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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