A US arms dealer offers a free AR-15 rifle to rabbis in the region

A gunsmith from Colorado Springs, Colorado, offered a free AR-15 rifle to local temples to protect themselves from the massacre of 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue by an anti-Semitic gunman.

Mel Bernstein, owner of Dragon Arms, told Fox News Sunday that four Colorado Springs rabbis had accepted his offer and that a fifth had accepted the offer of a handgun.

"I feel very bad that someone can walk into a synagogue or church and start shooting and can not protect themselves," Bernstein said.

He added that each rabbi had completed an audit of his background. Fox News has contacted various synagogues in the region for comment but has not yet received an answer.

Bernstein said he was making the offer in response to the October 26 shootout at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue – considered the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history. The 46-year-old gunman Robert Bowers is accused of shooting at Shabbat worship with an AR-15 pistol and three handguns.

KOAA-TV for the first time reported on Bernstein's offer last week.

"I do not really like what's happening in the country and I offer them a free AR-15 rifle with two magazines and a hundred bullets," he told the channel.

The station reported having interviewed the president of a local synagogue about Bernstein's offer.

"I think he wants to help and that he is very well intentioned," said Jeff Ader of Temple Beit Torah. "It's just not for us."

He said that the AR-15 was, in a sense, a "weapon of mass destruction".

"If he can fire several shots a second, anything can happen and my fear is that innocent bystanders are interfering and innocent people are hurting," he said.

The station reported that Ader was in talks with Bernstein about choosing a handgun instead.

Scott Levin of the Colorado Anti-Defamation League told the station that a rabbi with a gun was causing problems with the image. He said that he thought it would be a disturbance.

Bernstein, who is Jewish, told Fox News that he had received calls from rabbis across the country asking for his offer, but that he could not send them firearms because they were in good shape.

"I can not provide all the rabbis because I would go broke," he said.