Anti-Semitic flier takes aim at Md.
lawmakers for their gun bill
Article archived from The Baltimore Sun
By Michael Dresser | michael.dresser@baltsun.com
March 13, 2010
A Maryland senator and delegate are the targets of a flier that attacks them as "bagel brain Jews" for their support of pending firearms legislation in the General Assembly and accuses them of pursuing "racist policies to destroy your gun rights."
Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat, said the flier - with the headline "Bagel Brain Jews Want Your Bullets and Your Guns" - was mailed to his home and to those of others in his precinct.
Underneath the headline are pictures of Frosh and Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, the Senate and House sponsors of a bill that would tighten requirements for ownership and sales of firearms. It refers readers to a Web site where they can view a video entitled "No Guns For Negroes," which portrays gun control as a racist policy.
Frosh said the flier was mailed from Southern Maryland and opened by his wife and several neighbors who were "outraged."
"It’s ugly, and I suppose it’s intended to be threatening, but it doesn’t change my view," said Frosh, chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee.
The flier was produced by group called Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, whose executive director is Aaron Zelman of Hartford, Wis.
Zelman said his group produced the handbill and makes it available on its Web site but denied distributing it. "That’s what the Internet is for. Let someone else go do it."
The bill sponsored by Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat, and Frosh would set more stringent requirements for gun ownership and for licensing of gun dealers, and would increase penalties for violations of firearms laws. It would, among other things, include gun trafficking violations on the list of suspected crimes for which law enforcement officials can seek a judge’s permission to use wiretaps. It would also bar people with two or more drunken-driving convictions from owning firearms.
Zelman, who said he is Jewish, said the group has about 6,500 members around the country. The group’s Web site includes reproductions of handbills attacking Jewish and black politicians who support various measures opposed by gun rights advocates.
They include a flier aimed at Maryland state Sen. Michael G. Lennett, a Montgomery Democrat, under the headline "A Jew Should Not Support Racism" and a portrayal of four Jewish U.S. senators in Nazi uniforms.
Zelman said the organization will "go after" any official who supports gun control but acknowledged that the group pays extra attention to Jews who take that position. "I think it’s important for Jews to wake up, to learn from history and stop being dangerously stupid."
Rosenberg said he had not received the flier in the mail, but had not been home all week. He said he had seen the flier on the Internet and considered it "foul."
"People can disagree on a public policy question without engaging in religious or anti-Semitic epithets," he said. "Whether they’re Jews or non-Jews, this is not how we should debate public policy."
Like Frosh, Rosenberg said he would not be influenced by the flier.
"I’m not going to allow them to deter me from what I believe we should be doing, nor is it going to prompt me to fall into the gutter with them," he said.
Sample comments - Add/View Comments
Crystal755 at 3:09 PM March 14, 2010
Blacks are 12% of the population and are responsible for over 60% of the gun homicide rate. They should be scrutinized a lot more carefully than white people. Yes, that is racist and I don’t care. When gun control fanatics make their case they use our high rate of gun homicides. This problem would go way down if it were not for black people shooting each other like it is going out of style.
oly_r at 1:51 PM March 14, 2010
Pasal2: You make our point, there were very few left with firearms and they were not able to protect themselves much less the rest of them.
Homeless_Person: You need to wake up, the constitution included the "Right to Keep and Bear arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" so that the citizens of the country could not be taken over by a tryrannical government. They didn’t want a standing army because it could and had been used throughout history for a despot to rule by threat or application of force. The second was put into place to protect against that since the standing army could never outnumber the general populace. Who are the Militia, apart from certain federal officials we all are the militia. Look that up, it is a paraphrase but you can find the original. So to protect us from those who would use a military force to overun us we have to have the capability to counter their force, so yes i believe they would approve of the power of firearms available to the public.
Homeless_Person at 10:42 AM March 14, 2010
Go to Dicks Sporting goods and check out the shear killing power of the guns and ammunition. The ordinary rational person would be alarmed. I do not believe our constitutional authors envisioned the type of technology and advantage these types of weapons offer any ordinary person with a grudge