Firearms are very important, and the NRA President’s proposal was spot-on.
I was reading an email I got from YCT with Rabbi Weiss’s remarks about the shooting, and I was immediately put off by something he said. He called for a ban on “assault weapons.” That would not have averted a tragedy such as this. If we look at Newtown, Arizona, Aurora, etc., the one thing in common is that each shooter was a mental case. We’re not supposed to look at the face of a rasha, but if you look at their faces, you can see the look of insanity.
The way to avoid these problems is to deal with mental illness in a no-nonsense and comprehensive manner (i.e. bring back the snake pit), national spiritual and moral revival, secure our schools, and to stop blaming the Second Amendment!
With all due respect, R’ Weiss should stick to rabbinical duties and until he studies constitutional law, he has no right to an opinion on the matter of whether certain firearms ought to be banned or not. Statism and tyranny are not part of my weltanschauung, and are obviously sadly a part of rebbi’s worldview, just as statism and tyranny is a part of R’ Akiva Herzfeld’s worldview (he penned an op-ed in a Maine newspaper advocating the legalization of gay “marriage” identifying himself as a musmach of YCT, r”l).