Q&A: A Gun on the Sabbath
A Gun on the Sabbath
Question
Is a gun considered a utensil whose primary use is for a prohibited activity, or a utensil whose primary use is for a permitted activity?
At first glance, it is a utensil whose primary use is for a prohibited activity.
On the other hand, one could say that the main use of a gun is to deter and not to shoot, and if so its primary use is permitted. Also, it is generally a tool used for saving life, and if so then again it is a utensil whose primary use is permitted, and it would not be muktzeh at all. What does the Rabbi think?
Answer
It is a utensil whose primary use is for a prohibited activity: to kill. Deterrence is a byproduct of its basic use, even if that basic use is rarer in practice. True, in the eyes of the Sages a weapon was viewed as an ornament for a man, but it seems to me that nowadays that is not the case.
As for the fact that this involves saving life, that does not turn it into something whose primary use is permitted. Similar to the knife used for circumcision, which is commonly considered a utensil whose primary use is for a prohibited activity.
By the way, even regarding a utensil whose primary use is permitted, the common halakhic ruling is that one does not move it unnecessarily.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t understand what the difference is between the two options.
Option A: it is permitted to carry the weapon.
Option B: it is forbidden.
I wrote it already: a utensil whose primary use is for a prohibited activity. It is likely that it is also muktzeh due to monetary loss, because people are careful not to use it for any other purpose.
So if it is a utensil whose primary use is for a prohibited activity, is it permitted to carry the gun on oneself even when there is no actual concern for danger to life, but in practice it gives a person a sense of security to walk around with it? Is that considered a use of the object itself or not?
It seems to me that it is considered a use of the object itself. But if it is muktzeh due to monetary loss, then it is forbidden even for a use of the object itself. Of course, one has to discuss what counts as a life-saving need. It may be that there is a general need for people in the street to be armed because of concern about terrorists.
If the terrorists work on the Sabbath too,
then this is a full-fledged matter of saving life.
What is there to discuss?
And if the terrorists know that Jews are unarmed on the Sabbath, they will increase their murders on the Sabbath.
I don’t understand.
Does the Rabbi mean that the permission to carry it is because of saving life, which overrides the ordinary prohibition of moving it, or that it is generally forbidden to carry the weapon because it is a utensil whose primary use is for a prohibited activity?