(ThyBlackMan.com)’What would you do if you were in your local grocery store or at the mall and someone just started shooting? If you are unarmed you can only run, hide, pray and hope because you do not have the means to lethally defend yourself. And anybody who manipulates you into thinking you should not be able to protect yourself must not care that much about you. So I ask you, would you prefer to have a chance to save your life and that of your family or basically no chance at all? And what would help you do that?
Over 250 Active Shooter Incidents From 2000-2017 (Not Including 2018 and the 21 in 2019) https://www.fbi.gov/about/partnerships/office-of-partner-engagement/active-shooter-incidents-graphics
Active shooter incidents are everywhere you turn. And that does not even include those mass shootings not labeled as active shooter incidents by the FBI or Department of Homeland Security such as those happening repeatedly in Chicago. In one weekend in August, 2019 there were mass shootings in Chicago, Dayton and El Paso. The racist climate is boiling over and you do not want to be stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time with no way to protect yourself. Realize hate is coming from the top.
The incidents are without warning thus it is next to impossible for law enforcement to be preventive or arrive on time. That means your life, your safety and the safety of your family is largely in your hands. In the Dayton, Ohio shooting the police arrived in less than 30 seconds and neutralized the shooter in less than a minute. But not before the active shooter killed 9 people in less than 30 seconds using an assault rifle with magazines holding 200+ rounds. What if the police had taken 5 minutes? Would you be alive?
According to the Dept. of Homeland Security – Run/Hide/Fight! Against An Assault Rifle? Really? https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/DHS-Active%20Shooter%20Educational%20Sheet_0.pdf
What I find interesting is that the media is interviewing forensic psychiatrists to feed the narrative that these shooters were sick. I would suggest they speak with criminal profilers who could see something additional or quite different. I will not go deep into MK-Ultra and Manchurian candidates in this article, but I will say I do not believe these shooters are sick nor just copycats. They are something else.
Guns do not kill people. People who are sick, evil, angry or programmed kill people. So let’s stop blaming the guns. A firearm is a piece of metal and plastic that cannot shoot anyone by itself. And stop blaming and scape-goating the NRA. They advocate responsible and lawful gun ownership. They do not advocate placing guns in the hands of killers. To even pretend that they do is a lie.
THERE IS A SAFE WAY TO ARM OUR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS – I CREATED THE PLAN! EMAIL ME.
More rules and laws will only make it harder for law abiding people to get guns. That means the criminals will have the guns and the innocent people won’t. Criminals do not and will not care about more extensive background checks, longer waiting periods, mental or criminal history restrictions because they often find ways to bypass all of that in the first place. They get others to buy the guns for them. And to assume every psycho, evil person or Manchurian candidate has a criminal record that will be caught by background checks is a failing argument all day long. FYI the active shooters in Dayton and El Paso bought their assault weapons LEGALLY. They were not on the radar and most probably aren’t.
While African Americans are generally afraid of guns, Caucasian people are generally buying every gun they can get their hands on. African Americans are waking up (some) but too slowly. Gun shows are selling out. And we should remember the history lesson of Germany and what happened to the Jewish population which had been unarmed. Meanwhile today no major city local police department is this country has enough officers to protect its citizens. Not one.
WE LIVE IN A WORLD WITH EVIL PEOPLE SO BE PREPARED AND EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
You might be interested to know the active shooter who killed over 20 people in El Paso , Texas wrote a manifesto called The Inconvenient Truth and only posted it just before he carried out the mass shooting. That manifesto went against Muslims, Hispanics and people of color. That means all of the above could have easily been targets. And he was inspired by the murders of Muslims in New Zealand. The shooter identified himself with the shooter who killed people at Christ Church and even referenced the Hispanic “invasion” Donald Trump spoke of. But now, time after time, terrorism is American home grown.
The police cannot guarantee your safety because there are not nearly enough of them. They cannot be everywhere all the time. They are largely overworked and underpaid. Case in point, in one University there are over 32,000 students who go to class as early as 7am and as late as 9pm. But there are only 171 officers at that same university. How can they guarantee your safety? They can’t and they won’t. But don’t blame them because your safety and the safety of your family is your primary responsibility.
Did the police arrive in time at Columbine or Las Vegas, at the Florida nightclub or Parkland, in Dayton or El Paso or Chicago or to the church in South Carolina? And for those of you who say guns are dangerous, how would you feel if you called the police regarding a home invasion and the cops showed up with no guns? You would look at them as lacking the ability to protect you.
BEWARE OF THOSE TRYING TO DISARM YOUR COMMUNITY AND LEAVE YOU HELPLESS
Did you know that the Supreme Court ruled the police are only responsible for protecting citizens when those citizens are in custody? So while we should not blame the police (the good ones), so much for the concept of “protect and serve”. Police officers are humans, not saviors and not the Avengers.
People make the weak point that “even if you had a gun, you could not have done anything with an active shooter firing so many rounds from an assault rifle”. But that is a foolish statement and not always true. First how would the person making that statement know what you could have done? He doesn’t. Second, you have a much better chance if you are armed than if you are not. No gun means your options including hiding, praying, hoping and no ability to defend yourself. So think for a minute. If an active shooter was threatening to kill you or your family and you had a gun you were trained to use, what would you do? Exactly. Then anybody with a brain cannot say guns don’t make a difference.
As for these active shooters, they use assault rifles in part because such firearms require very little skill other than to aim and pull the trigger. An accurate adult with a 9mm or .40 caliber handgun and the presence of mind to use it can likely take out an active shooter if he or she is not in the line of fire and takes the active shooter by surprise. And self preservation can cause one to do amazing things.
If the police cannot guarantee your safety, you have to protect yourself or you are a sitting duck for an active shooter. Not to mention the home invasions, car jackings, abductions, sexual assaults, robberies and assaults that make victims every single day of the week in this country. You can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and bang! A barbecue, at a Wal-mart, sitting in church, walking down the street or even in your own home. Your safety must be YOUR priority.
12 GOLDEN RULES OF PERSONAL FIREARMS
And buy one now before you wish you had.
1. Always buy a new firearm.
2. Buy the firearm best suited for you.
3. Don’t be cheap – buy name brand (Glock, Ruger etc.)
4. Get the required permits (concealed or open carry) and stay legal.
5. Practice competency on the gun range (and know the gun range rules).
6. Learn the gun laws of your state and follow them to the letter.
7. Learn how to store your weapon safely.
8. Learn how to carry your weapon securely (holsters etc.)
9. Learn how to notify police when you are armed.
10. Consult a firearms instructor and take lessons.
11. Never, ever fire warning shots or try to scare someone with your firearm.
12. If you ever have to draw your weapon, be ready to fire.
When you buy a firearm, if you have never carried one, it is a strange feeling. Do not be afraid. Do not do what you have seen in video games nor on TV. Do not do something dumb like storing the weapon in a shoebox in the closet or on top of the refrigerator. Or leaving it exposed when you get out of your car. Buy a lockbox. You can get a fire proof lockbox from Home Depot for $20 so invest the money.
BEFORE YOU FIRE, REMEMBER YOU CANNOT RECALL A BULLET
Firearms instructors are very important. Don’t ever think you can just watch YouTube videos and teach yourself. If you do think you can teach yourself properly, the student and the teacher are both foolish because both of them are you. And friends, family or former military and law enforcement who carry do not automatically make good instructors. Everybody who knows how to use a firearm does not automatically know how to teach and evaluate. Much of why the firearms instructor is important is because of his or her ability to assess your skills, fears, error, abilities and progress. A good instructor (like me, lol) also knows how to match you with the best weapon for you, how to teach you about weapons retention, holsters, state laws and fear.
The idea is not for you to act super human and erase all your fear. That will come with time and practice as your confidence level grows. The idea to start is to teach you how to use your firearm to protect yourself and your family even when you are afraid. You can be taught to respond accurately and effectively based on self preservation, even when you are afraid. But that again takes a good instructor.
The instructor needs to instill in you the discipline and confidence it takes to own and maintain a firearm. That means learning how to look after the equipment (including proper gun cleaning) and knowing the right gun accessories and cartridges to use with your firearm. Knowledge of how to use it is not enough: you must be aware of all elements of the machine to have full control over it without being afraid.
So in this country, under this climate of overt hate, desperation, crime, evil, programmed and mentally ill people, you need to be ready. Buy you firearm and do not be afraid of your firearm any more than you are afraid of your own dog or to drive your car. We don’t have to live in paranoia but we do need to live. And we need to live in realism.
Because the only good thing that comes from a tragedy is what we can learn from it, let us learn to be realistically prepared. You may not like guns and that’s OK. But you need to be able to protect yourself and your family in the most effective ways you can. That realization should start today and be echoed loudly by every single time an innocent person is shot or killed who was not prepared to do anything about it. This is your wake up call.
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw