Investing in Active Shooter training

Posted: December 7, 2019 by ng36b in Uncategorized
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From Twitter

It’s been a bad week for the Navy. The bad news of two dead in a shooting in Pearl Harbor, HI, followed by three dead from a Saudi flight student in Pensacola is simply devastating. In a less publicized case, a Sailor died after a person ran a gate, traveling 81 miles per hour before he slammed into Petty Officer Oscar Temores’ car, killing him. This follows a string of other shootings in previous years, from the NOSC at Chattanooga, TN in 2015, to the USS Mahan (in Norfolk at the time) in 2014. These aren’t particularly dangerous areas of the country, so what, exactly, is going on?

First, some militarizes in the cases. Most don’t involve legal private firearms. They are either US Navy firearms (Pearl Harbor, Mahan) or illegally obtained weapons (Pensacola). And in all cases, its still illegal to have private firearms on a Navy installation.

Second, there were some warning signs that weren’t followed. The Pearl Harbor shooter was about to go to Mast (equivalent of a court hearing), but was issued a firearm for his watch station. The Virginia Beach gaterunner had multiple law violations before he ran the Little Creek Gate. I’m guessing we’ll find the Pensacola shooter had mental health issues as well.

Lastly, where were the Navy’s police (called Master at Arms)? In all cases, they responded pretty quickly. Nobody can respond instantly though. The Pearl Harbor shooting was over in less than 60 seconds. Police quickly engaged the Pensacola shooter, limiting his damage to 11 people, but if you’re in a big auditorium space with hundreds of people and no instant police, the sad reality is it will take time to lock down, time a shooter can use to murder more victims.

It doesn’t help that the Navy is struggling to recruit young MAs (see the low 2019 numbers here), most of whom are doing the day-to-day “beat” jobs. Less young MAs in cars and at gates, less police presence, and increased police response time. MA jobs have decent promotion chances compared to other ratings, but part of this is likely due to a lack of candidates.

The Navy is spending a lot of effort in conducting active shooter exercises. They’ve become more frequent and more realistic. However, they are always focused on training the police force. But past experience shows a shooting might not last very long, and most people are injured or killed in the initial seconds to minutes. In that case, the quick response by bystanders makes or breaks the encounter. Attacking the shooter in those critical first few seconds may mean the difference between a mass shooting and a few injuries.

Shootings will continue to happen, and given the number of weapons on a base, we can’t stop them. But we can out-think shooters. They’ll expect passive victims that don’t fight back. We shouldn’t give them that.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Saudis in Florida or Palestinians in Israel It’s the same Inconvenient Reality

Posted: December 7, 2019 by datechguy in Israel, middle east, News/opinion
Tags:

“But,” said Moses to God, “when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”

God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.“

Exodus 3:13-14

It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.

Richard P. Feynman

One of the most profound things about God is his name, which is I AM. God gives his name not as a conventional name but as a statement of fact. Some might deny that I exist, but I AM. This is why when Christ uses the term both to the crowds and at the time of his arrest it is so profound, you may not know what you are doing but I AM.

In a non-theological context it’s an excellent statement of how reality actually works, it doesn’t matter how much you spin, it doesn’t matter how much you pretend, it doesn’t matter even if you change the way people behave in the face of a reality, reality IS.

There is no better example of this then how the left reacts to Islamic terror in general and Palestinian Terror in particular.

I had a long discussion on the subject on twitter yesterday with folk dedicated to the proposition that Israel is an oppressor of the poor Palestinians who simply want peace this exchange was typical:

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And then there is this:

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The denial here is familiar to anyone who lived thorough the cold war. It rather ironically sounds like the East Germans who publicly declared how wonderful their nation while putting up a wall to keep people in and shooting those who try to cross it.

That’s the double irony of course, because since Israel built their wall in the west bank terror attacks from that direction dropped like a rock. Or hat once Israel withdrew from Gaza it immediately went from a greenhouse of plants to a base for terror.

The innocence of the Palestinians is a safe thing to claim if you are a leftwing jew in congress or in the Labor party, but Jews living in Israel don’t have the luxury of such a pretense as it can be fatal.

And that of course brings us the terror attack in Florida:

Four people are dead including the suspect after an active shooting incident at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, police said.

The shooter was identified as Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi national [oops, I guessed wrong — RSM] and member of the country’s air force who was in the U.S. for flight training, law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Investigators are trying to determine whether the shooting was terror-related, the officials said.

Authorities responded to reports of a shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola at 6:51 a.m. on Friday, officials said. ATF and FBI also responded to the scene.

emphasis via RSM

All the emphasis via RSM who says the following:

Y’know, if this shooter had been some kind of white nationalist alt-right extremist, CNN would be 24/7 on this story all weekend, and every liberal blog would be blaming Trump for this terrorist act. Instead what you will see is that the mainstream media and liberal bloggers will quickly bury this story, except perhaps to call out “right-wingers” as “racists” for daring to suggest that some Muslims might be dangerous.

The fact that six Saudi’s were arrested including three that filmed the attack doesn’t matter. As far as the press is concerned this is a one off incident, a one day story and says nothing about Islam.

However the victims of this attack are no less dead and no amount of pretense will keep the next set of Americans alive.

I’ll close with two more tweets that illustrate this reality:

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Legal Scholars Bubble Life

Posted: December 6, 2019 by datechguy in Uncategorized

One of the advantages of living in an incredibly blue state while being an actual mass going practicing Catholic (as opposed to whatever Nancy ‘Don’t say I hate that coward Trump because I’m a Catholic oh and btw abortion is WAY cool‘ Pelosi is) is that it’s almost impossible to live in a bubble. You are constantly surrounded with people who don’t share your opinions or faith. This also means that you can spot someone in a bubble really quick.

I don’t know if Ann Althouse is a practicing Catholic but she can recognize the bubble when she sees it:

That’s a well-crafted joke, I said out loud when I watched it. But, oh, what a mistake! I don’t know if she wrote that joke all on her own or if she tested it on others, like a stand-up comedian. But I bet if she tested it, she tested it within a cocoon. I think you can tell by her demeanor that she believes it is a killer joke, and it would kill in the law-school, academic context.

And because the joke was created within the bubble the idea that it might not play well outside of it.

Let me finish up here by saying that I agree that the outrage is fake, but just about everything in the discussion of Trump is fake, and the pro-Trump side should fight hard. Karlan intended a hurtful slam, a winged zinger that would have the whole world laughing contemptuously. Watch that clip again. She believes she’s got something. But it was too good of a line. Everyone noticed. And now, it’s almost the only thing that was noticed in all that tangle of law/”law” that the professors strewed before us yesterday.

So it was a big fail for the anti-Trump lawprofs. The look of it from a distance was that they hate Trump and they were called by politicians who hate Trump to express hate for Trump.

emphasis mine

Think about it for a second. In a situation where you are trying to convince the voting public or at least reinforce the idea to your members that Impeachment is a good idea you manage to make the most memorable and quoted moment is a lame joke about a 13 year old kid that got a response from the 1st Lady and made their profession in general and those folks in particular look like a bunch of asses.

I suspect that’s why Nancy Pelosi immediately did this:

“Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders, and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment.” Thus spake Nancy Pelosi from the Speaker’s Balcony in the Capitol on Thursday.

Let me rephrase this in a way that reflects the reality

“Sadly yesterday was a complete disaster so let’s change the subject and get this damn impeachment business over with before we get any more defections or create any more ads for the GOP in 2020”

Nancy is old enough to have lived outside of the current bubble world when what is now considered conservative culture by the left was America’s culture. She knows how all this is playing which is why she tried to fend it off as long as she could within her caucus.

As I’ve said before it’s a losing hand but Nancy is playing it out as best as she can.

Angela Merkel vs. Rob Schneider on free speech

Posted: December 5, 2019 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Angela Merkel and Rob Schneider both made a big splash on the internet recently with comments regarding freedom of speech.  One demonstrated a remarkable understanding of the concept, the other proved not to understand the concept at all. 

You’d expect the Chancellor of Germany to be the individual who understands freedom of speech, however, this Breitbart article ‘Freedom of Expression Has Its Limits!’ – Merkel Rails Against Free Speech proves she holds some dangerous misconceptions.

Chancellor Angela Merkel railed against free speech in the German parliament, declaring that freedom of expression which offends “the dignity of other people” must be censored to secure a truly free society.

“We have freedom of expression,” the migrant crisis architect began dubiously, in a speech to the German federal parliament, or Bundestag, uploaded to social media by state broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).

“For all those who claim that they can no longer express their opinion, I say this to them: If you express a pronounced opinion, you must live with the fact that you will be contradicted. Expressing an opinion does not come at zero cost!” she warned ominously, to applause from the assembled politicians.

“But freedom of expression has its limits. Those limits begin where hatred is spread. They begin where the dignity of other people is violated!” she continued, gesticulating wildly.

“This house will and must oppose extreme speech. Otherwise our society will no longer be the free society that it was,” she concluded, somewhat contradictorily.

This Tweet from Rob Schneider had me cheering because he posses an understanding of freedom of speech that is comparable to that of the founding fathers of the United States and the framers of the First Amendment.

Angela Merkel should carefully study this Ben Franklin quote, and so should progressive college professors and their badly misinformed snowflake students.

Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.

Here is a George Washington quote that should be spread far and wide on college campuses.

For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.

Since students have been brainwashed by multiculturalism into not respecting white males, here is a Fredrick Douglass quote they should take note of.

Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence. Slavery cannot tolerate free speech.

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