‘Not safe anywhere now’: American Jews are flocking to gun training classes

Henya Chein has always been terrified of guns. The Orthodox Jewish artist and mother of two felt uneasy about her husband’s decision to buy a handgun after they moved to Florida from New York last year. 

“I would just block it out of my mind that it’s in the house,” Chein, 26, said. 

But after watching the events unfold in Israel, she’s taken steps she never imagined herself ever taking. Chein attended a gun safety seminar at her synagogue last week followed by a one-on-one session at a local shooting range.

“Even at the range, I just wanted to drop the gun and run back home,” Chein said. “I was so scared, and I’m terrified of it.”  

But she said she felt “forced to do it because Jewish people are not safe anywhere now.”

The deadly terrorist attack in Israel and the torrent of social media threats that followed have forced many American Jews to reconsider their long held stances against owning or using guns.