Self-defense for European
Jews - and everyone else

By Adam B. Summers. Feb 11, 2015

Despite being dated from 2015, this article eight years on is no less relevant in the present day. The right to self defense remains a basic human right but despite that there are those (many) who would seek to deprive people of the necessary tools to implement such and be better able to survive violence.

There is a growing sense of unease these days among Jews in Europe. In the wake of rising anti-Semitism on the Continent, including shootings by apparent Islamic extremists at a kosher market in Paris last month that killed four and at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels in May that also left four dead, an influential rabbi has proposed relaxing gun-control laws in Europe to allow more Jews to defend themselves.

“We hereby ask that gun licensing laws are reviewed with immediate effect to allow designated people in the Jewish communities and institutions to own weapons for the essential protection of their communities, as well as receiving the necessary training to protect their members from potential terror attacks,” wrote Rabbi Menachem Margolin, general director of the European Jewish Association, in an open letter to the European Union.

The sense of danger has gotten so great that it has prompted some Jews to leave Europe altogether. A recent story in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph spotlighted the plight of Simon and Honey Gould and their two teenage children, who are moving from Manchester, England, to Scottsdale, Ariz., in search of a more peaceful life.

“I know there are plenty of people who simply want to live a peaceful co-existence,” said Mrs. Gould. “But there is so much anti-Semitism in Britain, and it’s coming from all sides. Our local Jewish schools look like prison camps. [...] .....