Since the attacks of October 7, there's been a sharp increase in gun ownership among many members of the Jewish faith. New organizations like Lox and Loaded as well as groups that have been around for a few years like Bullets and Bagels are flooded with participants as more Jews seek to protect themselves and their loved ones by exercising their Second Amendment rights.
The influx of Jewish gun owners has led to many discussions about carrying during synagogue services. As the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports, there's one faith-based organization centered around security that's urging rabbis and synagogue leaders to prohibit lawful concealed carry, not encourage it.
The situation has grown so intense that the Secure Community Network, an organization that coordinates security for Jewish institutions nationwide, has published new recommendations for synagogues on how to handle armed congregants. The group is urging synagogues to allow congregants to carry weapons only if they are part of an “organized, vetted, and well-regulated safety and security team” — not as a matter of personal protection only.
“We are saying that if a facility is going to allow individuals into the facility carrying firearms, that it is critical they do it in a well structured, well coordinated, well thought-out way, given the implications,” Michael Masters, the group’s CEO and national director, said in an interview.
“The question for us really gets to the idea of having a civilian equipped with a lethal weapon step into what is potentially a dynamic tactical situation in an often crowded environment where you are required to act with precision and diligence, potentially taking a human life, while not inadvertently injuring innocent individuals,” he said, adding that people with far more training make mistakes. “Most officer-involved shootings, on average, roughly 70% of the shots are missed.”
I don't know where Masters stands on the Second Amendment, but this sounds like the same rationale deployed by gun control activists against the right to carry in general.
I appreciate and understand Masters' concerns, and there's nothing wrong with the idea of a structured and coordinated security team made up of congregants who train together and have a plan of action in case of an attack on their synagogue. In fact, I think that's a great idea. But even if a team like that is in place, individual worshippers shouldn't have to forgo their right of self-protection before setting foot inside their local synagogue.
After all, an attack may not happen within the sanctuary of the synagogue itself. Congregants can be targeted on their way to or from worship, but if they're disarmed by synagogue policy they have no means of fighting back.
For the moment, at least, some synagogues are taking a broader approach than the one recommended by Secure Community Network.
At one Conservative synagogue in Texas, which requested not to be named to keep its policies private, a safety and security advisory committee created three years ago developed guidelines allowing both visitors and congregants to carry firearms.
“Our basic policy right now is that regardless of whether someone is a member or a visitor to the shul, if they have a license to carry, and security doesn’t overrule this by virtue of their discernment, then someone with a license to carry can carry a weapon concealed into our premises,” said a member of the congregation’s executive team.
Congregants are not required to register whether they are concealed carrying on the synagogue’s premises, said the team member, who said a “small handful” did and that there had been a slight uptick in recent years. Recently, a Hebrew school parent reached out to ask whether he could bring his gun to the campus.
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For the director of the Shaloh House Jewish Day School in Boston, Rabbi Dan Rodkin, arming congregants has long been a standard part of his security strategy. In 2019, Rodkin told the public radio station WBUR that asking congregants to consider arming themselves had become a “necessity.”
“Jewish people should not be a soft target,” said Rodkin. “Everyone needs to know that we are prepared and we defend ourselves, and I very much encourage Jewish congregations everywhere in America, always as legally possible to train themselves and to, ideally, coordinate in groups.”
Two years later, when a Chabad emissary was stabbed outside of Shaloh House, Rodkin said more people in his community had become interested in arming themselves. There was no civilian response, and police arrested the alleged attacker shortly afterwards.
“Overall people understand the importance of protecting themselves,” said Rodkin. “I wish I can say something else, that we are all about praying, about peace and trust in Hashem, which we are, but you know, we need to do everything possible.”
That 2021 attack speaks to my earlier point. Even if you want to leave security inside the synagogue to trained and vetted members of a security team, the houses of worship shouldn't have policies that prohibit congregants from lawfully carrying inside the facility. The cowardly killers who are intent on carrying out mass murder are going to look for opportunities to kill as many innocent people as possible. As we just saw in Minnesota, that can involve targeting a worship service from outside the building itself, but it could also mean waiting until congregants are leaving or entering the building.
These security teams are a collective response to the threat of violence against the Jewish community, but they don't mitigate the dangers to individual members of the Jewish faith. The right to keep and bear arms is of fundamental importance when it comes to their safety. While Masters might have the best of intentions in mind, his suggestion still puts those folks at a greater risk of harm, and those responsible for keeping synagogues safe should reject his calls to limit concealed carry to only those serving in synagogue security teams.
