Poway shooting again raises issue of gun control

By Bruce S. Ticker

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — While our president must do “some very heavy research…(to) get to the bottom of it,” most Americans figured it out instantly: A deranged person had access to firearms, in this case an assault rifle.

The maniac murdered Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60, and injured three others on Saturday by firing an assault rifle at congregants worshiping at Chabad of Poway. John Earnest, 19, of nearby San Diego, was charged Sunday with one count of murder in the first degree and three charges of attempted murder in the first degree.

When Earnest was apprehended, an assault rifle was found in the front seat of his vehicle.

Within hours of the tragedy, Donald J. Trump was on the case, as quoted in The New York Times: “Hard to believe, hard to believe. With respect to the synagogue in California near San Diego. We’re doing some very heavy research. We’ll see what happens, what comes up. At this moment it looks like a hate crime. But my deepest sympathies to all of those affected. And we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

My modest assessment to Donald: The gunman had access to an assault weapon, the kind of device that advocates for gun control want banned. Which yields to this logic: A gunman cannot possibly kill one congregant and injure three others inside a synagogue, a church or a mosque if he cannot obtain an assault rifle or even a handgun.

If assault weapons are banned, or if access is somehow limited, this assailant could not have harmed anyone at Chabad of Poway or anywhere else so frequently.

Perhaps we should be impressed that Trump is ready to conduct “some very heavy research,” but this is one instance in which our president can keep it simple. That should make him feel at home.

Two examples, simple ones: Six months ago, a gunman stepped into the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh and shot 11 congregants to death. In my own state, 300 miles from my current home.

Despite calls for gun control, Congress has yet to pass legislation that would limit access to handguns and assault weapons, and the Poway rampage was among the latest in countless gun deaths.

It took less than a month – between March 15 and April 11 – for New Zealand’s government to outlaw military-style weapons after a gunman killed 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern led the drive to make this law a reality, but it resembled a communal effort. The House of Representatives passed the bill by a final vote 119-1 on April 10 and it went into effect the next day with Governor General Patsy Reddy’s signature, according to the Associated Press.

It was long ago tiring to ask why Congress cannot follow New Zealand’s path. Stubborn stupidity? People have also factored as reasons the rise of anti-Semitism and Trump’s rhetoric that could be harmful for minority members. There is truth in this, but how much damage can such people cause without weapons?

Some ironic aspects are as thick as they are unsettling. Among those three who were wounded, Almog Peretz, 34, had flown more than 8,000 miles from Sderot, an Israeli border town often targeted by rocket fire from Gaza. He was visiting relatives who moved from Sderot nearly a decade earlier to escape the violence in Israel, according to The Washington Post.

His 8-year-old niece, Noya Dahan, was hospitalized for shrapnel wounds, and her father, Israel Dahan, recalled moving from Sderot almost a decade ago. On Saturday his children asked him, “Why are we staying here?”

While our 72-year-old president is trying to “get to the bottom of it,” it appears that Israel Dahan’s children already got “to the bottom of it.”

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Ticker is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia.  He may be contacted via bruce.ticker@sdjewishworld.com