Today’ daf TB Baba Kama 46 provides the scriptural underpinning why Rabbi Eliezer holds that only slaughtering the ox is the only way to safeguard the owner from damage liability.
“(Abaye) said
that this is the reason for the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer: As
it is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Natan says: From where
is it derived that one may not raise a vicious dog in his house, and
that one may not set up an unstable ladder in his house? As it is stated:
“You shall not bring blood into your house” (Deuteronomy 22:8), which means
that one may not allow a hazardous situation to remain in his house. Similarly,
a person should not keep a forewarned ox in his possession, as it is dangerous.
This is why Rabbi Eliezer rules that no level of safeguarding is sufficient for
it; the ox should be slaughtered so that it will not cause damage.” (Sefaria.org
translation)
This is the
second time in we have come across this baraita, however, I didn’t have
time to comment on it. For those of us looking for a Jewish source to help us
reduce gun violence in America we cite this baraita. A loaded gun or arms like a semi-automatic
are even more dangerous than a vicious dog or an unstable ladder in a house.
Sane gun laws would require proper care and storage of guns so that they won’t
be accidentally misused by minors as well as adults. Similarly there is no
reason for a non-soldier to own a semi-automatic rifle whose sole purpose is to
kill as many people as possible in as short of time as possible.
“Most firearm-related homicides in the United
States involve handguns.[96][97][98] A 2019 Pew
Research study
found that 3% of US gun deaths were caused by rifles, a category which includes
AR-15–style rifles.[99] According to a 2013 analysis
by Mayors
Against Illegal Guns,
14 out of 93 mass shootings involved high-capacity
magazines or assault weapons.[100] Nevertheless, AR-15–style
rifles have played a prominent role in many high-profile mass shootings in the
U.S.[101] and have come to be widely
characterized as the weapon of choice for perpetrators of these crimes.[102] AR-15s or similar rifles were
the primary weapons used in half of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern
American history:[103][104] the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the 2017
Las Vegas shooting, the
2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting,[105] the 2018 Parkland high school shooting,[106] and the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting.[107] The first time wherein an
AR-15–style rifle was used in a mass shooting was in 2007, during the Crandon shooting, according to Mother Jones's mass shooting database.[108][109] Gun expert Dean Hazen and
mass murder researcher Pete Blair think that mass shooters' gun choices have
less to do with the AR-15's specific characteristics but rather with
familiarity and a copycat effect.[110][111] According to the National Shooting
Sports Foundation, there were an estimated 24.4 million AR-15s in private
circulation in the United States in 2020. According to a 2021 Georgetown
University poll of gun owners in the US, 24.6 million persons have an AR-15 or
a comparable firearm in their possession.[112]”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15%E2%80%93style_rifle)
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