{"id":97977,"date":"2023-11-23T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T18:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=97977"},"modified":"2023-11-23T12:00:45","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T18:00:45","slug":"97977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=97977","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to reality.<\/p>\n

Taking a trip to the firing range was something I\u2019d never do before October 7<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Amy<\/p>\n

Amy Klein is a journalist and author who is working on a book about older motherhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen plenty of gun ranges on TV and movie screens, but nothing comes close to the ear-splitting BOOM BOOM BOOM that\u2019s making my soul shake despite my soundproof headphones \u2014 which are not so soundproof after all.<\/p>\n

So I step out of the double doors \u2014 one can\u2019t open till the other closes \u2014 to get earplugs to wear under the headphones. I put my clear plastic goggles back on and reenter the smoky range to learn how to shoot a gun.<\/p>\n

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I\u2019m a card-carrying liberal feminist, one who won\u2019t even watch violent movies. I don\u2019t believe private citizens should be armed \u2014 least of all because as a parent I know that guns were the leading cause of death among children and teens in 2020 and 2021, according to the\u00a0US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And yet.<\/p>\n

With antisemitism reaching what the FBI deems a \u201chistoric level<\/a>,\u201d threats against Jewish\u00a0students on campus<\/a>\u00a0proliferating at universities and massive anti-Israel demonstrations taking place around the world, it\u2019s enough to make any Jew feel scared. In my own uptown New York City neighborhood, I know of a few people who have been\u00a0attacked<\/a>\u00a0when arguing with people tearing down Israeli hostage posters, including the\u00a0head of a Krav Maga studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how I found myself at\u00a0Gun for Hire<\/a>, a gun range and club in New Jersey, to learn how to shoot. I wanted to confront the question: Could my fear of violence against Jews outweigh my distrust of firearms?<\/p>\n

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\u2018You should be prepared\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The first time I ever met religious Jews who owned guns was in 2021; I was driving from New York City to Long Island and heard AM radio ads for shooting ranges there. \u201cIsn\u2019t that funny? It\u2019s like another country,\u201d I had mentioned to my Long Island friends at a party. \u201cI own a gun,\u201d one friend said, \u201cI have two!\u201d said another, a nervous Woody Allen type of guy I wouldn\u2019t trust with a Nerf gun. I\u2019d chalked that up to a couple of outliers but told my husband we\u2019d have to ask people if they had a gun in the house before we accepted a Shabbat dinner invitation on Long Island with our kid.<\/p>\n

That was then; this is now.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is the boiling point for something that\u2019s been happening for a long time,\u201d\u00a0Rabbi Hillel Norry<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Temple Beth David<\/a>\u00a0in Snellville, Georgia, told me. He\u2019s a firearms instructor who calls himself a \u201cliberal\u201d gun owner; as he puts it, \u201cWe advocate for improvements in public safety and vigorous gun rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norry has owned guns for years but said he has seen a sharp uptick in requests for instruction since the Hamas attack; in one week recently, he told me he\u2019s taught some 30 Jews to use a gun for the first time. \u201cWhat happened to Israelis and the Jews on October 7 \u2014 not just that what happened but the response to it and the immediate explosion of antisemitism \u2014 gave wide feelings of danger to the Jewish people. I think we\u2019re traumatized,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople feel like, \u2018Why\u00a0don\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0I have a gun?!\u2019 \u201d He said that acting out of fear is never good, \u201cbut if you have good reason to be afraid, you should be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Worlds<\/a><\/p>\n

Worlds away from her life in Manhattan, Klein sought firearm training at Gun for Hire, a gun range and club in New Jersey. – Courtesy Amy Klein<\/span>\u00a9<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Be prepared<\/em>. That\u2019s what I told myself as I pulled into a strip mall in New Jersey, half an hour \u2014 but worlds away \u2014 from my Manhattan life. It\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0exactly nondescript: There\u00a0was\u00a0a giant poster outside showing a smiling woman and her daughter, both wearing protective eye and ear gear, with the slogan, \u201cAmerica\u2019s #1 Family Gun Range.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside, filling multipage safety forms, different groups gathered\u00a0round long black tables, including a yarmulke-wearing group of Jews, a family with two teenage boys, an older couple who might have been on a date and a group of shaved-headed, tattooed White men. I was joined by my friend Kedem, an Israeli American who had served in the elite brigade in the Israeli army 20 years earlier and was for the first time starting the process of getting a gun permit in America.<\/p>\n

I looked down at our shooting target: a flimsy paper photo of a knife-wielding, stocky guy wearing a ski hat and sweatshirt with his guts and organs somehow showing. The paper vibrated\u00a0as our buzzer\u00a0went\u00a0off, like we\u00a0were\u00a0at a Cheesecake Factory, not waiting our turn to use a Glock and a Walther. (\u201cI want you to get the feel for both guns,\u201d Kedem said.)<\/p>\n

But I couldn\u2019t do it. My hands were shaking too much.<\/p>\n

For me, this wasn\u2019t sport<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFear is good. It\u2019s good to be afraid around weapons,\u201d said my instructor, Yosi, a religious Jew from Chile. It was his second day on the job; he\u2019d been a club member for years and now works weekends. \u201cLots of Jews are coming now,\u201d he said. \u201cHow\u2019d you know we\u2019re Jewish?\u201d I asked. He pointed outside the shooting booth to where Kedem was standing, wearing an Israeli army T-shirt.<\/p>\n

It took me five times to learn each step of the gun-loading process: how to load a bullet into the magazine, how to snap the magazine in the gun, how to cock the gun (\u201cWithout your finger on the trigger!\u201d Yosi shouted) and finally, how to hold the gun: \u201cAlways point it at the target!\u201d he said, gently moving the Glock away from him and toward the paper target.<\/p>\n

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\"Klein<\/a><\/p>\n

Klein writes that she felt afraid during target practice but wants to be prepared in a world where “everything seems upside down.”<\/span><\/div>\n
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My hands shook not only because of the unnerving noise around me (\u201cSome guys in the army cried themselves to sleep every night because of the sounds of gunshots,\u201d Kedem recalled), but also because for me, this wasn\u2019t sport, a fun date night, a video game come to life, a target practice to see how good my aim is. It was a weapon. A powerful firearm that could end a life.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to need it, but I\u2019m afraid you might right now,\u201d said Yosi, showing me how to clasp my right thumb over my left hand, the final step \u2014 before I fired.<\/p>\n

I was afraid, but I am also afraid of the whole world right now. I want to be prepared. So I fired. The casing hit me in the shoulder. And then I loaded the magazine, not as slowly this time, clicked it into the gun, released the whatchamacallit, fired again.<\/p>\n

Kedem had told me I\u2019d get used to the noise, and I did. As it turns out, I was OK with both guns, with pushing the bullets in, with shooting at a piece of paper that is ostensibly my enemy. If I came to the range a few more times, I know\u00a0I\u00a0could get the hang of shooting \u2014 and even excel at it.<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t enjoy myself. I didn\u2019t say \u201cyes,\u201d when Kedem asked me afterward, \u201cWasn\u2019t that fun?\u201d I didn\u2019t feel powerful or godly or safe, and no matter how dire the situation we Jews may be in, I still can\u2019t picture going through the process of buying a gun.<\/p>\n

I thought of the literary term \u201cChekhov\u2019s Gun<\/a>\u201d: \u201cOne must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn\u2019t going to go off,\u201d the playwright famously said. He was referring to props, to literary promises not kept, but I think of it literally: Don\u2019t have a gun unless you\u2019re planning to use it.<\/p>\n

I do not want to use it.\u00a0Getting firearm training didn\u2019t make me want a gun, but something has changed within me. Or maybe it\u2019s just the world has changed \u2014\u00a0my\u00a0<\/em>world had changed.<\/p>\n

Since October 7, everything seems upside down: I\u2019ve seen so many of my liberal allies fail to stand with me like I stood with their causes (which I\u2019d thought were\u00a0our<\/em>\u00a0causes). I\u2019ve lost friends and lost respect for people like my longtime family doctor, who signed an open letter from\u00a0Columbia University faculty<\/a>\u00a0that contained\u00a0anti-Israel sentiment but failed to condemn Hamas. I can no longer distinguish between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. I find myself essentially fangirling far right-wingers I once eschewed, such as the nasally fast-talking Ben Shapiro, who opposes abortion but puts anti-Zionists in their place.<\/p>\n

I do not know what it means to be a liberal Jew in America anymore. I don\u2019t know what it means to be against gun violence or against people who have guns or just against having playdates at houses with people who own guns \u2014 not when those people are all around me,\u00a0when those are my people.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I may invest in what Rabbi Norry calls \u201csecond-best by far\u201d options: a stun gun, mace or pepper spray. Or self-defense classes (Norry is a black belt in taekwondo). I am left thinking about something he told me: \u201cTrain and think about what you should do if someone grabs you. A person should know how to fight, because you might have to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to reality. Taking a trip to the firing range was something I\u2019d never do before October 7 Amy Klein is a journalist and author who is working on a book about older motherhood. I\u2019ve seen plenty of gun ranges on TV and movie screens, but nothing comes close to the ear-splitting BOOM BOOM BOOM … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97978,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97977\/revisions\/97978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}