This past Saturday October the 27th yet another outbreak of tragic gun violence has occurred this time in the Jewish community. Yet again a deranged lunatic with access to a variety of firearms has taken his deranged world view and executed it to the best of his ability. This person who shall not be named in this article, they deserve no such respect, opened fire on religious services Saturday morning and murdered 11 attendees. This person had in his position 3 glock handguns, a semi automatic rifle, and a shotgun which was not used in the shooting. In a break from the normality of these types of situations the shooter was taken into custody after a short standoff with responding police and SWAT officers.

For those who are unaware in the Jewish faith the sabbath is observed on Saturday instead of Sunday. It was during a shul service, another term for synagogue, in observance of the sabbath that the gunman decided to attack. 11 have died and more have been injured in the shooting with most of the congregation being composed of elderly members. After engaging in a standoff with police the shooter surrendered. Upon his surrender and during his transport to the hospital the shooter continued to rant “I just want to kill Jews” and claimed they were committing “genocide against to [his] people”. The shooter is set to appear in court this afternoon where he will be facing 29 charges and where the prosecution may seek the death penalty.

So far as the investigation can tell, the shooter acquired his collection of firearms, including those which he did not bring with him, legally. While it has not been disclosed if the shooter has had previous instances of violence his digital footprint on social media and other online platforms showed a history of antisemitic rants and, profanity laced tirades. On multiple occasions the shooter has complained of the Jewish presence in the country and has claimed that they are the root of many perceived problems including the large immigrant caravan coming from central america.  

As sad as it is to say, in this day in age occurrences such as this one have become all too common. In recent years gun violence has become more and more prevalent with multiple massacres occurring each year. Coinciding with this rise in gun violence cases of antisemitism have also seen a 60% increase in 2017. This translates to a 700 count increase in harassment or assault incidents. 2017 was the first year since 2010 where every state in the country reported at least one incident of harassment or assault directed specifically at people of Jewish descent. With numbers such as these facing our country it is time we ask ourselves if this is the kind of society we are fine with. Does this problem rest as a product of society only or is it also being affected by our leadership? How ever you feel it is imperative that we look unflinchingly at these instances of violence and murder, we don’t diminish why they happen or who may be to blame, and we begin to raise our collective voices in protest and at the ballot box, to let our leaders know what sort of country we wish to live in.

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html\

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/28/us/antisemitic-incidents-2017-adl-report-trnd/index.html