Anti-semitic leaflets blame Jews for gun control

AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

Is opposition to gun control anti-semitic?

Obviously not. The issues around guns have nothing to do with Jewish people, the Jewish faith, or anything else. Anyone with half a brain knows and can see that.

Advertisement

However, it seems some leaflets have been circulated in California trying to claim otherwise.

Sacramento County and federal authorities have launched an investigation after residents in the Fair Oaks area on Monday found sandwich bags with antisemitic leaflets railing against federal gun control.

Residents at five homes on Monday morning reported finding the clear plastic bags filled with uncooked beans and the antisemitic leaflets, said Sgt. Rodney Grassmann, a Sacramento County sheriff’s spokesman.

Photos of the leaflets, which were shared on the Nextdoor social media site, show pictures of former and current members of the U.S. Congress, including senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer. The leaflets have drawings of the Jewish Star of David on their foreheads.

The leaflets also have a banner title: “Every Single Aspect of Gun Control is Jewish.” Residents in a Carmichael neighborhood just south of Winding Way said they found the same bags with the leaflets.

Bruce Pomer, president of the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region, said this type of hateful rhetoric permeates through the community and can be a precursor or a catalyst for violence or extremist activity.

Advertisement

Sure, it might…but I can’t help but see this as being far more likely to be a false flag operation. Hear me out here.

Imagine you’re a gun control proponent and you want to label your opponents as the most hateful thing you can imagine. However, you suspect that just calling them that won’t be enough to silence them. You have to make people believe it.

So, you make up a bunch of leaflets and drop them where you suspect people will be outraged, all making it look like your opponents are anti-semitic whack jobs.

After all, this popped up in Sacramento. This isn’t rural Idaho or Alabama or anywhere else that you might argue a receptive audience for such drivel could be expected. No, it’s Sacramento.

But, that said, I’m going to address the idea that gun control is “Jewish.”

It’s not, so stop being a moron.

Though even if the leaflets are legitimate–something I’m not willing to concede without evidence–they’re likely nothing more than an attempt at trolling people. Again, look at where they showed up. If they were about trying to sway minds, they’d have gone where people might allegedly be receptive to the argument.

Advertisement

Instead, they showed up in the liberal capital of the most liberal state in the nation, trying to make the claim that a liberal policy is really part of some conspiracy.

Yes, it’s an anti-semitic argument, but considering the target here, nothing about this passes the smell test for me.

Yet if it is something legit, it’s not any less stupid. Anti-semitic BS has no place in American political discussion or, really, in people’s heads. The idea that any policy is “Jewish” and therefore a bad thing in and of itself is the kind of…well, I was going to call it “thinking,” but there’s no thinking involved.

So stop it.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member