Transformation
by Rabbi Sharon Brous, IKAR, senior fellow at Auburn Seminary
All Are Responsible
by Rabbi Marvin Hier, Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance
Shot and Scarred at 6 Years Old
by Joshua Stepakoff, gun violence survivor
Yes to Gun Ownership. No to the NRA.
by Joshua Greer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and gun owner
Gun Violence is a Public Health Issue
by Mike Feuer, Los Angeles city attorney and co-founder of the national coalition Prosecutors Against Gun Violence
The Consequences of Anger
by Orli Peter, clinical and neuropsychologist
What the Second Amendment Does Not Guarantee
by David N. Myers, Sady and Ludwig Kahn Professor of Jewish History at UCLA
The Limits of Proposed Gun Laws
by Rabbi Mordecai Finley, Ohr HaTorah
A Culture That Glorifies Violence
by Dara Barlin, founder Dynamic Action Research Education Consulting
What If Government Can’t Solve This Problem?
by Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, B’nai David Judea
The Stain on the American Soul
by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, author and leader of Temple Solel in Hollywood, Fla., 30 minutes from Parkland
Don’t Punish Law-Abiding Citizens
Elan S. Carr, criminal prosecutor, military officer and Iraq War veteran
Forget Pie-in-the-Sky. Try Real-World Proposals
Ben Shapiro, author and editor-in-chief at The Daily Wire
Gun Control: The Most Dangerous Conversation
by Rabbi Amy Bernstein, Kehillat Israel
Proposed Gun Control Doesn’t Go Far Enough
by Joseph Sanberg, founder CalEITC4Me
Letter to God
by Rabbi Lori Shapiro, The Open Temple