Violence in America
August 14, 1999

When Bufford Furrow surrendered to the FBI , he said he wanted his action to be a wake-up call to America: it is time to start killing Jews. How are we, Jews, to react? We feel particularly under siege since recently there have been other tragic incidents against Jews and Jewish institutions. In the last few months, someone set fire to three synagogues in Sacramento, CA, damaging all three and destroying the library in one and someone opened fire on a group of Orthodox Jews walking home from shule in Chicago, wounding several. Now yet another madman has attacked young children and adults at a Jewish Community Center camp in Los Angeles. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. We feel sorrow for the Jewish communities of Sacramento, Chicago and Los Angeles which feel violated by these acts.

But Jews are not the only targets and victims of this ongoing violence. Two weeks ago in Atlanta, man, frustrated by losses in the stock market, killed his family and then opened fire on co-workers, killing a number of them. Several days later, a man in Alabama killed two co-workers at his job. We use the nasty phrase "going postal" because of the huge number of shootings at post offices over the years. And then, of course, there are our schools. The list of schools where violence has occurred creates a sad litany: Paducah, KY, Jonesborough, AR, Springfield, OR, Jackson, MS, and of course the worst of all, Columbine High School outside Denver, CO where twelve students and one teacher were killed before the two young gunmen took their own lives.

Statistics show that in fact there is not an increase in hatred of Jews in this country. Anti-Semitism was far more prevalent in the 1920's - the 1950's. There always will be crazy, angry people, who are ready to take out their anger on Jews -- or blacks, or gays, on co-workers, on their own wives and children, on whomever they feel have wronged them. The issue is not antisemitism, it is anger out of control. Feminist Susan Faludi wrote an article in Newsweek following the Atlanta shootings entitled The Rage of the American Male: she comments: "More and more, the American community fails to offer its postwar sons and grandsons what it used to offer all men: a chance to ground their manhood on utility, dedication and loyalty, whether as a GI serving a nation and caring for his fellow grunts or as a civilian plying a craft essential to his society. For all the grim aspects of industrial labor and World War II-era sacrifice, men could at least feel they belonged to a meaningful brother hood and provided a utility beyond mere earning power."

Whether or not Susan Faludi is correct in her assessment of the source of male anger, it is very real and it is dangerous. Channeling it constructively is a challenge to our society. But, there are always going to be men unable to control their rage. People will always loss their tempers. But when angry people have access to semiautomatic rifles and unlimited ammunition, it is an invitation to tragedy. So the issue is not just hatred, it is not just anger, it is not just anti-Semitism. It is very much gun control. Limiting the sale of guns to legitimate dealers, with proper waiting periods and licensing procedures, and severe penalties for those who break these laws, must be legislated immediately.

I believe the end of today's parsha, Torah reading, sheds light on this issue. It describes a strange ritual called the eglah arufa. If a victim of murder is found in an abandoned field, and there is no suspect, the elders go out and measure the distance from the body to determine which city is nearest. The elders of the nearest city must then take a heifer, bring it to a river, and break its neck. Then they wash their hands over the heifer and say yadeinu lo shafchu et hadam hazeh, "our hands did not shed the victim's blood nor did our eyes see it. Forgive, O Lord, the people of Israel."

Ordinarily we'd say that this is a primitive ritual, but let me suggest how modern it really is. And we can see this from a discussion in the Talmud about this passage. The Talmud asks: "would it ever occur to us that the hands of the elders of this city shed the blood of an innocent man." And the Talmud gives this answer. "It's not that we think they might have shed the blood themselves. Rather, they must confess that no one came into their community and left without food nor was seen in the community without a proper escort." The point is that while the elders may not have been directly involved in the murder, through derelict of duty they may have been indirectly responsible. Therefore, they are required to ask themselves, "somehow did our way of life allowed this to happen. Or did the social order encourage this kind of criminal activity?

These are the questions that the leaders and the citizens of America must ask themselves regarding one individual killed and five more wounded by a man with an automatic gun in Los Angeles. Did the way we conduct our society enable it to happen? How is it that an ordinary citizen can purchase an Uzzi, an anti-terrorist weapon, as well as hand grenades and other weapons of violence? And how is it that we continue, even after Columbine, to celebrate and glorify violent behavior in song lyrics and on television and in movies?

Let me be clear, Bufford Furrow, the confessed gunman is responsible for his actions. He will be tried and presumably convicted. Yet, we and our political leaders, too, have a measure of responsibility. Congressman and Senators are more concerned about the clout of the gun lobby than about sanctity of human life and we have allowed this to go on for too long.

I believe that now is the time when we can change American culture regarding guns. I believe the likelihood of sweeping and lasting changes in this matter have never been higher. The American people are fed up with the power of the NRA. Furrow wanted his terrorist act to be a wake up call to America to kill Jews. Let it be instead a wake up call to the Jewish community to make real gun control a priority on our communal agenda and on that of America. Hate, coupled with the easy availability of assault weapons, is what lead to the tragedy in Los Angeles. The implication of today's Torah reading is that until we as a society control weapons, we can not wash our hands clean of the violence in our country. As Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, "Some are guilty, but all are responsible." Bufford Furrow is guilty but we are all responsible until we change the way that guns are sold in America.