‘Thy Neighbor’s Blood’: Alarming Assault Weapons
“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined;”
– First Annual Address to Congress, George Washington (January 8, 1790)
Every time I visit Israel, I am, once again, momentarily stunned by the sight of teens with assault-weapons slung over their shoulders as casually as if they were backpacks. Yet, I am not alarmed.
We live across the street from the United Nations. During the annual General Assembly, the area becomes a military-zone: soldiers, police, Secret Service, innumerable assault-weapons.
One evening, needing to go through there to my destination, I ask the policeman atop the stairs of the Wall of Isaiah if I can. He nods. I’m the only civilian walking through the armed camp.
A bomb-sniffing dog with his soldier-handler walk past. The dog lunges for my briefcase, slung over my shoulder. Soldier shouts: “Bomb!”
Instantaneously, a dozen assault-weapons are trained on me. I instinctively raise my arms. A Secret Service agent takes charge. Standing 8 feet from me, I can feel his gun’s laser-pointer between my eyes.
He speaks coldly: “Do you understand English?”
I nod.
“Then understand, if you move a muscle, even twitch, you will be dead before your body hits the ground.”
I nod again.
One soldier unhooks my briefcase, opens it to examine its contents. Another retrieves my wallet from my pocket, hands it to the agent.
After what feels like an eternity, the soldier with my briefcase announces: “Clear!”
The guns are withdrawn. The agent, reading my ID, addresses me, now warmly:
“Doctor, do you have any idea why the dog would go for your briefcase?”
“Might it have something to do with the turkey-pastrami sandwich I had in there?”
He turns to the soldier: “Have you fed the F’ing dog?”
“I was about to.”
The mood lightens. Everyone is now joking. I am sent on my way with apologies for alarming me.
The truth is, I was never alarmed. As with the Israeli soldiers, I was dealing with trained professionals performing their jobs. In Washington’s words, they were armed, but disciplined.
On the other hand, growing up in Washington’s Heights, on more than one occasion, I had hand-guns pointed at me. I was very alarmed. They were not disciplined, or professionals, but usually miscreants.
Traveling in the United States, away from New York, I occasionally see civilians carrying assault-weapons. I am not alarmed, but concerned. I recall two getting into a parking-lot dispute. Tempers were lost; voices were raised. Their weapons were never unslung. I quickly moved out of the line-of-fire, nonetheless.
Assault-weapons have been repeatedly utilized in planned Jew-killing massacres [e.g., Pittsburgh – 2018, California – 2019, New Jersey -2019, United Kingdom -2024, Germany – 2025, Bondi Beach -2025.]
They are not limited to Jews. Assault-weapons are the arms of choice for any terrorist, or mass-murderer.
Reflecting this, most countries outlaw their private possession. In the entire world, only two nations allow the permit-less ownership of semi-automatic long-guns, Yemen and… the United States. Indeed, the US is the only country with more guns than people.
Why?
Because history can supersede common sense. Because our private ownership of guns allowed the American revolution, it became deeply ingrained in our culture.
History is difficult to overcome.
Smoking is a perfect example. Had we always known how fatally carcinogenic it is, the practice would have never begun, and certainly, have never been legalized. Unfortunately, it became so deeply ingrained, even after we discovered that, by 1940, it took a quarter-century for the Surgeon General to report that, and a half-century for it to be outlawed in hospitals, airplanes and other public venues (in part, delayed by tobacco-lobbyists.)
Laws impact practices. After smoking was restricted, the number who smoked diminished from 1 in 2 to 1 in 10. Accordingly, lung-cancer incidence and mortality declined precipitously.
As civilization evolves, it becomes healthier, and less violent.
Leviticus 19:17 commands us: “Do not stand on thy neighbor’s blood.”
How much longer will we stand by seeing our neighbors’ blood spilled by assault-weapons at candle-lightings, and other celebrations? Can anyone doubt that, after enough Bondi Beaches, eventually they will be totally banned?
“Thou shalt not murder” is a Decalogue Commandment as well as a moral imperative that transcends all religious, geographical and temporal boundaries. Its universality extends beyond all human societies to all sentient species. Even the most aggressive apex-carnivores kill only for food, not sport.
Terming assault-weapons “Sporting guns” is preposterous. Their exclusive purpose is to kill as many, as efficiently, as quickly as possible. That is not sporting; it is alarming.
The metaphor of the smoking gun refers to the undeniable evidence of the cause of a death.
Assault-weapons are smoking guns.
