Gun Free Zone

Where a Hispanic Catholic, and a Computer Geek write about Gun Rights, Self Defense and whatever else we can think about.

Month: October 2018

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Tree of Life shooting – a ramble

Oct 28, 2018 J. Kb 3 comments

I heard about the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting on Saturday morning like most of the rest of the country.

I expected that there were probably a few readers who wondered why I didn’t post on it right away.  The more I read the angrier I got and it’s taken me a while to put some thoughts together enough to put pen to page, or more accurately fingers to keyboard.

I’m sorry for the stream of conscious ramble that this post probably is, but it’s the best I can do for now.

To start with, Friday was awesome.  My employer was a partial sponsor for a charity sporting clays shoot.  I put my name in the hat for people who wanted to go and got drawn.  So I got half a day of work on Friday and got so spend Friday afternoon shooting a round of sporting clays on the company’s dime.

It was cold and rainy, but a bad day of shooting is still better than a good day at work, and a free round of sporting clays from your employer is better than both.

After shooting, I met my wife and we went to Synagogue.

I was still dressed from the shoot,  I was wearing nylon front camo pants, the kind you buy from Orvis for a pheasant hunt (they look classy) and a shirt emblazoned with gun and ammo company logos.  I did wash the mud off my boots.

As you can imagine, conversations were… awkward.  Here is this big bearded guy in Synagogue wearing camo pants and a gun shirt.

The “sermon” (I can’t think of a better word that readers would understand) at Sabbath services was pretty bad.  At least I thought so.  It was about how Jews shouldn’t “celebrate” Halloween – although we could participate in it – because we don’t need ghosts and goblins to scare us, there is enough history of real threats against the Jews that we don’t need the supernatural.

Then comes the news on Saturday and all I could say was “fuck.”  I guess the Rabbi was right, but I still didn’t like the sermon.

I started reading the news and everything about it, through to this morning, was blaming Trump.  Where much of the Jewish community talked about this, they blamed Trump.

What the fuck is that shit?  Seriously?

The Washington Post blamed Trump.

So did The Atlantic.  Not just that, The Atlantic blames Trump supporting Jews.

https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1056516533818716161

These are just some examples.

Trump’s Jewish daughter, Ivanka, Tweeted her condemnation of the attacks.

Go into the responses in her Tweet (it’s a live link) to see just how much people blame her and her father for this shooting.

Everything everywhere was “coded language” and “anti-Semitic dog whistles.”

From the President who was done more for Israel than any other and is the only one with a Jewish child, son-in-law, and grandchildren.  Especially considering the criticism that he has given his Jewish daughter and her Jewish husband more influence in the White House than any other Presidential family member, with the exception of the Bill Clinton and Hillary.

This has pissed me off to no end.  I don’t believe this is Trump’s fault.  More than that, it is misdirection that makes people ignore reality.

Anti-Semitism is often called “the oldest prejudice.”  I don’t think that’s true, there is prejudice much older than the Jews, but it does date back some 6,000 years.  I has never gone away, and I don’t think it will ever go away completely.  Focusing all this on Trump deliberately ignores the totality of anti-Semitism in the world and the threat it causes.

Nobody blamed Bill Clinton when some Jew hating asshole shot up a JCC in Los Angeles in 1999.  The major Left leaning media networks ignored a Muslim immigrant cab driver beating an elderly Jewish man on the streets of New York City, probably because they couldn’t tie it to Trump.  I have heard nary a peep from these same media outlets about how anti-Semitic attacks on college campuses have gone up 89% in recent years and the fact that it is exclusively Left wing, pro-Palestinian, Social Justice that motivates it.

Jews are being stabbed all over Europe, synagogues are being set on fire, anti-Semitism is nearing Germany in the 1930’s heights, there is not future for the Jews in Europe, and it’s almost all coming from Muslim Migrants.  But that can’t be blamed on Trump either, so… crickets.

Al Sharpton was directly responsible for the Crown Heights Riots and the Freddy’s Fashion Mart Massacre saying “If Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”  And he is a host on MSNBC.

Louis Farrakhan called Jews termites in a Tweet and all Twitter did was remove his blue check mark.

I’ve covered before the raging anti-Semitism that exist in Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

But one shooting and it’s all Trumps fault because he said “globalists.”

Bill Clinton presided over both the Ruby Ridge and Waco massacres.  Ruby Ridge is acknowledged as “the day the American militia movement was born.”  These actions were cited by Timothy McVeigh as justification for the Oklahoma City Bombing, but the media never ran with the message that it was Clinton’s fault.  McVeigh was a crazy, fanatical asshole, that was agreed upon.

The popular media is putting the blood of the 11 killed in Pittsburgh directly on Trump’s hands.  This is wrong and evil.

Acting as though Trump is the reason for this attack means ignoring all the other anti-Semitism that exists as well as suggesting that when Trump is no longer President, anti-Semitism will vanish.

People like Robert Bowers exist.  They always have and they always will.  Sometimes they do horrible things if we don’t stop them first.  I accept that reality.

All this means that the Jewish community will be so afflicted with TDS that they will be so focused on every truck with a MAGA bumper sticker they will not see the Antifa in a mask with a bike lock, pink hair transgender communist with a bat, or Muslim with a knife sneaking up behind them.

So the response to the shooting has made me angrier than the shooting itself.

Then I see this shit from Vox, The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is another example of America’s gun problem.  Great, since they already blamed Trump and they needed another article, why not blame the guns.  This isn’t even a new article.  It’s recycled from the last shooting.  It’s like a Mad Libs when you just insert the details from the latest shooting into the anti gun text.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto told Chuck Todd during Meet the Press that he is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns and doesn’t think that armed guards are the answer.


What I’ve managed to find out about the shooter is that he has no criminal history, was not known to police, and had a carry permit.  He was not a prohibited person, so unless “universal background checks” include seeing what people post on Facebook and Twitter, none of the usual gun control arrangements would have prevented this any more than than the Las Vegas or Pulse Nightclub shooting.  Oh, and the shooter didn’t vote for or support Trump.

CNN posted a timeline of the shooting.

  • 9:49 a.m. ET: An anti-Jewish message is posted on a social media account for Robert Bowers, identified as the alleged gunman. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered,” he said. “Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
  • 9:54 a.m. ET: 911 calls about an active shooter come into the Allegheny County Emergency Operations Center.
  • 9:55 a.m. ET: Two police cars are dispatched, according to radio traffic posted by Broadcastify. They are told one caller reports 20 to 30 shots heard from the lobby. Numerous other officers say they are responding.
  • About four minutes later: An officer identifies himself by number and says he is on the perimeter. “We’re under fire. He’s got an automatic weapon and firing at us from the synagogue.”
  • About 10:11 a.m. ET: There is a discussion among officers about going into the synagogue. One says there has been no gunfire since officers initially arrived. “Once we have the resources here, we should consider (going in).”

All 11 people killed were killed in the first four minutes all before the police arrived. 

This is exactly the opposite scenario as Parkland.  The cops engaged as soon as they could and still people died.  It seems to me that the only way this could have been dealt with any faster is there was a cop in the atrium of the Synagogue, but we can’t have armed guards in houses of worship.  Gun control something something something it’s Trump’s fault.

My wife showed me what the Rabbi said about the shooting when interviewed by the local news.

Rabbi Berk emphasized how seriously his temple takes security and safety for those who work and worship there to try and prevent something like this from happening at his temple.

Temple B’Nai Sholom has multiple cameras around and inside the building, and a remote-controlled lock on the front door that Berk says is almost always locked.

Ooo… cameras to record the shooting, and a lock that won’t stop the shooter from coming in but will make it harder for the cops to enter when it is triggered AFTER the shooting starts.

Barry Pendergraft, a former lieutenant with the Huntsville Police Department, says an overwhelming amount of places of worship aren’t up to par on their security, but that’s where he comes in.

“Everybody should know how to defend themselves,” Pendergraft said.

Pendergraft specializes in showing churches and other places of worship how they can stay safe. One of the easiest ways to do that is making sure not just anyone can walk in the building.

“We should lock all the exterior doors and only have one way in once the service starts somebody needs to be at the door watching,” Pendergraft said.

Who gets door duty?  Well Fox News has a whole list of concealed carriers who have stopped church shootings.

But more guns are not the answer somehow.

It’s all Trump’s fault and more guns is not the answer.  That sounds like a really winning position to take that is guaranteed to save lives and whatnot.

Fuck it.

I have a Synagogue gun.

Do you know the great thing about having a whole bunch of 1911’s and living in an open carry state?

Every one is configured (trigger job, thumb safety, extended slide stop, sights) the same with only minor cosmetic differences between them, and my carry holsters ride in the same position and cant as my competition rig for IDPA, USPSA, and Steel Challenge.

Getting the gun out of the holster, the safety off, and sights aligned on target is all muscle memory.  I only have to work on accuracy at speed.

I’m carrying at Synagogue.   I’m a gun nut.  I’m a gun nut because shit like this happens.  I’m not toning my opinion down for anyone anymore.

I couldn’t care less if my .45 makes you uncomfortable.  I have a feeling somebody else’s .223 to the guts is more uncomfortable.

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We need new words

Oct 28, 2018 J. Kb 2 comments

I haven’t written about the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting yet because I am still trying to gather my ideas together about it.

In discussing the topic with my wife, one of the ideas that has coalesced is the fact the we need some new words to describe some old ideas.

A lot of people blame Trump for this shooting.  They are saying that he use of the words “nationalist” and “globalist” are anti-semitic dog whistles.  These are words that Hitler used and therefore are unacceptable for any President to us.

First of all, I don’t like the idea that the Nazis get to dictate our language from the grave.  If “Hitler used those words” is a legitimate tool for shutting down debate, I say we ban the German language and force all Germans to speak only English or French.  Go big or go home.

But what are we talking about when the terms nationalist or globalist come what do we mean?

I am a nationalist, I don’t think it’s a dirty word.

My wife asked me why I don’t use the term “patriot” and I told her I do, but I think the words have different meanings.   A patriot is someone who loves and supports his country.  I actually call myself a “Mark Twain patriot” after one of his quotes.

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”

Nationalism is the belief in national sovereignty and that the first duty and responsibility of a nation and its government is to the citizens of that nation.

It is the citizens of a nation, especially the tax paying citizens, that make a country possible.  They are the ones who drive the economy, fund the government, serve in its military, and the goverment of that nation should prioritize the interests of its citizens.

I believe this for every nation.  The United States should prioritize American citizens just as the British government should prioritize British subjects, and so on.

This doesn’t mean a country shouldn’t engage in humanitarian aid, be involved in world affairs, or engage in egregious acts on our citizens’ behalf.  I wound’t support Trump invading Canada for lebensraum.

There is good nationalism and bad nationalism.

Take the migrant caravan crisis.

I am a nationalist.  The question one of the I believe should be asked when the goverment comes making decisions is “How will this effect American citizens and is the cost worth the reward?”  I don’t believe that is a racist question.

Should the US allow in these 10,000 people?  What about the next caravan, or the one after that.  What about a flotilla of refugees from Africa or the poor countries of Asia?  Does the US have the obligation to let in every poor person in the world who makes it to our borders?

There is a logistical question here.  What do you do with the thousand, or a hundred thousand, or a million people like this?  Most of these people don’t speak English.  Many are illiterate in their own native tongue.  They come from countries with high unemployment rates so few have job skills.  They have no money.  So where do we house them?  How do we feed them?  How much schooling will they need to teach them English and job skills?  Or do we expect them to live their lives on government support, never being able to full support themselves?

Is the cost of taking care of these people worth any benefit they bring to the US?

We’ve seen what is happening in Europe with their migrant crisis.  The Swedes have been forced to increase the retirement age and which Swedish citizens get their pension (what they call Social Security) because the Swedish goverment has spent so much money on welfare for migrants.  Clearly the cost/benefit analysis for migration into Sweden has been have on the cost and light on the benefit.

Of course not all refugees are equal.  Israel engaged in one of the largest humanitarian airlifts in history, Operation Solomon. Evacuating poor Ethiopian Jews who were targeted for extermination by Ethiopian Muslim militias.

I’ve said we should give refugee status to South African farmers, Iraqi and Syrian Yazidi, and Egyptian Copts, as small groups targeted for genocide, they need protection.  Simply being poor and jobless is not enough Justification for refugee status,  or half the world end has the right to end up in the US.

This has nothing to do with skin color but logistics.

As Miguel says, cui bono?  As a nationalist, with limited exceptions – such as in the case of saving a minority from genocide or sending aid after a natural disaster – the answer should be “the American public.”

What about globalism?

Charles Murray has written and spoken about this.  His premise, and I agree with him, is that socioeconomic strata has become more important than geography to some people.

The moneyed educated elite feel more fraternity within their class than within their borders.  The educated professional in San Francisco feels closer to the educated professional in New York or London or Paris than he does to the blue collar worker in Oakland.

The problem with this is that people naturally focus on taking care of what is close to them.  This is why our Founding Fathers made us a nation of states.  The expectation is that the people of New York would work to build a great New York and the people of Georgia would work to build a great Georgia and each state would benefit from the residents of those states taking care of their fellows.

When people develop a globalized attitude, the educated professional from San Francisco will vote for a policy that helps the educated professional in New York or London before it helps the blue collar worker in Oakland.  The educated professional in San Francisco supports the migrant caravan because he feels it will elevate his humanitarian status it the educated professional in London even if it hurts the the blue collar worker in Oakland.

It is easy to understand why Jews have been globalists.  When you are not considered citizens of Germany or Poland, it is easier to feel more comradery with your fellow Jews around the world than your German neighbors on the other side of town.

The rejection of globalism and the embrace of nationalism is one of the causes of Brexit.  The working people of the UK had enough of the UK goverment being more loyal to the EU bureaucrats than the citizens of the UK.

As a nationalist, I want the educated professional in San Francisco to be more concerned with what is good for California and and feel more fraternity with Californians, rich, poor, and everywhere in between, than what his socioeconomic peers in other countries.  

Good nationalism is prioritizing worrying about your neighbors within your nation’s borders and wanting to help them, as your fellow countrymen.

The media has engaged in a lot of misdirection on this.  We see this when they say “immigrants have a lower rate of criminality than citizens” – which is true – to then use that to justify illegal immigration – which has a high rate of criminality.  They deliberately conflate legal and illegal immigration.

Etho-nationalism is evil.  That is “America is for white people only.”  This is the Nazi attitude of the Aryan state.  But not all nationalism is ethno-nationalism and to deliberately conflate the two is evil.

Personally, I want to dispel the bad connotation of nationalism.  Theodor Hertzl called Zionism “Jewish Nationalism.”  Then again, the Left, has turned Zionism into a evil word too.  Churchill was also a nationalist, a “British Nationalist,” which is why he stood up to Hitler.  He didn’t want Great Britain to become part of the Third Reich.  He wanted a sovereign Britain.  Then again, the Left hates Churchill too.

The point is, nationalism can be used for good or for evil.

If we need a new word for good nationalism, so be it.

What I don’t want to see happen (and I think it is)  is an Orwellian attempt to wipe out the idea that a country should prioritized the best interests of its citizens by making the word “nationalism” crimethink.

I believe, in my heart of hearts, that America is a great nation.  We should help other people around the world because we are a great nation.  But when it comes to laws and policies that will affect the whole country, the primary beneficiary of these policies should be the American people, regardless of race or identity politics.

I believe that makes me  nationalist and I will not apologize for it.

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Church Security Resource Compilation – Active Response Training

Oct 27, 2018 Miguel.GFZ 1 comment

As usual I am stealing Greg Ellifritz’s work to bring it here for my readers.

And if your place of devotion does not have a security plan and team, talk to them.

If they refuse to have one, find yourself another Spiritual House ASAP.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matthew 5:9

And carry. God does not care if you do or if you carry a peacemaker, Glock, 1911 or a Hi Point.
When shit hits the fan, you are the shepherd using the staff and applying the rod with precision.

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PVC pipes? Are you effing kidding me?

Oct 27, 2018 Miguel.GFZ 6 comments

Via Of Arms And The Law.

“Each device consisted of roughly six inches of PVC pipe, a small clock, a battery, some wiring and what is known as energetic material, which is essentially potential explosives and material that give off heat and energy through a reaction to heat, shock, or friction,” Wray said at a Justice Department press conference.

Wray on Package Bombs: ‘These Are Not Hoax Devices’

“Energetic material.” so when the Feds start using technical euphemisms, you know they are trying to cover up stupid stuff.

Energetic materials are a class of material with high amount of stored chemical energy that can be released. Typical classes of energetic materials are e.g. explosives, pyrotechnic compositions, propellants (e.g. smokeless gunpowders and rocket fuels), and fuels (e.g. diesel fuel and gasoline).

That is from Wikipedia.  So basically anything from lighter fluid up, is “energetic material.” Still, they do not say they were viable devices with a clear and present danger. IE: Your car is out of gas and you bring a gallon from the station and place it inside your trunk. You have a car with gas, but that does not mean it will start and take you home.  Even worse: You put the same gallon of gas inside your toddler’s Little  Tyke’s Cozy Coupe plastic car and call it a NASCAR racer. Not happening.