Oppose concealed carry reciprocity

While Congress is in recess this month, members of the Jewish community should be aware of a terrible federal bill with the misleading title of Concealed Carry Reciprocity (CCR).  This bill would gut state gun safety laws.

If passed, CCR would allow individuals from states with extremely lax gun laws (such as those where people can purchase a gun without needing a permit or any training) legally to carry hidden, loaded firearms in states that do have common sense gun requirements. This would upend public safety by introducing the lowest common denominator to U.S. gun provisions.

As a Jew, I am taught and scripture tells me that to save a life is to save the entire world. Common sense gun laws (that require background checks, permitting and training) exist to make sure that guns do not routinely get in the hands of those who should not have them, such as domestic abusers and those with a history of violent criminal activity, saving lives in the process.

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Please contact Sen. Claire McCaskill at 1-202-224-6154 and urge her to oppose CCR. Let’s do what we can to promote public safety and common sense efforts to reduce deaths from gun violence.

Gail Wechsler, St. Louis County (Gail Wechsler is a volunteer engaged in faith outreach for the Missouri Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.) 

Kushner’s Mideast role

In Gene Carton’s letter to the editor (Aug. 2), he condemned President Donald Trump for sending his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, an “inexperienced novice on foreign policy” to negotiate peace between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Let me remind Carton that both Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush used top negotiator Dennis Ross in July 2000 at Camp David to broker a deal between Yasir Arafat and Ehud Barak. Clinton proposed a two-state solution with the Palestinians getting a state with 100 percent Gaza, 95 percent of the West Bank and sharing Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and Palestine, plus shared supervision of the holy sites in Jerusalem. Barack agreed in the interest of peace, but the terrorist Arafat turned down that incredibly generous offer!

Barack Obama sent Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry; George H.W. Bush sent Sec. of State James Baker and Ronald Reagan sent Secretary of State George Shultz, who was popular in Israel. Not one of these men was an “inexperienced novice on Mid-East foreign policy,” and how successful were they?

You compared sending Kushner to the Middle East rather than someone who is capable of handling such a difficult assignment was “tantamount to bringing a knife to a gun fight.” Lest we not forget the story of David and Goliath. David,

a small, meek yet confident Jew, with nothing more than rocks and a sling shot,

slew the giant, arrogant Goliath, who had a most powerful sword imbued with great evil power.

Rhonnie Goldfader, Creve Coeur

‘A Weakness of Conservatism’

“Time to Punish Bad Behavior” by Martin Rochester (commentary, July 26) omits historic and current punishments which were legal, but not in the spirit of Justice. 

Slavery was not only legal but played a role in the admission of states to the Union. Emancipation and the Reconstruction to implement it were abandoned in the shameful Hayes-Tilden deal of 1876, coincidentally the year that St. Louis seceded from St. Louis County, creating the conditions in which law enforcement preys on citizen motorists to cover the cost of governing almost one hundred municipalities, mostly small ones. 

Black Codes were enacted after Reconstruction was dropped, then replaced by Jim Crow. All legal. The Great Migrations to the North encouraged slum concentrations by redlining metro areas to prevent the spread of people of color to “nice neighborhoods.” 

The military was integrated, but school integration after Brown v. Board was fought and undermined to this day. Voting rights have been weakened by the U.S. Supreme Court very recently. Prohibition of alcohol worked mainly to foster organized crime, rather than reduce crime and violence among the citizenry. Now, unequal enforcement of marijuana laws incarcerates people of color disproportionately and longer than white people, although per capita consumption is racially the same. Opioid abusers are jailed but not treated. 

Progress does not always produce hoped-for benefits, improvement of people’s lives, but regress to failed past practices seems to me a willful weakness of conservatism. Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof (“Justice, only Justice, shall you pursue”) is not achievable by focusing on punishment, without mercy. (D’Varim 16:20)

Franklin Sax, Tucson, Ariz. (formerly of St. Louis)