Category: constitutional carry

Wolf Moon’s Perspective on the 2022 May 3rd Ohio Primary Election Results

You will notice that I didn’t just entitle this post “Wolf Moon’s Perspective on the Ohio Primary Election”. You see, due to Democrat lawfare in Ohio, Ohioans are actually going to have TWO Ohio primaries this year. There is a SECOND one in August, thanks to Democrats.

It’s a complicated story, but the Cliff Notes version is this. The Democrats plus their narrow majority in the state Supreme Court have enabled the communist DNC to completely disrupt the electoral process. So why would they do that? Well, in my opinion, it’s because disrupting the electoral process, and particularly the redistricting process, is the only form of “control” that Democrats still have in Ohio. In order to LEAD and in order to REMAIN RELEVANT, while not actually serving voters, Democrats will resort to literally anything to “set the agenda” and thus to appear to be in control.

Because there was no time for the Republican Secretary of State to resolve issues involving state districts in time for the May 3rd primary, all those candidates are kicked down the road to an August primary.

And do you want to know who’s behind this madness?

Eric Holder. And, next up the chain of commie command, Obama, the actual “Soros president”.

Seriously, Eric Holder is behind the Democrat electoral lawfare in Ohio. The strategy is called “Sue until they’re blue.” I have this knowledge directly from the mouth of Ohio’s current and next Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, who THANKFULLY won his primary.

See how this works? Once the Democrats – and George Soros – control the Secretary of State, elections will turn the state communist. You cannot vote your way out of communism, and you almost can’t keep from being falsely voted INTO IT.

Complicated business.

Anyway, this leads directly into one of the things I want to talk about, so let me GO BACK to the beginning, and explain what this post is all about.

Elections have consequences, and this election was a BIG ONE for Ohio – possibly bigger than the general election. Is MAGA going to dominate Ohio, or is “Kasich Republicanism” – a toadie of the globalists and Democrats – going to creep back into control? I spotted the big races very early, and have mentioned them in several posts during 2021 and 2022.

Here is a quick bibliography of some of the posts most directly concerned with Ohio races.

How Mike DeWine Used BLM Marxists To Shut Down Patriots

(December 20, 2020) This is where I saw how DeWine was not only going to sit on his rear end, in Kemp and Ducey style, over the stolen election – he was going to let people in his administration help the other side. Tsk-tsk! His people openly helped BLM drive patriots away from the Ohio Statehouse. Shame! This was the beginning of the massive anti-DeWine vote that we saw last night in the Ohio gubernatorial election. DeWine’s failure to stick up for Trump – and more importantly for RULE OF LAW – alienated a large part of his base.

On the bright side, Ohio probably got constitutional carry (coming in June) because DeWine was desperate to get past the primary. More on that below.

The MAGA Gold Rush In Ohio

(February 19, 2021) This is where I immediately spotted the race to replace Senator Rob Portman as a key juncture in the future of Ohio politics. My early favorites were Josh Mandel – a DIEHARD MAGA Trump supporter – and Jane Timken – the state party chair who won the state for Trump in 2016, and who kept the state pro-Trump for 4 long years.

That Trump chose NEITHER ONE to endorse – well – THAT is a big story I will get to later in this post.

Earliest Tremors of MAGA in Ohio

(July 21, 2021) This is where Trump’s endorsement of Mike Carey came into play, and shook up Ohio MAGA. Trump was not only grabbing the steering wheel from the GOPe – he asserted dominance over where the MAGA movement was going to go. Most “non-establishment” Republicans were favoring other MAGA candidates. Trump chose Carey and stuck by his guns. The Trump endorsement RULED.

This post, and several referenced therein, are also worth reading if you want some nitty-gritty on strange happenings in Ohio politics, thanks to Dirty Devious Democrats always trying to jimmy the machine of Ohio Republican Machine Politics.

Wendy Rogers and Jenna Ellis Endorse Josh Mandel for Senate

(September 3, 2021) Mandel came out STRONGLY against the stolen election, and began hosting media appearances / voter engagements in churches. The media did everything possible to downplay these events. Things were definitely heating up. Josh was winning my vote.

Jim Renacci Challenges DeWine: NO VACCINE MANDATES. PERIOD.

(October 28, 2021) This stance won me over completely to Renacci. Ohio simply cannot afford to keep making the mistakes of lockdowns, mandates, and other DEMOCRAT POISON PILLS. DeWine keeps getting sucked into deadly virtue signals. Renacci is naturally skeptical of such nonsense.

Dear KMAG: 20220124 … Gear Up For The Great RINO Vacation of 2022

(January 24, 2022) By this point, the Renacci candidacy had a lot of promise. The thought of getting a RINO out of office was approaching reality.

Could America Have Another Florida?

(April 3, 2022) This is where Renacci almost made it. “Ohio could have had a DeSantis.”

The May Primary Results

So now let’s get back to the results of the primary.

There were THREE races on the ballot that mattered most to me.

Secretary of State – Guardian at the Gate

This was an important vote. I’m not sure why the LaRose defense of Ohio from George Soros (LaRose can’t say Soros – he has to say “Holder”) isn’t more of a story on the right, but Ohio is literally one office away from turning communist like Colorado. One Jenna Griswold and we’re done. Pennsylvania-level fake elections would be the rule.

Trump’s complete endorsement of Frank LaRose showed that Trump knew DAMN WELL that Ohio needed this fighter back on the job in 2022. Yeah, LaRose had to play a fine line with saying that Ohio elections were secure, and admitting that America has a FAKE ELECTION problem, but it’s quite obvious now, with the evidence presented in 2000 Mules, that elections are a WAR in America.

There are a bunch of write-in and small-fry candidates for Ohio Secretary of State, including “Tore Says” blogger Tore Maras, but the actual SoS will be either Frank LaRose or unqualified Democrat activist Chelsea Clark, who appears to have been hand-picked by Holder.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/07/07/hamilton-county-democrat-chelsea-clark-running-forohio-secretary-state-2022/7879937002/

COLUMBUS – Forest Park City Councilwoman Chelsea Clark announced a Democratic bid for Ohio secretary of state Wednesday. 

“I’m running for secretary of state because politicians in Columbus like (Ohio Secretary of State) Frank LaRose have embraced MAGA lies, pushing voter suppression and massive purges from our rolls to stop Ohioans from voting who don’t always agree with them,” Clark says in an announcement video. 

Clark is one of many Democrats who oppose GOP election reform proposals, which would limit drop boxes and eliminate voting on the Monday before Election Day.  

Clark wants to extend early voting to 35 days, set up automatic voter registration and eliminate voter purges. “It’s a constitutional right. Not use it or lose it,” she said. 

This woman is, IMO, a Soros / Holder cheat-enabler of the worst kind. If she becomes Secretary of State, “real” elections are history.

I watched my vote get scammed at the drop box by cheating Dems. NEVER AGAIN. Get ’em out.

LaRose has been a god-send, and Ohio needs him back on the job, standing up to Eric Holder.

My only quibble with LaRose is that he doesn’t realize that the cheating is even WORSE than what is publicly known – that it’s even worse than he thinks. LaRose is very savvy to the lawfare angle, and THANK GOD for that. However, his trust in voting machine technology, including tabulation technology, is probably too high, IMO. Even for a special forces type who likely GETS how amazing spy tech can actually be.

When confronted with questions about machines being “on the internet” or not, LaRose shows (IMO) susceptibility to the smooth narratives that voting machine companies can be believed, trusted, or even trusted after “routine” inspection of machines.

No. Just NO.

The reality of dirty, rotten, left-controlled tech (which I understand, because I’ve been on the inside) is that people in management and their dirty tech lackeys LIE in the most amazing and almost impossible-to-prove ways. Even simple definitions are used to derail legitimate inquiries.

When people like us say machines could be “on the internet”, what we mean is that ANY kind of cellular or electromagnetic connection to the machine (via radio waves, microwaves, WiFi, cellular, RFIDs, whatever) counts as putting the machine at risk. This kind of tech can be easily added to circuit boards with little or no visibility. The first layer of risk is an actual modem of any kind – announced or unannounced. The next layer of risk is circuitry that can effectively function as a modem, receiver, transmitter, or other communications device.

Just consider RFID technology, and how something like a CREDIT CARD – still in a wallet – could be used to interact with a voting machine of any kind, as long as it has circuitry that can interact with RFIDS. If there is the slightest corruption in the company or its contractors – many of which are not even in the United States – then the compromising technology will not even be published in the specs of the machine. Only a VERY skeptical electrical engineer – likely with some cyberwar experience – examining the hardware before and after the election – is likely to even ask the right questions.

Are you starting to understand how easy it is to CHEAT in the DESIGN of voting or tabulation machines, as long as you sneak a few CIA-level “Q” types into the voting machine company design teams? OR their contractors?

This is a no-brainer. Voting machine design can be subverted to enable cheating. Do not trust the machines – EVER. And now that we’ve got a paper trail, it’s time to DOUBLE the watch on the tabulation machines.

In any case, LaRose won, and now it’s time to make sure he can take on Chelsea Clark.

US Senator – Will Ohio Send MAGA to DC?

The answer is almost certainly YES now.

This was a resounding victory for Trump, in light of Trump’s JD Vance endorsement. What’s even sweeter to me is that unendorsed MAGA candidate Josh Mandel – strongly supported by “Club For Growth” PAC (meaning Koch brothers and Chamber of Commerce) as a way to take down Vance, still managed to beat the Ohio GOP Machine candidate Matt Dolan. Dolan isn’t actually a terrible candidate, but (IMO) he’s still likely to be part of the “Decepticon” problem that Sundance always rages about. Dolan would be one of the first in line to bless any properly presented war. Dolan would support Mitch McConnell – because he’s a machine guy. Dolan would support whatever the UNIPARTY all agreed on – to the detriment of actual Americans.

In my opinion, Trump endorsed Vance because he trusts Vance to not be suckered by the GOPe or the UniParty. Mandell is similarly MAGA, IMO, but is likely to have a chain that can be pulled by the MIC, whereas Vance – though having a military background as well – is likely to be more skeptical of such neocon manipulations.

Beyond that, Vance is almost a pure political outsider. I believe that Trump saw a real opportunity here, to go AGAINST career politicians. In that sense, I think he saw Vance as being much like himself – and I would agree with that.

It was not hard at all for me to go along with Trump’s endorsement. I trusted Trump’s STRATEGY in going with J.D. Vance.

I believe that Vance is going to be able to win in November.

As for the others, Trump has a bunch of great people to raid for his administration. These are all excellent MAGA people – FIGHTERS – and we need them SOMEWHERE, IMO.

Josh Mandell
Jane Timken
Bernie Moreno

That third name is not in the list of runners-up.

Bernie Moreno is an interesting guy. I’ve listened to him – he’s an excellent candidate. He was actually one of the leaders in the race for a while. And yet, he dropped out of the race after talking to Trump.

“I asked for a private meeting with President Trump this afternoon to discuss the state of the Ohio Senate race,” Moreno said in a statement Thursday. “I am a businessman, not a politician. Business leaders recognize patterns before they happen. After talking to President Trump we both agreed this race has too many Trump candidates and could cost the MAGA movement a conservative seat.”

Moreno is the first to drop out of the GOP primary, and his departure came one day after he filed candidate paperwork with the secretary of state’s office. Also running for the nomination are former state treasurer Josh Mandel, former Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken, “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance, state Sen. Matt Dolan and investment banker Mike Gibbons.

Moreno, like several others in the race, used his personal wealth to boost his bid. He loaned his campaign $3.75 million last year and kicked off a $4 million TV ad spree in December, but his contributions began to decrease after starting strong over the summer.

Internal polls released by multiple campaigns in recent months show Mandel at the top of the heap, but they also indicate many voters are still undecided about their preferred candidate. Trump’s endorsement would help set the candidates apart, although it’s unclear if or when he’ll wade into the race.

Trump commended Moreno’s decision to exit the race in a statement: “He has done much for Ohio and loves his State and our great MAGA Movement. His decision will help ensure the MAGA Ticket wins BIG, as it is all over the Country.”

Looks like Trump was right. He cut back the splitters just enough to send a winning MAGA candidate past the machine boy.

Smart.

Governor – DeWine Saved by Splitter Strategy

This was a disappointment, because Ohio could have had a DeSantis, if Renacci had won. However, looking at the half-full glass, DeWine is a guaranteed win in November. Beyond that, it is very likely that DeWine understands he needs to move right on key issues where he can find support.

DeWine was presented with a constitutional carry bill shortly before the primary, and he did what he had to do, which was to approve it. But even with that nod to the base, you will note that the anti-DeWine vote (52% total) exceeds his own share (48%).

We may never know if Blystone was pushed by the media to protect DeWine from Renacci, or if Renacci was the machine’s answer to Blystone, or a little of both. No matter what, Ohio is now “stuck” with 4 more years of Mike DeWine.

Will I support DeWine? HELL YES. The man can and will keep this state out of Eric Holder’s grubby communist hands. Trump didn’t endorse Renacci, and – sadly – it was a smart decision, for whatever reasons Trump had. Trump may have realized that he would likely need to endorse DeWine in the fall. So be it.

I’m not going to question Trump’s strategy. Sometimes you just have to count the bird in hand and be thankful for what you have.

Will DeWine get fooled by more Democrat communist tricks? More than likely, yes. But Mike DeWine is a survivor. Schooled by experience, he is less likely to be suckered again. I can live with that.

Between now and November, we do need to beware of false flags on “gun violence”, which have been used reliably to manipulate DeWine. The “gun violence” angle appears to be Nan Whaley’s strategy against DeWine, presumably pinning him against his vote on Constitutional carry. The Ohio media will carry all the water they can for Democrats. Thankfully, Ohio gun owners are responsible, and we here at The Q Tree will be able to react quickly to counter false flag propaganda from DODGE, FIB, and now DHS.

Also, it looks like the Dems are pushing / forcing the “abortion rights” issue for November. It’s not a coincidence, IMO, that they waited for the Ohio primary to publicly disclose their Roe v. Wade SCOTUS leak. The “threat” to abortion will also be used to try to elevate Whaley. The “woman + abortion” card will be played hard.

Good luck, you horrible, cheating Democrats. MAGA will back DeWine to keep you communists where you belong. OUT OF POWER.

After DeWine, Ohio has lots of possibilities. Renacci is now very viable. LaRose would make a fine Governor, IMO. Jane Timken has a future. And Josh Mandel? Bernie Moreno? Lots of possibilities in a Trump administration.

The future is wide open. Our cornucopia is overflowing with MAGA talent.

Be thankful for what you have. It’s one of the first lessons of Judaism and Christianity.

W

Could America Have Another Florida?

It’s looking more likely every day.

This, despite the media’s sneaky plan to stop it.

CUE THE MUSIC!

Yes, folks – a recent poll is really shaking things up.

https://theohiostar.com/2022/03/30/renacci-tops-dewine-others-in-new-ohio-gubernatorial-gop-nomination-poll-2/

There could really be another FLORIDA in the GOP column.

Note that I did NOT say “another DeSantis”. Jim Renacci has suggested that his administration would be a lot LIKE the DeSantis administration in Florida but he’s actually rather loath to compare himself directly to Ron DeSantis, or to any other Republican governor.

But when he does compare, he makes no bones about it.

Renacci claims to have STUDIED DeSantis, just like he used to study his business competitors, in order to learn how they succeeded. Renacci says that DeSantis has a SYSTEM (which I will not repeat for enemy ears) that pipelines popular legislation to his desk very rapidly. Renacci is fully prepared to begin doing the same thing for Ohio in 2023, because he believes that conditions to create a similar system will be ideal after the 2022 election.

Renacci actually has a PLAN for Ohio – what he can accomplish in 4-8 years, and what he cannot. For example, Renacci figures that he cannot remove the state income tax during his tenure, but that he can prepare the state for a complete change in the tax system to happen AFTER his administration.

And all the stuff that we DO want right away, to push back against BRANDON and his insane, treacherous, WEF-and-China puppet administration? Renacci would begin signing bills as soon as he could get them across his desk.

Fox News, of course, as controlled FAKE NEWS opposition, is trying to downplay the possibility of Renacci winning.

Note that Fox is pegging Joe Blystone (the underdog, outsider, “Farmer Joe” candidate) with the same very respectable 20% segment as the Harris poll, but is dropping the much more realistic Renacci candidacy BELOW that level – which makes no sense. IMO there was a 20% transfer from Renacci to DeWine here, but I’m not sure how that artifact was pulled off.

So exactly how “DeSantis” would a Renacci administration actually be?

IMO, it would be as Republican as the House of the Ohio Legislature, which just gave DeWine a constitutional carry bill that he could not afford to “not sign”. That bill becomes law this summer.

That means Renacci would have legislative backing for moves like this.

It means getting RID of the critical race theory that DeWine’s appointees supported and defended to the very last liberal (yes, I was SHOCKED by that).

Renacci has studied Mike DeWine, too. Renacci says that DeWine runs like a Republican for the primary, moves left for the general, and then TRIES to govern like a Democrat.

And Renacci’s not wrong about that.

Mike DeWine’s a nice guy, but in my opinion he’s not committed to freedom. He signed the constitutional carry bill because he HAD to do it to win the primary – not because it was the right thing to do. DeWine called constitutional carry a “tough decision”. Not tough at all, says Renacci.

In my opinion, the only thing really standing in the way of Renacci is the media and lovable Joe Blystone, who the media plays up while ignoring Renacci. The media does this in order to keep Joe in the limelight and in viable “underdog” status, sapping votes from the more realistic and left-threatening competitor – Jim Renacci. You can tell – 20% of the vote is rather surprising for a third-party candidate. THAT is the power of the media, churning for Joe Blystone with “bad press”.

Will the media plan succeed? Will they “keep us divided” so that a RINO can slip through, yet again, to force all of Ohio to suffer a minority ideology that nobody wants?

Or will Renacci bring that Sweet Florida magic to Sweet Ohio?

You can bet a bushel of buckeyes, I will do my best to help freedom happen!

W

https://sweetfloridasong.com/

Be Like Lions, Not Lambs

The shooting at the synagogue in Poway has interesting details
that we might want to keep discussing as we ponder
the aims, successes, and yes, failures of the puppet masters
behind these despicable attacks.

Synagogue First Responder

Combat Vet Who Stopped The Synagogue Shooter: ‘I Scared The Hell Out Of Him’

Rachel Stoltzfoos | Staff Reporter at DailyCaller.com

The man who fired a semi-automatic weapon inside the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego on Saturday froze, dropped his gun and sprinted to his car when he saw Oscar Stewart come barreling toward him, yelling so loud the priest at a neighboring church could hear.

“Get down!” Stewart yelled, according to his wife and others who were at the scene. “You motherfucker! I’m going to kill you!”

Others who were there later told him it sounded like four or five people were shouting. He thinks maybe an angel was standing behind him and speaking through his voice. When the shooter ran, he immediately gave chase.

Stewart, 51, told The Daily Caller on Sunday he doesn’t remember any conscious thought from the moment he heard the gun shots until it was all over — he just acted on instinct to stop the shooter and prevent him from leaving so he couldn’t hurt more people somewhere else. The Iraq combat veteran said his military training kicked in.

“I knew I had to be within five feet of this guy so his rifle couldn’t get to me,” Stewart said. “So I ran immediately toward him, and I yelled as loud as I could. And he was scared. I scared the hell out of him.”

Stewart served in the Navy in explosive ordnance disposal from 1990 to 1994, then enlisted in the Army in 2001 because of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

“Looking back, it was kind of a crazy idea to do, but I did it.” He was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and left the military in 2004, as a staff sergeant. He’s now in construction work.

When the gunman opened fire, he was in the back of the synagogue. By the time he got to the lobby, the shooter had killed one woman, blown the finger off of a rabbi, and injured two others.

“I heard gunshots,” Stewart said. “And everybody got up and started trying to get out the back door, so I — for whatever reason — I didn’t do that. I ran the other way. I ran towards the gun shots.”

“When I came around the corner into the lobby area, I saw the individual with a gun, and he fired two rounds. And I yelled at him and I must have yelled very loud, and he looked at me, and I must have had a really mean look on my face or something, because he immediately dropped his weapon and turned and ran. And then I gave chase.”

Stewart said he chased him all the way out to his car and began pounding on it — the shooter had managed to lock himself in. When Stewart saw him reach for a rifle, he punched the side of the car as hard as he could, intending to figure out a way to drag him out of the car. That’s when a Border Patrol agent who attends the synagogue came running out to the parking lot, yelling for Stewart to get down because he had a gun.

Stewart says this man may have saved his life and pointed to his use of a civilian’s gun as evidence that gun control isn’t the answer to these kinds of tragedies. Stewart was off-duty and was apparently handed the weapon by someone else on the scene.

“It takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun,” he told the Caller.

The agent fired several rounds into the lower part of the vehicle, intending to disable it, but the shooter managed to drive away. The two of them then grabbed a phone from someone and called the police to report his license plate. The shooter later turned himself in.

After he sped off, Stewart ran back into the synagogue and found a woman he knew, 60-year-old Lori Gilbert Kaye, unresponsive on the floor in the lobby. He began CPR and continued trying to bring her back to life as a couple of doctors arrived and began to assist him. She didn’t make it. The two had talked occasionally, and he remembers her as a passionate and kind woman.

“She had different political views, so we had interesting discussions when we talked,” he said. “We didn’t just talk about the weather. It was kind of cool. She was a very loving woman.”

Stewart considers her the real hero. Eyewitnesses said she jumped in front of the rabbi to save his life.

“People in the aftermath here have been saying it’s important to be strong and defend ourselves. I also think it’s important to know that being strong and defending ourselves requires a lot of sacrifice too.”

“I don’t know if I consciously made the choice to potentially sacrifice myself,” he added. “But I did. And this lady, she stood and she jumped in front of the shooter and she saved the rabbi’s life. When somebody said I was a hero, I’m like, she was a hero. I just did it instinctively, like an animal. There was no conscious decision. I just did it.”

He may not call himself a hero, but Stewart believes his actions effectively stopped the shooter. He doesn’t think reports of the shooter’s gun jamming as the reason he fled are likely to be true, because he was using a semi-automatic rifle. “Full automatic weapons will jam,” he said. “Semi-automatic weapons do not jam.” He thinks maybe the shooter had emptied his magazine. Whatever the case, the shooter let the slung weapon drop and fled.

“He was in the act of shooting when I saw him,” Stewart said. “When I yelled at him he turned and looked at me, and he like froze. And then the look on his face was one of amazement at first, and then one of fear. He saw me coming, and I was ready to do whatever I had to do to stop him.”

For his part, Stewart doesn’t attribute the shooter’s actions to a larger agenda and was reluctant to connect him to a larger political context. He doesn’t blame President Donald Trump and expressed hope that people don’t try to blame anyone else for the man’s actions. “He was an individual acting alone,” he said.

“If you’re ignorant and you don’t know what people are like, you don’t know that I’m a person just like you. I go to work every day in a manual labor job. I’m not some, you know – supposedly he said in his manifesto that the Jews control this and that — I don’t control anything. I go to work just like you every day. He didn’t know that.”

“If he had gotten to know me, he would know that I’m a great person, that I’m a nice guy, that I’m a very caring person,” he continued. “My apprentices — they all love me. They say that I’m the best teacher in the world, you know, that I care, that I try to teach them, and if he had known any of these people, like the lady Lori who died. She would go give Easter baskets to kids and that’s not even a Jewish thing, you know. … She was just a warm person.”

If anything’s to blame, he says it’s social media and the increasingly disconnected world we find ourselves in. “The whole media thing — people don’t get to know people, and they get to sit in a cocoon, and sit and make opinions on what somebody writes. It’s not good. We need to interact more.”

“The most important thing I want to share is that we need to know each other,” he said. “If you make an opinion on anyone, you need to know what they’re about, and who they are. You can’t generalize and say every blue person is evil because they’re blue. That’s ridiculous.”

The funeral service for Kaye is on Monday. He expects the synagogue will be totally packed.

 


https://twitter.com/45_Schedule/status/1122860395985866753

POWAY, California — Jonathan Morales, an armed off-duty US Customs and Border Patrol agent who recently discovered his Jewish roots, was among the worshipers at Chabad of Poway on Saturday when John Earnest entered the synagogue near San Diego during Passover services and began shooting.
The 19-year-old gunman killed Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, and wounded three people: Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, 8-year-old Noya Dahan and her uncle, Almog Peretz.
“Morales recently discovered his Jewish roots. He would travel three and a half hours from [the California town of] El Centro to pray with us at our shul,” Goldstein told media at a Sunday press conference outside the synagogue. “He felt this was his house of worship. And many times I said, ‘Jonathan, you work for the border patrol. Please arm yourself when you are here; we never know when we will need it.’”
US President Donald Trump spoke with Goldstein on Sunday and took to Twitter to praise the rabbi and Morales, writing: “He may have been off duty but his talents for Law Enforcement weren’t!”

As for why there weren’t any active duty guards at the synagogue, in an earlier interview with CNN Goldstein said, “Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford to have an armed security officer at every service, so whenever we had extra help, we were grateful for it.”
In a moment that Goldstein referred to as “miraculous,” Earnest’s gun jammed, and congregant Oscar Stewart, a 51-year-old Army veteran, and Morales attempted to subdue the gunman. Morales was also able to open fire and give pursuit.

After Earnest fled the building, Morales followed in his own vehicle and shot and hit Earnest’s car. Earnest soon turned himself in to law enforcement.
On Sunday, Goldstein, his two hands in fresh blue bandages, gave a detailed recounting of Saturday’s harrowing shooting in Poway, a suburban town just north of San Diego.
“I was preparing for my sermon, I walked out of the sanctuary and into the lobby and I saw my dear friend Lori Kaye,” said Goldstein. “I walked into the banquet hall to wash my hands, walked two or three footsteps and I heard a loud bang.”
That bang was the sound of the first shots fired by Earnest, a college student who entered the Chabad House undetected amid a flow of mourners who were gathering for Yizkor, the traditional memorial service held on the final day of Passover.
“I turned around and saw something indescribable,” Goldstein continued. “Here is a young man standing with a rifle pointing right at me. He had sunglasses on. I couldn’t see his eyes, I couldn’t see his soul.”
The rabbi said that when he saw the shooter he initially froze, then raised his hands to cover his face. Two of his fingers were blown off; one was reattached by surgeons at Palomar Medical Center in San Diego late Saturday.
Gilbert-Kaye, whom relatives and friends on Saturday described as a woman of unconditional love and unbounded generosity, was the only fatality of Earnest’s mass shooting.

Goldstein took several minutes to thank San Diego County law enforcement and to praise the wellspring of warmth and support that the local community has offered in light of the tragedy.

A chain of miracles

In a remarkable series of events, the rabbi and a handful of congregants were able to save a group of children playing in the adjacent banquet hall, preventing a full-fledged massacre.
“I ran [to gather the children],” Goldstein says. “My granddaughter, who is four and a half years old, saw her grandpa with a bleeding hand. She saw me shouting, ‘Get out! Get out!’ She didn’t deserve to see her grandfather like that.”
Aided by Peretz, an Israeli war veteran who was also at Chabad of Poway with his family Sunday, Goldstein was able to usher the children out of the banquet hall with the shooter in pursuit.
But in what Goldstein referred to as a “miracle,” Earnest’s gun jammed. Even while Morales was still on Earnest’s trail, congregants — who had been gathered in the sanctuary and would have made easy targets for Earnest had his gun not jammed — fled to Chabad’s front entrance.

Goldstein’s hand was bleeding badly and his two fingers were dangling by cartilage. “I grabbed a prayer shawl,” he said, wrapped his wounds, and stood on a chair to address his congregation.
“I said, ‘I gotta do something,’” he said. “I said to our congregation: ‘Am Yisrael chai [The People of Israel live]. We are a Jewish nation that will stand tall and we will not let anyone or anything take us down.’”

Farewell to an ‘angel’

“Lori took the bullet for all of us. She died to protect all of us. She didn’t deserve to die,” Goldstein said.
Gilbert-Kaye was one of the congregation’s oldest and most devoted members, the rabbi told media. A former employee of Wells Fargo, she was instrumental in helping Chabad secure the loan for the building in the early 1990s. She and her husband Howard were so close with the rabbi and his wife that two weeks ago they flew to New York City for Goldstein’s youngest daughter’s wedding, and danced together with the bride.

Roneet Lev, friend of Chabad of Poway
shooting victim Lori Gilbert-Kaye,
April 28, 2019. (Debra Kamin/Times of Israel)

Her generosity and kindness was lauded on Sunday by Roneet Lev, who was at the Chabad of Poway to mourn. Lev described herself as Kaye’s best friend.
“Lori Kaye is an angel on this planet,” Lev said. “She’s touched many lives in her own life. Not just in this community but throughout the entire world.”
Describing a woman who always carried gifts cards and greeting cards to offer as presents and who would regularly purchase extra coffees and donuts for homeless people on the street, Lev explained that Kaye was at Chabad of Poway to say the first Kaddish mourner’s prayer for her mother, who had recently died.
Kaye’s daughter Hannah lives in Los Angeles and had driven down to be with her mother for the service.
Lev offered hope and optimism as she spoke of her friend.
“Even in this horrible, painful event, we know good will come out of it,” Lev said. “Lori is known for bringing out the good in people. And look at these flowers. Look at this law enforcement. Look at the good people of San Diego. Lori is now bringing them together.”

 

Rabbi-speaks-after-shooting-at-synagogue

p.s., another article about the shooting from a local paper was originally posted with some odd wording that cast some shadows on the synagogue’s use of DHS funds to strengthen security. The second and third versions fixed this gaff and added a quote from the local ADL spokesperson.

RELATED: Trump Praises Off-Duty Border Patrol Agent Who Engaged Synagogue Shooter
RELATED: Democrats Use San Diego Synagogue Shooting To Push Gun Control

Oh, VERY IMPORTANT!
The “AR” in AR-15 stands for ArmaLite, NOT assault rifle. This is a point we need to be making with everyone that we talk about such things with. Continue reading “Be Like Lions, Not Lambs” →

The TIPPING POINT for Constitutional Carry – Online Self-Training

There is a LOT going on in the concealed carry world – and in particular the area of CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY.

Constitutional carry is winning big.

For those who don’t know what constitutional carry means – it means (roughly, subject to NUMEROUS state and federal laws) that anybody who is legally allowed to OWN a weapon is allowed to BEAR that weapon in any legal manner, including concealment.

Practically, it means that law-abiding people in a constitutional carry state can carry a concealed weapon without a license. Since most people (particularly non-criminals) are somewhat scared to do this without training, in practice, there is little difference between a state with licensed, law-abiding, trained carriers and a state with unlicensed, law-abiding, trained carriers.

Ironically, this is a byproduct of liberal laws that kept chipping away, federally, at who could own weapons, and how that would be determined. Thus, at this point, one passes an FBI background check to simply OWN a weapon, so there is almost no issue other than TRAINING with the idea of letting the person CARRY that weapon.

And THAT is where I think we need to STRIKE HARD – assuring voters that – yes – concealed carriers in YOUR NEW constitutional carry state are going to be WELL-TRAINED, which is even better and SAFER than simply WELL-REGULATED.

The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) today applauded Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin for signing Senate Bill 150 into law. SB 150 is NRA-backed legislation that fully recognizes the constitutional right of law-abiding gun owners to carry a concealed firearm.

“On behalf of the NRA’s five million members, we would like to thank Governor Bevin for his leadership on this critical issue,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “This law is a common sense measure that allows law-abiding citizens to exercise their fundamental right of self-protection in the manner that best suits their needs.”

Kentucky already recognizes the right to carry a firearm openly without a permit. Current law, however, requires a state-issued permit to carry that same firearm under a coat or in a bag. This new law simply extends the current open carry rule to concealed carry. Those who obtain permits will still be able to take advantage of the reciprocity agreements that Kentucky has with other states.

NRA Institute for Legislative Action

My prejudice on the topic of TRAINING comes from having known somebody who was an early concealed carry (CC) trainer in an early CC state. That person – a former assistant DA, strongly influenced my thinking, even though I was not a concealed carrier.

Back then, CC licenses were generally hard to get and required considerable training. Not all states were “shall issue”, meaning that the state had to have a damn good reason to deny a permit. Denials were common and arbitrary – kinda like New York City and Washington DC.

There were many excuses NOT to grant permits. TRAINING was the most plausible one, but also the one that was most easily remedied.

“So you want training? I’ll get training.”

Most state laws had provisions for REQUIRED training, with various degrees of specificity. This was done, in part, to assure both legislators and voters that the CC legislation would not be a RISK to the public and LEOs (law enforcement officers) from untrained or poorly trained individuals.

What I learned, over the years, is that training REALLY IS IMPORTANT. Thanks to the knowledge I gained from this instructor, as well as what I learned myself in the following decades, I came to realize that training is not just a good idea – it is ESSENTIAL. If you, as a gun-owning individual, want your gun to be a guaranteed HELP and not a potential RISK TO SELF – both physically and legally – you NEED training.

I don’t care who DOES the training – even YOURSELF – you need training!

This tweet pretty much sums up the issue, minus my belief in the power of SELF-TRAINING.

https://twitter.com/j_graves1997/status/1118269987754528773

NOW – before you start typing – nobody needs to tell me that forcing people to get more and more training is often a DODGE to knowingly suppress the right to keep and bear arms (RKBA). Training is not cheap – and thus it is in many ways a POLL TAX and in some ways the VOTER SUPPRESSION of RKBA. The TIMING of training is also an annoyance for most, and an obstacle for many.

https://gundigest.com/wp-content/uploads/ccw-training.jpg

And yet – of all the excuses that can be mustered up against constitutional carry, training is by far the most reasonable and plausible.

But here it the thing that changes the dynamic. The most important part of CC training, in my opinion, is not HOW TO SHOOT. It is actually WHEN AND WHERE NOT TO SHOOT.

The most important part of training, in my mind, is actually LEGAL. It is these points of KNOWLEDGE:

  • WHEN and WHERE a person may or may not CARRY
  • WHEN and WHERE a person may or may not DRAW
  • WHEN and WHERE a person may or may not FIRE

None of which requires anything beyond self-training, online, or from a booklet.

This is why I think that – if ANYBODY can carry, ANYBODY needs access to the BASICS of training.

If we BELIEVE that self-training is possible, and make it easy to get, then I believe there are no true logical barriers to constitutional carry in TWICE the number of states that now accept it. AND I think it becomes entirely possible for those states to have a reciprocity pact.

Trust me – the main message of all of this stuff is DON’T SHOOT. It’s not just assurance to people who are scared of guns – it’s assurance to YOU, the gun owner.

When I see ANY incident on the news where a concealed carrier is involved in a questionable shooting – either by the carrier or by an LEO, it is almost always apparent that the carrier was either not trained, or not paying attention to their training. And the parts they were not paying attention to were not the parts you learn on the range. They are the parts you get in a classroom, or from a book.

While I am going to support constitutional carry under almost any circumstance, I would PERSONALLY be much happier to see constitutional carry legislation accompanied by a minimalist ONLINE SELF-TRAINING – possibly with self-testing – that makes certain permitless carriers are free to become familiar with the rules of the road before they carry.

And there’s no reason this training can’t provide incentives for REAL training, too.

I don’t think this is a lot of money – probably far less than permit systems. But I do think that it’s going to help make constitutional concealed carry the SUCCESS that it really deserves to be.

Remember – TRAINING and TRAINING REQUIREMENTS are not the same.

WOLF snarls at training requirements, but he makes happy panting noises at TRAINING.

MOAR TRAINING is a good thing. It means fewer and fewer accidents, incidents, and problems. I believe it’s in everybody’s interest, too.

Train your dog. Train your WOLF!

W