"Ask the Rabbi" by R. Mermelstein

Many years ago [1970-?] I was a member of the JDL before the line of thoughts they espoused became too extreme for me. I knew Rabbi Kahane and respected both him and allot of his ideas, especially those on firearm ownership and self protection. How do your views and those of Gun Owners Alliance coincide and differ from those of the JDL and Rabbi Kahane [1970 era]? What do you think of the slogan that I attribute to that experience "Every Jew a Twenty Two"?

I believe Gun Owners Alliance's views and those of Rabbi Kahane, before his years of involvement in Israeli politics, did not differ too much. Gun Owners Alliance is of the position that gun control, i.e. disarmament of the citizenry, paves the way for genocide. Since 1915, 57 million people have been murdered by their own governments. In all cases, those countries made private firearms possession illegal. Based on this premise, Gun Owners Alliance's objective is to effectively kill the concept of gun control, not compromise with those in power doing everything to make America like Great Britain and Australia, whose citizens are denied the basic right of self defense. The Second Amendment is about protection from a government gone bad, not sport shooting. That's what the framers of the Constitution drafted and that's what we need to maintain. If JDL, either under the leadership of Rabbi Kahane or the current leadership, is working in this direction then we differ not in the least. Our tack is proliferation of our historical research and grass roots education. This can be done most effectively without anyone getting arrested. No one in our organization boasts of the number of times they've been hauled off to jail and tried for any crime. That kind of grandstanding makes great newspaper copy, but it's of dubious help in attaining the desired goal.

Sincerely,

R. Mermelstein