feature story
Puzzle’ Jewish Leaders Tackle
Complications of Gun Violence
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
T he mass shooting at Robb Elementary School
in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19
children and two teachers, feels like it hap-
pened long ago, with May 24 a date in ancient history.

In its place have been headlines of mass shootings
in Charleston, South Carolina; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and
more recently, on South Street in Philadelphia on
June 4, where three were killed and 11 injured — each
event replacing the previous one as front-page news.

Th ese events are more than just a drop in the
bucket of statistics used to make an argument for or
against access to guns. Th eir impact remains visceral
to those personally touched by gun violence.

“You can’t go outside no more; you’re scared to
turn the corner; you don’t want to go anywhere,”
said Oronde McClain, a Philadelphia resident who
was shot at age 10. “And it is a burden to the family.

You can have a beautiful day; you could have went
to a cookout. Now, you have to take medicine; you’re
scared because you could have a seizure. Th ere’s a lot
of things that one bullet could do to a family.”
McClain was a speaker on a June 3 Philadelphia
Jewish Family and Children’s Service panel discuss-
ing the impact of gun violence on the community, the
20 JUNE 9, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
individual and policy.

Jewish leaders around the country, like many oth-
ers, have expressed their distress about continued
gun violence in the United States.

“For thousands of years, we, as a Jewish people
have discussed the epidemic of violence towards
other people,” said Rabbi Kelly Levy of Austin, Texas,
which is about 160 miles from Uvalde. “It comes all
the way from the Talmud, when we are taught that
to destroy one life is as though you have destroyed
the entire world, and to save one life is as though you
have saved the world.”
Th ough Jewish thought takes a clear stance against
violence, with a mounting death count and growing
frustration with political gridlock, addressing gun
violence is both urgent and vexing.

“I am never surprised anymore, but I am just
waiting for, frankly, the next mass shooting because
what we know is that our society refuses to deal with
this crisis,” said Adam Garber, executive director of
CeaseFirePA, an interfaith and interdisciplinary coa-
lition of leaders against gun violence.

Th ere are already more than 200 homicides in 2022
in Philadelphia, according to Garber, putting the
year on pace to be one of the most violent recorded.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, there were 45,222 fi rearm-related deaths
in 2020, making it among the top fi ve causes of death
for those 1-44 years old.

Th e COVID era is associated with an increase in
gun violence prevalence. Firearms sales skyrocketed,
increasing 49% from 2019 to 2020, a Pennsylvania
State Police report said. Pandemic restrictions and
economic disruptions meant that fewer social ser-
vices, such as recreation centers, were accessible to
people. Joshua Horwitz, co-director of the Center for Gun
Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health who also spoke on the JFCS
panel, suggested a multifaceted approach to address-
ing gun violence: “It’s a puzzle, which means that to
solve it, you need a puzzle as well, diff erent types of
solutions.” Beefi ng up fi rearm purchase licensing laws, limit-
ing magazines to fewer than 10 rounds and appropri-
ately enforcing red fl ag laws — which allow for the
temporary confi scation of fi rearms from someone
who may pose a risk to themselves or others — are all
parts of the puzzle, Horwitz said.

Th rough a public health approach to mitigating
gun violence, the social variables that drive gun vio-
lence must also be addressed, which include exposure
to domestic violence, guns and drugs. Providing
additional support to those at high rates of exposure
kyoshino / iStock / Getty Images Plus
‘It’s a



Photo by Heather Ross
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (left) at the Uvalde
to PA End Gun Violence Rally on May 27
Oronde McClain at the June 3 Jewish Family and
Children’s Service panel on the implications of
gun violence
to these risk factors can help decrease the likelihood
of those people acquiring and using a gun.

For gun owners and advocates for easier gun
access, mass shootings are no less of a tragedy.

But guns aren’t the problem, Jewish armed secu-
rity guard Grant Schmidt argues. A combination of
low police morale and lax background checks are
responsible for mass shootings at schools, he said.

Th e Police Executive Research Forum, in a survey of
more than 200 departments, found a 45% increase
in retirements and a 20% increase in resignations in
2020-2021. “A lot of my clients have told me stories that they
called the police when something violent was hap-
pening, and the police never showed,” Schmidt said.

In the case of Uvalde, Schmidt said, the shooter
should never have been allowed to own a gun, per his
background of violence towards animals and family
members. “He should have been 302-ed (involuntarily com-
mitted to a hospital, crisis center or psychiatric
institution), adjudicated mentally defective and never
been able to pass a background check, but that law
was not enforced,” Schmidt said.

Instead, in addition to greater enforcement of
background checks (which, if they are enforced, are
already strict enough, Schmidt said), Schmidt advo-
cates for the elimination of gun-free zones, which,
per a 1990 law, prohibit the use of loaded and uncon-
cealed fi rearms in or near public elementary and high
schools. “It’s so frustrating to me that we’re still treating
police offi cers like fi rst responders,” Schmidt said.

“Th ey’re second responders. Th e targets of attacks —
we are the fi rst responders.”
Levy, whose synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel,
experienced an antisemitic arson attack in October,
is asking questions about how to move forward
aft er shootings and violent attacks, examining the
role in on-campus security at her synagogue, which
increased aft er the arson.

Photo by Julia Louisa Hagenbuch
Gun control activists rally in Harrisburg at the
general assembly building.

Courtesy of Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Offi ce
“Th is goes towards that culture shift in what would
eventually and hopefully become a society where we
don’t need to protect ... we don’t require our security
guards at every Shabbat service, or even on a daily
basis, because there wouldn’t be people out there who
could come in and infl ict harm on the people who are
in our building,” Levy said. “Th e reality is, that until
that day comes, we need to do what we can to protect
our children and keep them safe.”
Horwitz believes that providing additional security
to a place of worship while advocating for gun control
are not mutually exclusive: “Th at’s not dissonant;
that’s the reality. Th e problem is that our security,
unfortunately, only takes us so far.”
Uvalde, like other schools and synagogues, had
armed security that did not prevent attacks with
assault weapons. Th ey do, however, create a feeling
of safety that is welcome in times of profound uncer-
tainty, Levy said.

To other gun control advocates like Garber and
Horwitz, increased security, particularly increased
gun accessibility for citizens, is a false solution.

“How many guns are going to make us safe? Th ere
are more guns than there are people in this country
— what point is that? Is it 400 million? 500 million
guns? Is it a billion guns?” Garber said. “At some
point, we just have to decide this path we’re on is not
really doing anything but killing our children.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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