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Is It Jewish To Own Or Sell Guns?
(ד) וְשָׁפַט֙ בֵּ֣ין הַגּוֹיִ֔ם וְהוֹכִ֖יחַ לְעַמִּ֣ים רַבִּ֑ים וְכִתְּת֨וּ חַרְבוֹתָ֜ם לְאִתִּ֗ים וַחֲנִיתֽוֹתֵיהֶם֙ לְמַזְמֵר֔וֹת לֹא־יִשָּׂ֨א ג֤וֹי אֶל־גּוֹי֙ חֶ֔רֶב וְלֹא־יִלְמְד֥וּ ע֖וֹד מִלְחָמָֽה׃ (פ)

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war.

If you only read Isaiah, what would you think about Judaism's perspective on gun ownership?

What would a world with no weapons look like?

אין מוכרין להם לא זיין ולא כלי זיין ואין משחיזין להן את הזיין ואין מוכרין להן לא סדן ולא קולרין ולא כבלים ולא שלשלאות של ברזל אחד עובד כוכבים ואחד כותי...

One may not sell weapons to gentiles or the auxiliary equipment of weapons, and one may not sharpen weapons for them. And one may not sell them stocks used for fastening the feet of prisoners, or iron neck chains [kolarin], or foot chains, or iron chains. This prohibition applies equally to both a gentile and a Samaritan.

Samaritans are a group of Jews that split off from the Jerusalem community very early in history. By the rabbinic period there were some Samaritans living up north, but they were not integrated into the remainder of the Jews.

Why do you think the rabbis prohibited selling weapons to non-Jews?

Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations 9:8
(8) Even as it is forbidden to sell to idolaters things which uphold their hands to idolatry so it is forbidden to sell them things wherein there is a menace to the public, for instance, bears, lions, weapons, iron fetters, and chains; it is likewise forbidden to sharpen their weapons for them. And, everything which is forbidden to sell to an idolater is also forbidden to sell to an Israelite who is under suspicion that he might resell it to an idolater. It is likewise forbidden to sell instruments of harm to robbers who profess to be Israelites.

How does this ruling by Maimonides extend the prohibition on arms sales?

Avodah Zarah 16a:3
The Gemara clarifies: And as for the fact that nowadays we do sell all weapons, Rav Ashi said: We sell the weapons to the Persians, who protect us.
Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 151:6
If Israel was dwelling among non-Jews, and the Jews made a covenant with their rulers, Jews may sell weapons to the king's servants and his troops, for they make war on their behalf with the enemies of the state, to save them, and it turns out they protect them, for they (the Jews) are dwelling in their midst.

What twist do these two sources place on the prohibition of selling weapons to non-Jews? How might it impact the issue for us today?

When does these texts say it is appropriate to sell weapons?

Why do these texts make a distinction between selling weapons to idolaters and others?

If that same distinction would be made today, who might be the idolaters?

What type of contract is required between the sellers and purchasers of weapons?

According to these texts, who should be barred from purchasing a weapon?

What are the responsibilities of one who sells weapons?

How does this inform the conversation of mental health and access to firearms?

תלמוד בבלי מסכת סנהדרין דף לז:א לפיכך נברא אדם יחידי, ללמדך שכל המאבד נפש אחת מישראל - מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו איבד עולם מלא, וכל המקיים נפש אחת מישראל - מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו קיים עולם מלא.

Bavli Sanhedrin 37a

For this reason, one individual was created first, to teach that anyone who causes one life to be lost from Israel it is as if they have destroyed the entire world. And anyone who saves one life from Israel - it is as if they have preserved an entire world.

Pikuach Nefesh - the saving of a life - is of prime importance in Judaism, so much so

that one may even break the Shabbat in order to preform this mitzvah.

Why is causing the loss of life of an individual as if one has destroyed the entire world?

Can causing the loss of a life and saving a life ever be in conflict?

(א) אִם־בַּמַּחְתֶּ֛רֶת יִמָּצֵ֥א הַגַּנָּ֖ב וְהֻכָּ֣ה וָמֵ֑ת אֵ֥ין ל֖וֹ דָּמִֽים׃

If the thief is seized while tunneling, and he is beaten to death, there is no bloodguilt in his case.

Is self-defense/self-preservation a Jewish commandment? If so, how does that influence your views on gun ownership?

Is It Kosher For Israel To Sell Arms To Other Countries?
As Israel began to develop its arms industry in the 1950s and ’60s, it became clear that the industry could not support itself (and therefore provide the IDF with necessary weapons) unless it also exported these powerful products. As Amir Bohbot and Yaakov Katz document in The Weapon Wizards, this trade also spawned a significant financial boom to a fledging country with economic struggles while providing important incentives for foreign countries to develop friendly relations with Israel. Yet it also raised deep ethical questions, as clients like Chile and South Africa committed human rights atrocities.
In the late 1970s, Tel Aviv chief rabbi Chaim David Halevi cited medieval precedents to argue that any sales made to allies would secure mutually beneficial results, even while noting that Israeli sovereignty placed Jews in a radically different political position. Rabbi J. David Bleich reached a similar conclusion, though he indicated his uncertainty as to whether current Israeli policy fully complied with halachic criteria: “Sale of arms to nations allied with Israel by means of a formal or informal security pact would be justified. Absent such agreement, arms sales would be forbidden unless absolutely necessary by virtue of other considerations in order to protect life, e.g., as part of a barter arrangement designed to secure material necessary for self-defense.”
Because of reported sales to rogue nations with unethical leaders, other scholars raised serious objections to the Israeli arms industry in the early 1980s. Rabbi Yehuda Gershuni contended that international arms sales could be justified only when they involved nations that had Jewish citizens to protect or would adhere to principles of ethical warfare. Otherwise, Israel was providing a “stumbling block” that encouraged unethical behavior by aiding and abetting rogue nations. The fact that these countries could purchase weapons from other dealers could not justify any Jewish participation in the shedding of blood, especially if the Israeli weapons were deemed uniquely advantageous.
The most trenchant critique was launched by Britain’s chief rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits. He accused Israel, Britain, the United States and other Western countries of greedily following the ways of the biblical Esau. In his words, “The rationalization that such exports are required to sustain the supply-nations’ own arms industry for self-defense lacks every moral basis, at least in Jewish teaching. You can never save your own life at the cost of threatening or taking another.”
Rabbinic defenders of the Israeli arms industry have responded that even when mistakes are made, the Talmudic and medieval precedents fully legitimize selling weapons to foreign nations if the goal is to buttress Israel’s own defense. Although military exports bring Israel into murky moral waters, they are a tragic part of the complexity of foreign affairs in a world in which swords, not plowshares, continue to hold sway.
In the particular case of Myanmar, it remains hard to understand what financial, diplomatic, or military advantage is procured from selling weapons to this insignificant country while it is in the midst of a horrific civil conflict. Jewish law reluctantly permits weapons sales when they produce concrete security advantages, but not when meager benefits are greatly overshadowed by aiding horrific bloodshed. I join Rabbi Yuval Cherlow in calling for expanded ethical overview of such sales to ensure that Israel properly balances its strategic needs and moral duties.
"Jews and Guns" My Jewish Learning
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hunting-in-judaism/

Most authorities say it is not permissible to hunt for sport. Two sources are generally cited in this regard. The first is Rabbi Isaac Lampronri, who wrote in his work Pahad Yitzhak that it is forbidden to hunt animals because it’s wasteful. The 18th-century rabbinic authority Ezekiel Landau added that recreational hunting is forbidden on the grounds of animal cruelty and because of the risks to the hunter. Neither of the two biblical figures known to be hunters — Esau and Nimrod — are held up as role models. All the biblical patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), as well as Joseph, Moses and King David were herders — nurturers of animals, not their pursuers.
Hunting for food is, in principle, not objectionable. However land animals must be ritually slaughtered by hand to render them kosher , which would make hunting them for food with a firearm impermissible.

What arguments are given against hunting?

Would Jewish law permit a Jewish person to own firearms for the purpose of hunting?

"Jews and Guns" My Jewish Learning https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hunting-in-judaism/
Some have suggested that if Jews had possessed guns in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust might not have occurred. Germany’s move to forbid Jewish gun ownership prior to launching the Final Solution is typically cited as a key support for this belief. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson briefly made this notion a matter of public debate after including it in his 2015 book A More Perfect Union and in subsequent interviews. The Anti-Defamation League responded that it was ludicrous to suggest armed Jews could have stopped the Holocaust. (Carson called the ADL statement “foolishness.”)
But the argument has also surfaced in publicity materials from Jewish gun activists, including the 2010 documentary No Guns for Jews, which implied that gun control measures in Europe in the 1930s enabled the Nazi genocide. “When the right to self defense is denied, God’s law is violated,” the film intones. “Would history have been rewritten if the SS confronted thousands of armed Jews during the riots of Kristallnacht?”

What is the relationship between gun ownership and the Holocaust?

How does the Jewish history of oppression and antisemitism relate to the gun control debate?