Over the weekend, our country was struck by what is believed to be the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in US history. A gunman entered the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA with an AR-15 rifle, killing 11 people and wounding an additional six.
The gunman has been identified as 46-year-old Robert Bowers and the attack is believed to be a hate crime, due to Bowers’ history of posting anti-Semitic sentiments online. Bowers’ is a frequent user of the social-networking site Gab, a high unregulated social platform comparable to Twitter. Just hours before the shooting, Bowers posted: “HIAS likes to bring in invaders that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.” HIAS stands for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a nonprofit that provides aids refugees. Bowers also allegedly shouted “all Jews must die” while carrying out his attack. Bowers used an AR-15 rifle and three handguns, all of which he legally owned and had a license to carry.
The attack has leaders all over the country talking. The Mayor of Pittsburgh, Bill Peduto, said the attack marked the “darkest day of Pittsburgh’s history.” President Donald Trump called it “an anti-Semitic attack at its worst.” Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch called it an “attack on the very ideals that founded our nation” in an email sent to the student body on Sunday evening. This attack follows similarly violent events of the following week which included the killing of Maurice Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones at a grocery store in Kentucky, and explosives sent to several political leaders and activists, leaving the nation in a state of anger, despair and grief.
https://apnews.com/017eca5511ec4834b4406ac8c6b5bb13
http://time.com/5436894/robert-bowers-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting/
http://time.com/5436894/robert-bowers-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting/