Tagged gun control

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Gabby Giffords, the Jewish former congresswoman who became a leader in the gun control movement after being shot by an assailant in the head in 2011, opened the third night of the Democratic convention with an appeal to elect Joe Biden president. “We can let the… Read more »

(JTA) — Jaime Guttenberg and Meadow Pollack shared many similarities. Both were brown-haired and bright-eyed girls, beloved by friends and family. Both were passionate about their hobbies. Jaime, 14, spent her free time dancing and volunteering with special needs children. Meadow, 18, was a girly girl who loved the… Read more »

I am a Holocaust concentration camp survivor. I am one of a rapidly dwindling number of eyewitnesses to the Nazi Holocaust, the most systematic genocide of all time. I regularly speak at high schools, universities and community events, sharing my eyewitness account with newer generations of Americans who have no… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — As Senate Republicans worked to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act last summer, the American Jewish establishment sent an unequivocal message: Kill the bill. “The Senate’s ‘Better Care Reconciliation Act’ would be devastating for millions of Americans and irreparably harmful to Jewish social service… Read more »

(JTA) — In the aftermath of the fatal mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the Jewish community should take note: Teenagers are not just the future of the Jewish people; they are the dynamic force driving social change today. Today we are witnessing history unfold as the American teenage populace… Read more »

(JTA) — One of Israel’s strongest condemnations of Donald Trump wasn’t about the peace process. It didn’t concern Trump’s broken promise to relocate the U.S. embassy, or his reported leak of Israeli intelligence. It was about climate change. After President Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris… Read more »

Rabbi Stephanie Aaron

The bumper sticker on the car in front of me read “my loved one was murdered.” I automatically fill in “by gun violence.” I know the statistics. I want to jump out of my car and say to this person, “I am so sorry.” We are weeping in my… Read more »

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke Oct. 9 to an estimated crowd of 11,000 at the Demeester Outdoor Performance Center at Reid Park. The rally marked the first large-scale event in Tucson by a national Jewish candidate and brought Sanders his first congressional endorsement. Former Connecticut… Read more »

  The most recent gun-related murderous rampage in our country has been greeted by an outcry from families of the victims regarding the need for saner gun control policy. We all need to be more passionate about the right of Americans to live in safety and not become innocent… Read more »

The House Budget Committe chair, Rep. Paul Ryan, and the Senate Budget Committee chair, Sen. Patty Murray, walk past the Senate chamber on their way to a press conference to announce a bipartisan budget deal, Dec. 10, 2013. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — For Jewish and pro-Israel groups, the congressional year is ending with an odd reversal: the prospect, however fragile, of bipartisan comity on budget issues coupled with a rare partisan disagreement on Middle Eastern policy. The groups that deal with social welfare and justice issues are heartened,… Read more »

Gun violence is a public health problem, and Arizona’s children are not immune from this epidemic. As pediatricians responsible for the health and welfare of our patients, we must discuss the facts, and that includes the risks of keeping guns in a home. Research shows that even when children… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. senators who defeated a bill that would toughen background checks for gun purchasers “brought shame on themselves,” former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords said. “The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be… Read more »

Rabbi Jason Holtz

It has been a bit more than one month since the Newtown tragedy, where 26 people, including 20 children, were killed. It has been a bit more than two years since the tragic shooting here in Tucson. The sad reality is that the amount of violence involving guns in… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, launched a gun control initiative on the second anniversary of the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson. “I was shot in the head while meeting with constituents two years ago today,” Giffords wrote with Kelly, an ex-astronaut, in… Read more »

A man taking target practice at a shooting range in Arizona. (Courtesy STA Training)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The day Eric Schaefer learned that a .233 caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle — a type of weapon he owned — was used to kill 26 people in Newtown, Conn., he sold his rifle to local law enforcement near his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Schaefer, a… Read more »

Andrew Silow-Carroll

In one of his best known poems, “El Male Rachamim,” the late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai enters into a dispute with God by subverting the words of perhaps the most moving of all funeral prayers. The poem begins as the prayer does — “God-Full-of-Mercy” — then takes a sharp… Read more »

Noah Pozner, 6, was among the child victims of the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that claimed six adults.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (JTA) — It was a eulogy for a life that had only just begun. Veronique Pozner remembered her son Noah as a rambunctious, video-game loving “little man,” a boy with a perpetual smile and twinkly blue eyes who dreamed of becoming a doctor, a soldier and manager… Read more »

Young israelis carrying M-16 and Tavor assault rifles on Jaffa Street in the center of the city of Jerusalem. (Serge Attal/ Flash 90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — First-time visitors to Israel might be taken aback to see groups of armed teenagers walking through a city plaza on a weeknight, or surprised to walk into a public bathroom and see an M-16 laying across the sinks as a soldier washes his face. But… Read more »

Messages and tributes left by Tucsonans in front of University Medical Center on Jan. 15, 2011 (Sheila Wilensky)

It’s been nearly three weeks since the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the murders of six Tucsonans, and the wounding of 12 others. For many members of the Jewish community, the singing of the Mi Shebeirach, a prayer/song of healing,  framed the week following the shooting rampage.  On… Read more »