Virtuous Hands with a Gun

“What actually stops an evil psychopath is what we saw on Sunday—a good guy with a gun.” – Jordan Stein, spokesman, Gun Owners of America

Would the massacre have happened if the congregation of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas had clung as tightly to guns as their Bibles? On Sunday, in a bizarre echo of Sayfullo Saipov's Halloween rampage in New York, suspect Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, brought death into a house of worship. Like some villain straight out of the slasher flick “Scream,” he was outfitted in black body armor and a skull mask. Within this sacred space, this Grim Reaper killed 26 innocents and wounded 20. Thirty miles east of San Antonio, in the worst mass shooting in Texas history: about 4% of the town's population (reported as 683) were slain.

Since time immemorial, that's what civilized people call acts of evil. Ultimately, Mr. Kelley's true problem was his homicidal impulses—expressed as externalized rage. Therefore, holding responsible the inanimate object, that was his tool of choice, is a simplistic response. So too is blaming the law that criminals habitually disregard as somehow “insufficient”. In that vein is the imperfect background check that inadvertently allowed Mr. Kelley access to the firearm he utilized (read: The Air Force failed to provide the FBI with the shooter's criminal history). And despite this unfortunate bureaucratic blunder, where does individual accountability factor into this latest bloodbath?

In reality, almost anything physically imposing can be used as a weapon. For example, just last week in New York a zealot screaming “Allahu akbar” misappropriated a rental truck killing 8 and injuring 12. Likewise, at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, South Carolina on August 12, a third unhinged miscreant, James Alex Fields Jr., killed local protester Heather Heyer, 32, and injured 19 others with his Dodge Challenger. If guns are truly the systemic “problem” here—as gun control advocates repeatedly parrot—why does Chicago persist as an annual killing field despite the strictest gun laws in the nation? And why aren't these same critics ignoring the unfettered freedom to buy cars, and rent trucks? After all, don't all of the above potentially serve an evildoer's murderous design?

As the 18th century philosophical father of modern conservatism, Edmund Burke famously remarked, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” To that end, a good Samaritan interceded on Sunday in Sutherland Springs. That small town hero gaining national attention is Stephen Willeford, 55. Synchonistically, he's a former National Rifle Association instructor who confronted the attacker, wounding him twice (in his Velcro covered side despite protective plating). As light dispels darkness, Mr. Willeford repealed villainy despite his fear, and the inherent danger. As he told local affiliate 40/29 News in Fort Smith-Fayetteville:

“I think my God, my Lord protected me and gave me the skills to do what needed to be done, and I just wish I could have gotten there faster.”

In this regard, mere mortals beg to differ. This faithful defender got to the scene so quickly he arrived barefoot. Alerted by his daughter of the sounds of a firearm discharging, Mr. Willeford removed his own rifle from its safe, loaded a magazine, and ran across the street to the church. Standing behind a pickup truck for cover, he exchanged gunfire with the escaping interloper. He even shot through the open driver's side window of Mr. Kelley's fleeing Ford Expedition SUV. At a stop sign, Mr. Willeford then flagged down a 27-year-old motorist, Johnnie Langendorff, and a high-speed highway chase ensued. En route the younger man called 911. Eventually, their pickup caught up to the gunman's SUV. Apparently, the assailant started driving erratically. He pulled over to the side, seeming to slow down, then accelerated again until he hit a road sign, lost control and flipped his truck which landed in a ditch. Mr. Langendorff pulled over, and ducked down. Meanwhile, his heroic companion exited the vehicle, planting his rifle on top of the pickup's hood. Keeping a look out, Mr. Willeford yelled for his adversary to get out of his truck, but all remained still. When law enforcement arrived on the scene, they confirmed that Devin Kelley had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

Separated by time, specific circumstances and geography is the fact that guns in legal and responsible hands actually preserve life. This is also true of another hero, New York police officer Ryan Nash, who subdued Islamic terrorist Sayfullo Saipov; and Charlottesville police who subsequently apprehended suspect James Fields. Indeed, the loss of life is a terrible tragedy—particularly in situations initiated by the radicalized. For resolution, what demands society's focus is the discounted evildoer himself, not the distraction of his method. Philosophically to blame a criminal's firearm is equivalent to condemning the car or the truck rather than its driver. It's a false premise that misses the crux of the issue. Such intentional naivety actually endangers the public. These days, in diverse gathering places like First Baptist Church or Sandy Hook Elementary School, what's become more unsafe than a gun-free zone?

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Punishing Pop-Tart Gun Kid

Apparently the mass hysteria gripping school officials has swayed a presiding judge—three years later—to also confuse a Pop-Tart as a “dangerous” weapon.

Back in March of 2013, then 7-year-old Josh Welsh ran afoul of school bureaucrats when he supposedly chewed his strawberry breakfast pastry into a “gun” and allegedly wielded it saying, “Bang, bang,” to a fellow student. This “boys being boys” behavior earned the second-grader a two-day school suspension from Baltimore's Park Elementary School. Today, this ludicrous decision has been upheld by Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Ronald A. Silkworth. (Or is that Silkworm?) This authoritarian Wonderland Queen of liberal bleeding hearts wrote: “[A] suspension was appropriately used as a corrective tool to address this disruption, based on the student’s past history of escalating behavioral issues.” How is this lily-livered judge not obviously drunk with a fascist's power? Did he cower behind his bench when ruling against the now ten year old?

In America, “land of the free, home of the brave,” this pronouncement is anti-American madness. During the original incident, Josh's father said, “I would almost call it insanity. I mean with all the potential issues that could be dealt with at school, real threats, bullies, whatever the real issue is, it’s a pastry.” Even the Florida legislature added to the lunacy by passing a bill that “protects” against the act of “brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food item to simulate a firearm or weapon.” If these radical responses aren't “1984” style thought-crime—punishing children for their imaginations—what is?

The real issue here is the systematic emasculation of boys by progressive statists: it's fascism run amok in the public school system. Last time I checked, the purpose of educators is to enlighten, not to engage in radical beyond-the-scope hard left social engineering. This situation exactly depicts the irrational intention to punish typical, masculine “tough guy” behavior in favor of that of the wussy, subservient pajama boy: an archetype that has defined the disastrous Obama years.

As the Sandy Hook massacre tragically and definitively demonstrated, schools as gun-free zones facilitate danger while promising the illusion of safety. The zero tolerance policy should not be directed at boys' and their pretend “weapons of war,” it should censure kangaroo court judges for punishing them for normal “manly” conduct.

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Using Terrorism to Disarm America

Barack Obama should take a lesson from Founding Father Thomas Jefferson: the first American president to contend with radical Islam three centuries ago. Mr. Jefferson's 18^th century version were the Barbary pirates. These predators of Europe's waterways kidnapped innocent American citizens at will for ransom. What was learned Jefferson's sensible solution? He used four of the six extra-large frigates commissioned by Congress to go to war. A little-know historical nugget: the United States Navy was born in direct response to unprovoked Muslim aggression.

The danger, than as now, was obvious. For 17 years before he even became president in 1801, Jefferson wanted to combat Islamic extremism. As our third president, he dispatched a naval squadron to the Mediterranean to engage the enemy in a successful four-year war off the shores of Tripoli. Unlike Mr. Obama, Jefferson had a thorough grasp of the matter, and acted decisively. Our current poor imitation—a pampered selfie stick cupcake—is unworthy of the same office once held by the author of the Declaration of Independence.

Contrast that unwavering response to mealy-mouthed Obama's. Up until this moment, he can't even bring himself to utter the simple words: radical Islamic terrorism. An ideologue like himself sees the world as he wants it to be, not how it is. Consequently, he's too thick-headed to even acknowledge the three-word concept. Therefore, he will never do anything meaningful to protect the homeland. (His glib lip service doesn't count.) Indeed, Mr. Obama keeps his head safely buried in a millionaire golfer's sand trap; an out of touch broken record of our supposed intolerance of his religion of “peace.” Worse is his political misuse of this catastrophe to ridiculously advocate gun control. Seriously, his non-solution is disarming the victimized? This mind-set is true mad hatter, Alice in Wonderland stuff. How is lawless, feckless Barack Obama's enabling of terrorism any better than these lone wolves who slaughter innocents? He is a cowardly fop, a hapless collaborator. His hands, as Omar Mateen's, are as stained with the spilled blood of the 49 who lost their lives. The world will remember that the worst mass shooting in U.S. history happened during Mr. Obama's disinterested, irresponsible tenure.

Beyond sharing a funny name like Omar Mateen's, who is this do-nothing president who misconstrues the meaning of Orlando's death toll as easily as he ignores the weekly body count in Chicago? Democrats' constant, disconnected political fogginess coupled with almost eight disastrous years of this president makes one truism plain: Barack Obama is anti-American liberal fascist. His continued inappropriate responses expose his own personal ultra-constitutional jihad against the Bill of Rights, specifically the Second Amendment. After almost two full terms, his perpetual denial of clear danger rises to the level of psychosis. Politically, his professed desire to protect Americans is meaningless. Against the backdrop of this sheer horror—fellow citizens mowed down by the radicalized—Mr. Obama stands idly by making an obtuse speech about that three-word phrase he still refuses to say. That's not anybody to be taken seriously. That's not even someone with a basic love for, or loyalty to, a country that has given him so much.

Outrageously, this king of pajama boys idiotically insists on blaming inanimate objects. In other words, the firearms are the “problem,” not the wicked hands that use them. In this case, he uses the excuse of domestic terrorism to push his own hard left agenda: population disarmament. Making people “safe” by illegally restricting their right to access at-hand devices of protection? Meanwhile, criminals and terrorists—no respecters of law are they—always manage to arm themselves. Part of Mr. Obama's Orwellian 'fundamental transformation.' To him, all of America should be a Sandy Hook gun-free zone: a 3,000 mile land of sheep at the mercy of fate, and those lone terrorist wolves.

The basic facts of the Orlando mass murder are beyond despite. Omar Mateen was an American citizen. As a function of his security job, this perpetrator had legal access to guns (including conceal and carry) after the customary background checks. He had also been flagged and investigated by the FBI in 2013 and 2014 for making inflammatory remarks. That he was treated so gently is the high price of political correctness. In Obama's America, witnesses of potential wrongdoing are preemptively demonized as Islamophobes. Therefore, they understandably stay fearful—and silent—as evil flourishes. In San Bernardino, CA and now in Orlando, FL.

The liberal MSM is all too willing to parrot Omar's father's questionable tale that his mass murdering progeny was offended by “two men kissing.” If that's the case, why did his son frequent gay clubs where he was, ironically, accepted by the gay community? Consider the source here: a disgraced parent in full cover-my-own-ass mode. He's understandably desperate to keep a lid on his son's possible “extracurricular” dalliances. Therefore, he explains away his son's barbarism as a simple hate crime. Better Omar be viewed as a homicidal, homophobic bigot than a homosexual, radicalized Islamist.

What is likely closer to the truth? Witnesses indicate that Omar Mateen was actually a regular at Pulse:

“It’s the same guy,” Chris Callen, who performs under the name Kristina McLaughlin. “He’s been going to this bar for at least three years.” Ty Smith added, “(He’d get) really, really drunk... He couldn’t drink when he was at home—around his wife, or family. His father was really strict... He used to bitch about it,” these club-goers told the Canadian Press.

Another report indicates that Mateen the younger exchanged messages with at least one gay man on a gay dating app. (Certainly, why else would one have such a profile unless to attract those who interested him?) Even Mateen's ex-wife disclosed his “gay tendencies.” (Well, she of all people ought to know.) For someone who supposedly hated the gay community, he certainly spent a lot of time there. In any case, it would not be the first time a closeted individual used religious fervor as a deplorable excuse to strike out at those reflecting his own repressed proclivities.

Therefore, during gay pride Omar Mateen's presence at Pulse, on Latino night, was not a surprise. There he murdered 49, and injured an equivalent number. His stated reason of sympathy to ISIS, and other proponents of terrorism, is a good enough explanation for any rational person. Like a soon-to-be nuclear Iran, domestic terrorism is the disgraceful legacy of Barack Obama. Yet, these massacres need not be a regular and continuing facet of the American way of life. Thomas Jefferson's Reaganesque show of strength will be essential going forward. That means electing Donald Trump—and all fellow Republicans—by large margins. Hillary Clinton supporters embrace continued political weakness. Transmitting that foolish signal to the world will only encourage radicals to further target the vocal and particularly vulnerable LGBT community. It's time for the gay community to show solidarity for their fallen fellows by voting for the party with the historical record of promoting individual freedom: Abraham Lincoln's GOP.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog
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Covering eyes to radicals

Petula Dvorak's political commentary is as illuminating three blind men holding parts of a metaphorical elephant, each claiming the rump, leg or trunk is the whole animal. In this post-911 world, she objects to the sensible Department of Homeland Security motto: “If you see something [suspicious], say something [to law enforcement].” As our free society is geographically vast—and no one would want to live in a “1984” style police state—it makes sense that everyday citizens' eyeballs be enlisted. This is no different from the inherent value of any neighborhood watch.

Hers is a philosophical objection, tortured reasoning that assumes the worst of profiling. As any beat cop will explain such observations are a highly effective method to deter wrongdoing. Indeed, logically, who is likely to commit crime or terrorism? Should the focus be on aged, gray haired grandfathers? How about young mothers and their broods? Or is a better bet the flood of law-violating migrant gangbangers from the U.S.-Mexico border with no prospects and no allegiance to our country? Just because such judgments are stereotypes doesn't mean there aren't kernels of truth worth consideration especially when innocent lives hang in the balance.

Ms. Dvorak's knee-jerk reaction is a political third rail: assumed Islamophobia by police and/or the public regarding swarthy-looking individuals who speak in unrecognized, foreign tongues. Her example is a University of California, Berkeley student Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, 26, who made an innocent last minute phone call in Arabic. It was a personal call to an uncle before takeoff, but a fellow passenger sitting nearby became afraid. As a result, Mr. Makhzoomi was booted off a recent Southwest Airlines flight and questioned by authorities. It was a mistake—and no doubt a hassle—but the needs of the many in this situation must outweigh the needs of the one. Naturally, Ms. Dvorak is intentionally oblivious to 21^st century realities that radical Islam confers. She assumes the worst of authorities, a groundless 1960s style discrimination, brown skin rather than black. However, in today's world issues are more complicated than the civil rights time warp between her ears. It's more than simple cultural misunderstandings or skin-deep prejudices she misconstrues in her divisive column.

In her superficiality, Ms. Dvorak could not resist the temptation to revisit the subject of teen hoaxer Ahmed Mohammad (better known by his internet nickname “clock boy”), now a resident of totalitarian Qatar. Then 14, in Irving, Texas, the middle school student took it “upon himself” to bring a dissembled, wires-exposed clock to school. Closer to the truth one suspects his media-seeking Imam Sudanese father likely put him up to this little stunt of virtual terror. As evidence, well beyond his tender years (and as skillfully as any progressive politician), Ahmed shifted blame from his wrongdoing. He used his 15 minutes of fame to also claim victimization and Islamophobia.

Using the Dvorak crystal ball, this half-wit nonsensically wants something said only when something is “sure,” but by definition, nothing in the real world is ever certain before it is investigated.

Consider the alternative if nothing had been reported or investigated by those wrongly cowed by political correctness. Imagine the public outrage if Ahmed's clock had been a bomb that caused another Sandy Hook? What of the potential grieving families if the plane crashed and Mr. Makhzoomi had been a terrorist collaborator? Unfortunately, scenarios of this type are not purely hypothetical. On November 5, 2009, in central Texas at Fort Hood, a homegrown U.S. Army officer Major Nidal Hasan went on a shooting rampage. He murdered 13 and wounding more than 30 others—most of them unarmed fellow soldiers. Also shocking, he's a medical doctor (specifically a psychiatrist), duty bound by profession to preserve life not take it. Instead, at a processing center armed with a semi-automatic pistol, he shouted “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”) and opened fire. The massacre lasted 10 minutes before he was subdued by civilian police. This is precisely what happens when people close their eyes to latent trouble.

Per a Congressional review, Major Hasan's superiors were concerned about his pattern of erratic behavior. Further, they suspected he had become radicalized. However, these legitimate suspicions did not prevent him from being transferred and promoted. His bosses feared being labeled Islamophobes. They saw many “somethings.” If they did say anything, it was not forceful enough. Their lack of vigilance cost lives in historically the worst mass murder at a U.S. military installation. As patriot Ben Franklin said: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” (The scribbler Dvorak should heed such sage advice.) In any case, related to Mr. Makhzoomi and “clock boy,” both observers and law enforcement made the right call: public safety must always trump individual inconvenience that zealousness causes.

While the occasional nutcase is a Christian zealot like Dylann Roof, the lion's share of worldwide mass murders are Islamic from the falling of the twin towers to more recently Paris and Brussels. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said, “We find ourselves in a new phase in the global terrorist threat, which requires a new . . . type of response,” in the Detroit Free Press. In practical terms, that logically translates into greater attention paid to certain segments of our society rather than others. Therefore, Muslims (same as non-Muslims targeted by radical Islam) should understand the necessity for additional scrutiny. It's not personal, it's simply “the way of the world.” Yet, tellingly, where are the marches protesting the violence committed in the name of their “peaceful” religion? Where are the leaders of Islam publicly disavowing radicalization?

The reality is that the American people need to use their peepers because we don't hear a “peep” out of peace-loving Muslims. Just because they turn a collective blind eye to the butchery committed by their fellows doesn't mean Westerners should make the same choice. In this regard, progressives who criticize those who act in good faith to curtail potential terrorist acts should be disregarded as the psychological cowards and immoral dupes they are.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog
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