Notoriously anti-gun Europe will probably turn down this request from the European Jewish Association to allow members of their community to carry firearms to defend themselves.

But what does it say about the plight of Jews in Europe that they would feel compelled to ask?

Washington Free Beacon:

The European Jewish Association (EJA), which represents Jewish communities across Europe, says that gun license laws must be altered following a string of deadly attacks on Jews in France and other European countries, where anti-Semitism has been growing at an alarming rate.

The recent attacks, including one on a Kosher market that killed four, “have revealed the urgent need to stop talking and start acting” in a way that empowers Europe’s Jews, according to a letter sent Tuesday by EJA General Director Rabbi Menachem Margolin to EU leaders.

The EU, which has enacted very stringent gun control laws, should empower and train Jews to be proficient with guns in order to maintain their safety, according to Margolin.

“The Paris attacks, as well as the many challenges and threats which have been presented to the European Jewish community in recent years, have revealed the urgent need to stop talking and start acting,” Margolin writes.

“We hereby ask that gun licensing laws are reviewed with immediate effect to allow designated people in the Jewish communities and institutions to own weapons for the essential protection of their communities, as well as receiving the necessary training to protect their members from potential terror attacks.”

Margolin told the Free Beacon that he and the EJA have been warning for “a very long time” that anti-Semitism is growing in Europe and that it poses a direct threat to the continent’s Jewish population.

There has been a “dramatic increase of anti-Semitism in Europe,” Margolin said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.  “We demanded from the European governments some time ago that action should be taken [and] were not surprised to see the results in Paris.”

Many Jews are living in fear and have shunned popular community outposts such as synagogues and kosher markets out of fear of an attack like that in Paris.

The next shoe to drop will probably be a Muslim organization asking for the same thing. That's why this request is more symbolic than realistic. That Jews feel the necessity to arm themselves because they have come to the realization that authorities cannot - or will not - protect them in their own communities speaks volumes about the rising level of hate generated not just by Muslims, but by many in the European elite. Pro-Muslim sympathies among the educated and professional classes in Europe harkens back to pre-Holocaust days where it was respectable to run anti-Semitic editorials in leading dailies, and leading figures in the political class felt safe to blame the problems of the world on Jews.

We haven't quite reached that level of casual, nauseating Jew hatred quite yet. But this time around, Jews aren't waiting for the situation to spin out of control. Whether they get a license to carry or not, there is a  likelihood that many Jews will arm themselves anyway.

"Never Again" is more than just a slogan. They are words to live by.