Huff Post: by Rabbi Mihael Berstein: A well known statement by the author and playwright Anton Chekhov maintains that if a gun is hanging on the wall in Act I it must be taken off and fired at some point by the end of the play. In a way, one could say that the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which provides for the right of Americans to keep and bear arms, is like Chekhov’s gun. And that our country has reached the moment in which it takes its place center stage.
For some, the Second Amendment is a relic, speaking of militias and minutemen armed with muskets and gunpowder. For others, the Second Amendment is nothing less than the enforcement of America’s promise, the surrendering of ultimate sovereignty of those who govern to the people governed. Still, in the wake of the devastating carnage left by the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School a growing number of citizens demand action and charge the government to address the ubiquity of weapons capable of dealing mass death. Amid the tension within this vital conversation lies the greatness and the challenge of the United States. Among our deepest held principles is the commitment to the liberty of each individual within a nation whose very formation recognizes the necessity to band together in order to achieve the common good.