One would hope the value of arms in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising would not be lost on their moderator, a rabbi.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising managed to take out about 300 Nazis. Resistance was stilled when the Nazis started burning buildings, killing about 13,000.
It started when the imprisoned Jewish community became convinced that a relocation program was actually a transfer to Treblinka for extermination, curiously coincident with the Bermuda Conference between the US and Britain, a meeting that ended with no plan to provide shelter for fleeing Jewish immigrants.
Wikipedia quotes Jurgen Stroop, the murderous commander of the Nazis in Warsaw, as he recalled a significant moment, "A young Jew – in his midtwenties I'd guess – was firing a pistol at one of our police officers – one...two...three...fast as lightning. One of the bullets hit the officer's hand. My men sprayed the Jew with fire. I managed to whip out my own pistol and hit him as he fell. As he lay dying, I stood over him, watching his life ebb away."
Two weeks later the uprising was over with the destruction of The Great Synagogue of Warsaw. Stroop performed the abomination and described the moment. "What a marvelous sight it was. A fantastic piece of theater. My staff and I stood at a distance. I held the electrical device which would detonate all the charges simultaneously. Jesuiter called for silence. I glanced over at my brave officers and men, tired and dirty, silhouetted against the glow of the burning buildings. After prolonging the suspense for a moment, I shouted: Heil Hitler and pressed the button."
I don't know history well enough to put it into perspective, other than to know the Nazis at the Warsaw Ghetto represented foul, twisted, terminally sick aspects of human behavior at its most gruesome worst.
Those clamoring to arm themselves against that evil offer a standard of bravery and strength I doubt I could match. Given those circumstances, I can only pray I would do my best.
And so, in the balance of individual rights versus the greater good, of which academia metabolizes much good oxygen into planet-killing CO2, where exactly will the august gun violence panel stand on the question of good, gentle people in confrontation with armed thugs? Lamb lays down with the lion? On his dinner plate, perhaps?
