As a Jew, I can say that PeacefulJeffrey made an excellent observation. And while my mother is an avid landscaper and my uncle a brilliant contractor, most wealthy Jewish people have an almost fanatical devotion to not doing anything to sustain their own existence. Cooking, home repair, self defense, regular maintenance... all these activities are a sign that you're not making it in life.
Heck, my wife and I are closing on a house, and her parents reminded us that we'd have to save money for a gardener every month. Meanwhile, they KNOW my wife considers gardening to be one of her passions. They therefore must honestly think that I wouldn't be able to bring myself to actually mow our extremely tiny front lawn. Unbelievable.
However, I think there is an added element to Jewish fear of weapons. Part of it is the fact that we're urban, and as such regularly see those icky minorities toting guns and robbing us with them. Given our lack of research, we assume there's a legislative "fix" for it. And since we can't be openly racist (though many affluent Jews are shockingly bigoted towards minorities) we have to take away the guns instead.
And, as the ADL loves to point out, white gentiles who own guns are all anti-semitic militia members who just can't wait to start killing us. And, as a tiny minority, arming ourselves would be pointless against the raging hordes of Jew-haters we convince ourselves are battering down the gates.
(Ever since I became a gun owner, I've discovered just how much I love other gun owners. They're consistently the most principled, competent, trustworthy individuals I encounter.)
However, my friend's grandfather, a Jew and Polish Partisan in WWII, bought pistols and shotguns and brought them to the house every time things got a little dicey. His generation knows the truth, and they're dying out fast.
I can't speak to the black experience. However, I do see them at the range pretty regularly, which tells me they're not totally lost.
