Category Archives: shooting

[Update] An Appropriate Use Of Force?

There’s a trial in Virginia over a shooting. Let me describe the reported circumstances, and let you decide what you’d have done.

You’re minding your own business, when a 6′ 5″ “goon” (his own monicker, by the way) walks up on you. He sticks his hand in your face and calls you a “dips**t”. You repeatedly tell him to stop, but he refuses. You keep backing away, but he keeps closing on you, still calling you a “dips**t.” You try to knock his hand out your face, but he continues.

Would you be frightened, concerned for your physical safety?

Would you shoot the hulking threat?

Alan Colie did shoot the goon; a single shot to the abdomen. And was arrested for it.

Cook, who is 6-foot-5, could be seen holding a cell phone about 6 inches from Colie’s face. The cellphone broadcasted the phrase “Hey dips—-, quit thinking about my twinkle” through a Google Translate app several times.

Colie could be heard saying “stop” on three separate occasions and tried to back away from Cook, who continued to advance towards him.

Colie attempted to knock the phone away from his face before he allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Cook in the lower left chest.

The “rest of the story” is that the goon is a YouTube “prankster,” who has had multiple run-ins with law enforcement over his disgusting, frightening, and threatening “pranks” pulled on unsuspecting strangers. A sane person of normal intelligence might learn from those encounters that such “pranks” are dangerous.

Not Cook.

YouTube prankster Tanner Cook said in court on Tuesday that he had no idea he had scared or angered Alan Colie, 31, who ended up allegedly shooting him during a prank.

And why would he even consider the possibility that his victim might be scared? After all, it’s not like any of his other targets were…

Cook said during the hearing that he tries to confuse targets of his pranks for the amusement of his online audience and doesn’t try to elicit fear or anger, but said his targets often react that way.

Oh. So he already knew that his subjects often perceive him as a threat — just as Colie did — but still thought thought the risk of instilling that fear would be fun.

Would I have shot the goon? Quite possibly, given the scenario described in court. I would certainly have drawn my sidearm and issued one last warning. Then, whether I fired or not would depend on Cook passing the impromptu IQ test.

The prosecution in this case maintains that the shooting was unjustified because the goon was “unarmed.”

“It was stupid. It was silly. And you may even think it was offensive. But that’s all it was — a cellphone in the ear that got Tanner shot.”

No, it was disparity of force. Colie was threatened by a person much larger and stronger; a person who refused to cease his threatening actions. Cook didn’t need a weapon to be a danger, he was a weapon. And while Cook might not have intended to be a threat, Colie didn’t know that; he only knew what he was experiencing, and that was the actions of Cook, who admitted that he knew his victims “often” saw his acts as threatening.

Juries are weird, so I don’t know how this will turn; but I know how it should: acquittal.

As for goon Cook, he clearly is still failing life’s ongoing intelligence test. I suspect he’ll finally encounter someone less restrained than Colie — who only fired a single shot to stop the advancing threat — who will empty his magazine center mass, ending those “pranks” for good.

Update, 9/29/2023: The verdict is in. Colie was acquitted of the two felony malicious wounding and malicious shooting in an occupied structure charges. Weirdly, though, he was convicted of misdemeanor use of a firearm during a felony the same jury said he didn’t committed. Colie’s attorney is addressing that.

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Yet Another Interesting Baldwin/Rust Shooting Development

You may recall that I’ve been wondering how a live round ever made it onto the Rust set.

One thing that always bothered me was presence of live rounds on site at all. Where did they come from? Who brought them? How did at least one end up in the gun?

We may have a better idea of who that was, now. Armorer Gutierrez-Reed had tried suggesting the company that supplied blanks had mixed the live rounds in with the right stuff. The forensic examination of components strongly suggested otherwise. Then there was the report that she had retrieved the gun after the shooting, before the police arrived, and removed the spent case. That’s odd,and sounds rather like tampering with evidence.

I just ran across this tidbit, which — if true — may explain a lot.

The New York Post reports that police gathered text messages from Reed that indicated she had attempted to use live ammunition on the set of her previous film.

Did she bring them again, for the Rust filming? And was she trying to conceal evidence of what she’d done? I suppose we’ll see when her trial starts.

This may be part of the new forensic evidence that the prosecutors cited when dropping charges against Baldwin for now. I still think the actor completely failed to exercise “due caution and circumspection,” but if Gutierrez-Reed herself knowingly brought the live rounds onto the set, and loaded one into the gun, a lot more of the culpability for the resulting death and injury shifts her way. Not all, but some.

 

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Baldwin Shooting Development

You may have heard that charges are going to be dropped against Alec Baldwin, in the killing of Halyna Hutchins.

Alec Baldwin to Skate as Prosecutors Drop Criminal Charges in Fatal ‘Rust’ Shooting: Reports
Recently appointed special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis are expected file papers shortly to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter claims against Alec Baldwin without prejudice, according to multiple reports, with Deadline first reporting the news on Thursday.

I think it may be a little premature for Baldwin to relax.

1. The report is that the charges will be dropped without prejudice, meaning the charges can be resurrected. Right there, Baldwin is not in the clear yet.

2. The charges against armorer Gutierrez-Reed are apparently not going to be dropped.

3. Assistant director Hall has already been convicted and sentenced for his role.

Something is still up.

Pure speculation: The special prosecutors may have uncovered more evidence, and are considering a different set of charges.

One thing that always bothered me was presence of live rounds on site at all. Where did they come from? Who brought them? How did at least one end up in the gun?

And why?

Gutierrez-Reed’s theory that the blank supplier must have mixed live rounds in her order wasn’t supported by the forensic evidence. The ammunition components were reportedly not a match with the supplier’s components. And it begs the question of why the armorer would have loaded even blanks for a rehearsal that didn’t wasn’t supposed to involve shooting.

Then there’s theory that someone proposed to me in a private conversation: What if someone deliberately loaded live ammo to set up Baldwin, knowing that his lack of firearm safety might nearly guarantee an unfortunate incident?

“Without prejudice.” Maybe some of those questions are being asked. Maybe even answered.

 

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So Where Did The Vest Money Go, Uvalde PD?

Last year’s Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas was horrific. The cold-blooded murder of 21 students and teachers was bad enough. But the “police” response that enabled the asshole to do it was, in some respects, even worse.

The shooter started firing at a location near the school. At least one officer was on-scene and saw the known shooter. He decided to radio in for permission to take down the soon-to-be-murderer.

That didn’t happen, so the chumbucket got into the “locked” school.

And spent over an hour inside killing people as students called 911 and begged the police to help them.

There were hundreds of law enforcement personnel on-scene. And while some entered the school building, they didn’t go into the classrooms where the killer was killing children. They retreated when they heard gunfire.

Bad enough. But at least one officer did want — and tried — to go in. Other officers physically restrained him, and reportedly he was threatened with actual arrest for attempting to save children. I suppose that would have made the rest of them look bad even worse; if that’s even possible.

In recent days, the Uvalde Police Department was been trying to excuse their failure. The real culprit, you see, was the perp’s evil “AR-15.”

Uvalde Cops with AR15s Blame AR15s For 21 Murders, Not Cowardice ~ VIDEO
“We weren’t equipped to make entry into that room without several casualties,” Uvalde Police Department Detective Louis reportedly said, adding, “Once we found out it was a rifle he was using, it was a different game plan we would have had to come up with. It wasn’t just going in guns blazing, the Old West style, and take him out.”

Correctly, that column ridicules the police cowardice. Other reports are more fawning and supportive of the poor under-equipped police facing that evil black “AR-15” that the US military issues to soldiers.*

“He has a battle rifle”: Police feared Uvalde gunman’s AR-15Even though some officers were armed with the same rifle, they opted to wait for the arrival of a Border Patrol SWAT team, with more protective body armor, stronger shields and more tactical training — even though the unit was based more than 60 miles away.

“You knew that it was definitely an AR,” Uvalde Police Department Sgt. Donald Page said in an interview with investigators after the school shooting. “There was no way of going in. … We had no choice but to wait and try to get something that had better coverage where we could actually stand up to him.”

The poor dears didn’t have body armor that could stop a .223/5.56 round from an “AR-15.”

Why not?

Oh, you might think that a smaller department like Uvalde might not have foreseen the need for something that could stop an intermediate-powered round, facing such so little. Who can predict the future with 100% accuracy?

The problem is

The Uvalde Police Department is pleased to announce that we have completed the process, and been awarded grant funds through the Office of the Governor to outfit EVERY Uvalde Police Officer with Level 4 body armor.

Almost four years before the Robb Elementary cluster-f###, the UPD was bragging about having the money in hand to equip every single officer in the department with Level IV body armor.

LEVEL IV IS DESIGNED TO HANDLE:
One hit from 7.62MM armor piercing rifle (APR) bullet with a velocity of 2880 ft./s.

If it’ll stop an armor-piercing .308/7.62, it should stop a .223/5.56 round.

Why weren’t they wearing those Level IV vests? Where were the vests? Were they ever actually… you know… purchased?

Where did the money go? The money they said, in 2018, that they had in their grubby, coward paws?

What did the Uvalde “police” think was more important than the lives of nineteen children and two teachers?

And what does the state of Texas think about state grant money being diverted… to whatever?


* A digression:

“The gunman had an AR-15, a rifle design used by U.S. soldiers in every conflict since Vietnam.”

In all my years of service, I was never issued an AR-15. I never saw an AR-15 used by the military. I was never issued any semi-auto rifle, only select-fire.

Does reporter police stenographer/apologist Zach Despart know the difference between the M-16/M-4 family, and the AR-15? Probably not, since he hasn’t even figured out that the Robb Elementary asshole did not have an AR-15. According to all credible reports, he used a Daniel Defense DDM4, not a Colt Manufacturing AR-15 (trademarks and manufacturing differences matter).

By the way, a “battle rifle” is chambered for a full-power rifle round, not an intermediate-power round like .223 Rem/5.56 NATO. Just sayin’.

 

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Rittenhouse Being Sued

Kyle Rittenhouse is being sued by the the idiot who chased him down and pointed a gun at him.

Kyle Rittenhouse hit with lawsuit from man he shot during 2020 Kenosha clash: ‘Little bit of a shock’
Gaige Grosskreutz, who testified he pointed a firearm at Rittenhouse before the then-teenager shot Grosskreutz and two others, is seeking economic losses, “damages for emotional distress, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, and other pain and suffering on all claims,” and punitive damages.

I could talk about the basic stupidity of suing a person after you already testified under oath that he shot you only after you threatened to kill him by pointing an unlawfully possessed handgun at him. But that’s a little too obvious.

I want to talk about a comment on that report.

He went looking for trouble armed with a gun and found it. Have can keep dealing with the consequences.

“toatsrokinit” seems to think he’s talking about Kyle acting provocatively. But his claim very much more accurately describes the actions of plaintiff Grosskreutz.

Kyle was there cleaning up graffiti and offering medical first aid to protesters.

Grosskreutz was there to protest.

Kyle ran from threats, and only shot is self defense.

Grosskreutz chased Kyle and pointed a gun at him while Kyle was down on the ground.

And note: Grosskreutz was “armed with a gun,” and in chasing Kyle was definitely “looking for trouble.”

Also note: Kyle’s rifle possession was lawful.

Grosskreutz’s concealed pistol possession was unlawful.

And yet the morons who still insist — without any evidence beyond “cuz I said so” — that Kyle was carrying that rifle “looking for trouble,” never seem to wonder about Grosskreutz. And why he was unlawfully armed.

The guy who effed around and found out.

 

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MRI and Guns Do Not Mix

I’d only heard of this happening once before, several years ago. But it seems it’s happened since. And now again.

Lawyer dies three weeks after MRI machine’s magnetic field triggers his hidden gun to go off while taking his mother for a routine medical visit at a Brazilian lab
Mathias, a married father-of-one, was accompanying his mother to an appointment at Laboratorio Cura and forgot to remove his 9mm weapon from his waistband after entering the imaging room, according to Brazilian news outlet G1.

Police said that the MRI machine’s magnetic field pulled the concealed gun away from his waist.

The gun hit the machine and the impact caused it to discharge one bullet that struck him in the abdomen.

Yes, he was told to leave his possession behind before entering the room, and specifically metal objects.

He “forgot.”

Yes, the magnetic field from a magnetic resonance imager is strong enough to grab objects a few feet away.

 

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[UPDATED] DigiTrigger

This appears to be a machinegun under current ATF BSTD/AutoGlove/etc rulings. Now, the demo in the video is marked “Military & Police,” so I’m going to assume that it won’t be available to us peons, despite SCOTUS’ Miller ruling. But…

This civilian unit seems to have the same problem. Unlike a normal mechanical binary trigger, which fires one round when the finger pulls the trigger and a second round when the finger allows the trigger to reset, DigiTrigger appears to use the electronics to operate the firing mechanism twice for a single finger operation of the trigger. (see below) That is exactly why the ATF shut down the AutoGlove. The alleged single — “volitional” — operation of the trigger is the basic of the BSTD rule.


Update:  I contacted the company. The pull/release (P/R) mode is not burst, but fully simulates P/R: fire on pull, then fire when the finger lets the trigger reset. The DT1.6 digital machinegun I first mentioned is, as I expected, definitely NFA and is under development for the LE/Mil market. No surprise there.


I get it. People want to push the envelope of what they think is legal. But unless they’ve amassed a large pile of legal fund cash, and a herd of good attorneys, with the intent of a serious court challenge to BS ATF determinations and court decisions, all Digital Trigger Technologies is doing is asking for trouble.

If they know what they’re getting into and are willing to go to the mat on this, more power and the best of luck to them

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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What a pile of Tlaib

Recently the House of Representatives voted on a non-binding resolution to condemn Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS, or BS for short) against Israel. The motion passed 398-17. So who were the 17?

Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon)

Andre Carson (D-Indiana)

Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan)

Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Illinois)

Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona)

Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington)

Barbara Lee (D-California)

Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky)

Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota)

Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York)

Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota)

Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)

Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin)

Bobby Rush (D-Illinois)

Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan)

Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-New Jersey)

Sixteen of the 17 representatives who voted no were Demoncrats, one was Republican, Thomas Massie from Kentucky. WTH?? Four out of the five who voted present also were Democrats. The only non-Democrat who voted present was Rep. Justin Amash, an Independent.

Predictably Rashida Tlaib (Pal-Mich) had her underoos in a bunch.

“I stand before you the daughter of Palestinian immigrants,” said Tlaib on the House floor the morning of the tally. “Parents who experienced being stripped of their human rights, the right to freedom of travel, equal treatment. So I can’t stand by and watch this attack on our freedom of speech and the right to boycott the racist policies of the government and the state of Israel. I love our country’s freedom of speech, Madam Speaker. Dissent is how we nurture democracy.”

And

Earlier in the day, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) criticized the resolution, saying, “It sets a dangerous precedent because it attempts to delegitimize certain people’s political speech and to send a message that our government can and will take action against speech it doesn’t like”

However, Eliot Engel chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee seemed to disagree. As did Republican Representatives. That Ilan Omar is still on the Foreign Affairs committee is a disgrace. I guess San Fran Nan is scared to remove her.

During the 40-minute floor debate on the resolution, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said the BDS movement “promotes a one-sided view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that seeks to marginalize Israel, that would deny the Jewish people the right of national self-determination.” He added, “Participating in an international commercial effort that undermines Israel’s legitimacy and scuttles the chances of a two-state solution isn’t the same as an individual exercising First Amendment rights.”

After the vote, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) tweeted, “Displays of anti-Semitism have become too frequent in the past few months, even from members of this House of Representatives—and it is time that we stand united in support of Israel.”

Of course we know my opinion of the “two state solution”. That is already in place. It’s called Gaza, where rockets and fire balloons are launched into Israel.

But the flow of Tlaib doesn’t end there.

She compared the BDS movement to the American boycott of Nazi Germany.

“The right to boycott is deeply rooted in the fabric of our country,” she said. “What was the Boston Tea Party but a boycott? Where would we be now without the boycott led by the civil rights activists in the 1950s and 60s like the Montgomery bus boycott and the United Farm Workers Grape boycott?”

She then pivoted to the history of Americans boycotting foreign government, saying, “Americans boycotted Nazi Germany in response to dehumanization, imprisonment, and genocide of Jewish people.”

She claimed in May that “Palestinian Arabs living in the British Mandate prior to the establishment of the State of Israel “provided” a safe haven to Jews after the Holocaust.” Look up Hevron massacre 1929 if you are unsure why I’m angry about that particular statement.

“There’s always kind of a calming feeling when I think of the tragedy of the Holocaust,” Tlaib said, “that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence, in many ways, has been wiped out … in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-Holocaust, post-tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that in many ways.”

It seems that the two anti-Semites, Omar (whom I don’t think is married to her brother this week, though she isn’t saying) and Tlaib are planning on visiting Israel.

I really like Sha’i ben-Tekoa’s solution. Let them enter Israel through the Hamass terror tunnels, they’ll feel right at home. He also has a great itinerary for them. Ripping good show with some American History on Thomas Jefferson.

https://soundcloud.com/israel-news-talk-radio/ilhans-israeli-itinerary-phantom-nation

But there are people that disagree. While they are not calling out the pile of Tlaib by name, their actions say she’s liar liar pants on fire.

Who are these people? Arabs. Specifically Arabs in other countries. It seems the Falestinians are beginning to get on everyone’s last nerve.

This may not have made headline news last week.

This is Saudi blogger Mohammed Said,

This man is an ARAB, and he is being treated this way by the Falestinians. I find this curious as well as appalling. But in the Arab world, it’s an eye for an eye. Literally. In Torah it means the value of an eye for an eye.

So in Riyadh

Who else besides the Saudi Arabs have had a bellyful of the Tlai Falestinians? Syrians.

In an exclusive interview, Syrian analyst Wael Ashaq explained that many people in Saudi Arabia despise how the Palestinian Authority is assisting the Assad regime: “They only care about what is good for them. They don’t care about the millions killed every day by the Assad regime. If we look at the issue historically, the Palestinians went everywhere in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan and created many problems and troubles. We as Syrians helped the Palestinians but when we have a problem with our dictator, they stand with this terrorist regime and help them politically as well as militarily. This is true for both Fatah and Hamas. They are both the same on this.”

On top of that, he added that many people in the Arab world are looking in order to build a strong relationship with Israel: “We want a good relationship with Israel because we know that Israel respects our right to be a free people and a liberated country. Israel is the only democratic state in our area. We don’t see any other free and democratic governments in the area. We are looking for a free Syria that will be just like Israel. The region has changed in favor of a new alliance. Any government has to make good relations with Israel if they want their country to be free and democratic and for their people to live with dignity and to have a good life. Therefore, we condemn Palestinian terrorist practices against Israeli civilians and those who support Israel.”

But wait! There’s more!

Mendi Safadi, who heads the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy, Research, Public Relations and Human Rights, added that many people in the Arab world are waking up and discovering not only how the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have abandoned the Syrian people but also have been taking hostile actions against Saudi Arabia. He noted that the Saudis are greatly disturbed with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad for building a relationship with Iran.

Safadi stressed that the Saudis view Iran to be their number one enemy for the Houthis, Iran’s proxy in Yemen, have fired rockets at Saudi Arabia. In addition, they view Iran’s nuclear program to be a major threat to the Saudi Kingdom and its regional sphere of influence. In light of this, many Saudis are greatly disturbed over the fact that many Palestinians don’t share their hostile perception of the Iranian regime and are actually working in order to have a good relationship with Iran.

According to Safadi, another factor that disturbs the Saudis is the popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood among Palestinians. The Saudis consider the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist organization. In light of this, they are not huge fans of Hamas, which is essentially the Palestinian Arab branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

More of the goodness here.

Wow, you would think that CNN would be confronting Tlaib with some questions on this, wouldn’t you?

Second CNN contributor apologizes for anti-Semitic tweets

Ahh, maybe not so much. Of course, had this been a conservative journalist, oh wait it’s CNN, the word journalist doesn’t really apply does it?

But, I suppose we can rely on UNRWA to continue their good work to assist the Falestinians in remaining in poverty, right?

UNRWA faces allegations of corruption, ‘sexual misconduct’

Ohhhhh, that may be a no as well, eh?

But the point is, while Omar and Tlaib spew their Jew hatred which they attempt to disguise with thin excuses are they to blame for inciting this?

Jewish Agency: Signs point to anti-Semitism in Miami shooting

And then the third stooge (with apologies to the original three) Ms. Occasional-Cortex had to chime in.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that people such as Palestinians have no other option than to “riot” because they are “marginalized” by Israel — drawing swift outrage from Jewish advocacy groups.

Radio host Ebro Darden prompted the discussion with Ocasio-Cortez by saying there are a number of “corrupt” governments — lumping together Israel, the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia — which he claimed are “working in concert.”

​He went on to assert that young Jewish people are against the “Palestine occupation​” and would like to see the ouster of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

​Darden also ranted about “white supremacist Jews” and said it’s “something most people can’t wrap their brains around.”

“And what’s going on with Israel and Palestine, while it’s very, very deep, it is very, very criminal, and it is very, very unjust,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez agreed, saying, “Absolutely.”

“I think, too, where we’re at as a country when it comes to Israel-Palestine is very much a generational issue,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

One person is responsible, the one who pulled the trigger. Not the gun. But the very anti-Semitic goon “squad” is certainly doing their best to incite hatred with their lies. It seems many in the Arab world are realizing that the Falestinians are a lie and are tired of them, and their lies. How many Americans will still buy the lies and that pile of Tlaib that she and  the rest of the goon squad are dishing out?

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#Poway

The last two days of Pesach are observed as the first two, in that they are holidays. This means I’m not on the computer, and I’m not listening to the radio. On Shabbat I don’t anyway. On Shabbat I’m where I’m suppose to be, in Beit Knesset, Shul, my place of meeting and prayer. I’m learning, I learn from my Rabbi and from the other people there that I have grown to care about very much. I have a huge sense of gratitude every single time I walk in, whether it is for Shabbat or a class I’m taking. I learn about

G-d, his love for me, for us, and his direction manual for us to grow in our relationship with him, how he wants us to live our lives, and how to live in peace with each other. And every time I go, I realize how much more I have to learn.

So it was late Saturday evening when I logged onto my computer and saw my first notification of the shooting at another Chabad in Poway Kalifornia. Before I could read the details my mind had already flipped back to the attack at the Chabad house in Mumbai India in November 2008. Mercifully, this was not that. The song that Y.B. had me post, Vehi She Amda is part of the Pesach seder, it’s a song I love, and most days I sing it because I love it that much. I love what it says.

This attacker was a 19 year old “Bucket O’Chum” who was in nursing school. And if that doesn’t scare you, it should. He self identifies as a 19 year old Kalifornia native and a nursing student. ‘I’m just a normal dude who wanted to have a family, help and heal people, and play piano.’ He also self identifies as a human being. I would disagree with that. Around 1130 on Shabbat during the service “Chum” walked in and began shooting any and all he could. There was a family there that have moved from Israel a few years before after the rockets fired from the “Two-state solution” known as Gaza had hit their home more than once. They had lived in Sderot. Another family member visiting from Sderot managed to save his nieces and a neighbor girl despite being wounded in the leg. Little Noya was wounded by shrapnel, and her hero uncle was hit in the leg. Both will survive. He also intended to kill Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, and although the Rabbi required surgery on both hands, and I believe lost a finger he is alive. He is alive because of his longtime friend and Chabad attendee Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60. Lori flung herself between the killer and the Rabbi. A doctor began to perform CPR on her, when he realized it was his wife, he fainted. I can not even begin to imagine. As the Rabbi was wheeled into surgery he kept saying to let everyone know Lori saved his life.

Chum entered Chabad with a rifle, does what kind really matter? He was wearing a green vest and a helmet. He planned to stay awhile. Which might give rise to the question why is only one person dead. And in asking that, I do not mean to imply one is not significant. It is, it is one too many. From all I’ve read Lori was amazing, and it is a very significant loss not only to her family but the community as well. But you would have expected a higher death toll with the amount of preparations he seemed to have made. I have a couple of answers.

A) G-d, his gun jammed.

Authorities said the suspect’s gun may have jammed during the shooting

B) Human intervention

During the shooting, a brave off-duty border patrol agent, who was working as private security for the synagogue, fired at the shooter and chased him. Other members of the synagogue, who carried licensed concealed weapons, also went after him. Miraculously the killers’ gun jammed and he ran off. The heroes and G-d hand prevented the killer from claiming more lives.

The fact that there were armed congregants there and they went after him is not something I’ve seen brought out much.

Predictably the left began post haste to screech about gun laws. Anti-Gunners Call For Gun Control Laws Following Poway Synagogue Shooting But This Is What They’re Getting Wrong Beth Baumann has a break down on the laws already in place, or that may not have mattered at all.

And because to the left, one dead Jew isn’t enough, there is a list of the predictable responses of the usual victim disarmament crowd including Duke Nukem and Kamala Harris, who by the way, has her own gun and carry permit. Because you see that’s how elitism works. My life and family are valuable, yours aren’t. Like obamacare, we will legislate laws affecting your and your family’s life, but we will exempt ourselves from those laws. A small list is included in the “Anti-Gunner Call for Gun Control” link above. The killer ran off partly because armed members and the off duty Border Patrol agent came after him. The agent firing four shots at his car. So we can’t have armed citizens stopping a slaughter, correct progressives?

Which brings me to my next point. Progressives want to blame “right-wing” extremism and President Trump. As though Bucket O’Chum were a card carrying Republican. Nope. He hated Trump. With a vengeance because President Trump isn’t anti-Semitic. According to the manifesto he left on line, he most assuredly was not a President Trump fan. Of late, the majority of the hate is coming from Progressives, the left, and Islam. The reaction to attacks on Jews just needs to be adjusted to the situation. Rockets falling on Sdrot? Well, totally understandable, per Illan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Jewish Voice for Peace, B’Tselem, and the mainstream media, aka #FakeNews. Jews attacked in France, Sweden, Germany “it’s not muslims/islam” per the media, leftists and the politicians in those countries. Sarah Halimi is murdered by a muslim who screamed “Dirty Jewess” at her daughter, and it’s because he’s mentally incompetent. Not because he’s an islamic import to Francistan. In America people question a rise in antisemitism when obama brought in massive amounts of muslims, dumped them in places where they could be a majority and more easily enter political office. Yes, I’m talking about the ungrateful Somali “refugee” Omar. Or they can shoot unarmed yoga teachers and then have the mayor do a press conference wearing a hijab to show support for the Somali community. Not making that up. Obama-hack Jonathan Greenblatt, now head of the Anti-Defamation League has turned it in to a “dime store Southern Poverty Law Center”, and uses his position to blame the right. And who do Jews overwhelmingly vote for?

The left and its comrades in the mainstream media have taken the Jewish vote for granted for years. Jews are one of the most reliable constituencies of the Democratic Party. A CNN poll last fall found that nearly 80 percent of Jews voted Democratic in the midterm elections. Only 17 percent voted Republican. Yet anti-Semitism on the left in the U.S. has increased recently, including in the media.

And speaking of the media, and all the news that’s fit to lie about, The New York Slimes #FakeNews is becoming more brazen in their antisemitism having recently published a cartoon of President Trump, blind and wearing a kippah being led by a dog with a Magan David collar and Benjamin Netanyahu’s face. They finally removed it after a large outcry. Know what I find somewhat interesting? I’ve yet to see the name of the “cartoonist”. If it was a conservative that had done such a thing, their name, picture and family history back to the Mayflower would be all over the net by now. Say, where’s Omar Barghouti about now? Did the Slimes hire him?

So why did the Bucket O’Chum do this? Why the attack?

Like Tarrant in his own writings, the manifesto author states that his end goal is to prompt the U.S. government to begin confiscating guns, predicting that a civil war will ensue. The author said he had been planning the attack for four weeks.

Obviously a Duke Nukem supporter.

As long as we don’t look at this honestly, as long as people continue to embrace the big government control of citizens offered by people like #LipstickLenin-Cortez, this will continue. Because excuses are being made for the left, to more easily blame the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I admit, I’m having a very hard time with this. I’m trying to understand and make some sense of it. I know I need to work towards something a Rabbi I very much admire wrote,

The solution therefore is to a. Love!

b. a practical mechanism which has helped many is the implementing of the sage advice of the Jewish masters, such as:

1. When you wake up in the morning (as the first thought influences the rest of the day) Express Gratitude (and as research shows, gratitude culminates in hope and happiness)

2. Forgive nightly (yes, before you go to bed – the first part of our bedtime prayers is: we forgive everyone.)

and thinking about the bar scene in the Chuck Norris movie Code of Silence. There are naughty naughty words in here.

When those that hate and come to kill are met with that kind of a response (without the naughty words) from a hard target things will change. I believe and understand there is a purpose to everything in G-d’s world, but I want to see beautiful souls like Lori Gilbert-Kaye around for a long time, to mentor other women, and continue making the world more beautiful. I want to see people like Almog Peretz who saved the children have a beautiful visit and only happy memories of his Pesach in America. We are not cowards, look at Lori and Almog’s responses. What courage! Which is good, because it’s going to take courage, clarity, wisdom and honesty to admit what the left is offering is not our friend.

For now, all I know to do is pray for healing. And that more places of worship will begin to consider armed security among their attendees.

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Vehi she amda

I received a request from my fellow Zelman’s Partisans writer Y.B. ben Avraham  to post this for him in light of the Poway Chabad attack.

The words transliterated and in English are below.

VEHI SHE’AMDAH

Vehi she’amdah

l’avoteinu velanu.

She’lo echad bilvad

amad aleinu lechaloteinu.

Ela sheb’chol dor vador

omdim aleinu lechaloteinu.

Vehakadosh baruch hu

matzileinu miyadam.

THIS IS THAT PROMISE

And this is that (promise) which sustained

our fathers and us.

That it is not one (enemy) alone

that stood up against us to destroy us.

But that in each generation there are those

standing up against us to destroy us.

But the Holy One Blessed Be He

saves us from their hand.

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