by Tragedies can bring out the best and worst in people. I won’t go into the worst because it is all too common. However, the best can be there. Following the attack on the LGBTQ community in the Pulse Nightclub massacre, the firearms community stepped up to offer firearms instruction and familiarization to those in the LGBTQ community. It became what is now Operation Blazing Sword.
Our guest on the Polite Society Podcast this week was the Pew Pew Jew, Yehuda Remer. You can listen to his interview here starting at about the 8:40 mark. One of the things that Yehuda is doing in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel is to offer both training and advice to those in the Jewish community who are thinking it is time to consider being armed. After our interview with him, Yehuda was hosting a Zoom call with 18 participants to give them advice on what to consider when searching for their first firearm.
Yehuda’s outreach got me to thinking. Why can’t the rest of us in the gun culture, Jew or Gentile, step up and do the same for our friends and neighbors in the Jewish community?
Since the name Operation Blazing Sword is already taken, I would propose something like Operation Gideon’s Trumpet. I am far from a biblical scholar so if you can find a better example from the Old Testament, go for it.
So reach out to your Jewish friends, work colleagues, neighbors, etc. and make the offer. You don’t have to be pushy about it. You could just say If they just want to know more about becoming armed you would be happy to help. It could start out with just going with them on a visit to a gun store. Alternatively, you could take them to them range and let them shoot your guns and ammo.
I don’t know if this will go anywhere but we will never know if we don’t try.
I’ve been doing this all my life, but it has become much more dangerous. It was once just a way of being neighborly, but red flag nonsense has changed all that.
Our training company offered a free beginner pistol class one Saturday a month, and hosted a range day every anniversary of 911. Today I offer free training to friends on a personal level, once I get to know a person, but I have no interest in broadcasting my skills or possession of weapons to the general public.
Plus the universal background check laws may produce legal liability. Depends on the definition of transfer and the exempted places. Varies by state so check your local laws and remember that these laws were written by the Bloomberg people and so contain hidden fishhooks.
Good idea but probably dangerous in anti-gun places.
When you don’t live in an anti-gun mecca, you don’t think of these things. Sigh. It sucks that the very act of teaching someone how to use the tools of self-defense could be an act of breaking the law.
I don’t know if the use of rental guns at a range and showing them how to use one would be the same. I know Yehuda mentioned he had worked a deal with a range in Texas (not anti-gun state) where they were providing 100 rounds of ammo plus use of range guns (can be exchanged for another one to try it out) for $50 total.
Formal ranges are a common exemption from anti-transfer laws. Going out on public land to informal ranges is a gray area. Again varies by state. Here in NV, Bloomberg bought a referendum win. Improperly written so never implemented. Then Democrat legislature passed a corrected version so it is now in effect. Haven’t heard of any enforcement.
If anyone in the Knoxville, TN area want lessons or pointers, I’d be happy to help.
I have made it known to my Rabbi, and members of my congregation, that any who wish basic firearms instruction need only call me. The first 100 rounds are on me.