Via WoG

Breaking as of 8:32pm: Good Samaritan with gun credited for stopping active shooter inside Greenwood Park Mall south of Indianapolis. Police confirm 4 people dead including the shooter and two people injured. They’re being treated at Eskenazi hospital in Indy. @wrtv pic.twitter.com/wf3i0EIJfl

— Rafael Sánchez (@RafaelOnTV) July 18, 2022

There is no ethical or even remotely psychologically healthy context in which this or any LE personnel would have been laughing or smiling in Uvalde — he's in a building where children and their teachers are being murdered in real time. pic.twitter.com/1cU3SSmW0I

— Dr. Jack Brown (@DrGJackBrown) July 14, 2022

Hey, it’s only kids being murdered.  What’s not to smile about?

Home school your children.

“16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. 17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. 18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. 19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.” – Genesis 35:16-20

“Fear not: thou shalt have this son also.” Does it take massive brainwashing for a woman to kill her baby, or are they predisposed to be lower than an animal? Imagine a person not wanting the inconvenience of bringing a soul into the world by God’s grace; what compels a woman to kill her own child? Look at the text, Rachel was dying, in hard labor and great travail, but the midwife told her not to worry; the baby would be born. The midwife didn’t say; I’ll try to save you; she was saying, you have fulfilled the call and duty of the Almighty, fear not, depart in peace.

“Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?” – Isaiah 45:10

In Isaiah 45, from verse 5 downward, God makes it very plain that He is God, we are His created handiwork, with no right to question His motives or what He brings forth. There is a higher Law! God goes so far as to state that all the offspring that parents produce are God’s creation. Who is anyone to question what God has made and brought forth by the womb?

“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” – Psalm 127:3

He made them, He knew them before the foundation of the world, and the Creator breathes life into every soul. There’s no reasonable way to conclude that America doesn’t deserve her destruction. Do we command God and destroy the work of His hands without recompense? He would be no God at all if that were the case.

Today society measures the courage of a woman the same way they measure a man’s; are they a cop, a soldier, a career gal? What kind of people would encourage killing their children and grandchildren in favor of women acting like men? There’s not much to say about that that hasn’t already been said. The passage in Genesis 35 recently hit like a ton of bricks; Rachel and her midwife did everything they could to bring another life into the world, and Rachel gave herself that the tribe of Benjamin might fulfill the word of God. We don’t want to call this a type of Christ, but she died that he might live; what else did Christ do, if not that very thing; die for you, that you might live? What is the pathology of killing a child inside of you?

“10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. 12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.” – Proverbs 31:10-12

And think of the Uvalde Shooting; how do 400 cops sleep at night, how do they live with themselves? How does standing by not terrorize their conscience every waking moment? America is full of mindless, heartless, soulless creatures; evil has come upon us as a nation, I fear, sure destruction is our lot; what else could God do? Is He not God!

Some young man with a devil in him starts killing children; who are to blame? It isn’t the gun; parents may play a large part, but who didn’t teach the parents? Ultimately the Church has failed by allowing evil to engulf the country. Watching the news and waiting for the rapture, that’s the American Church.

Many American Christians admit that judgment is first upon them (the house of God) and that we may have brought it as a nation. Still, they won’t realize they have a say, that taking just action against the unjust within God’s Law is allowable, even desired under the Law.

Throwing off such chains of those who would hate God is not some philosophical quip by a founding generation; it’s God’s Word. Waiting and praying for justice and deliverance from the same devils in unholy collusion with satan running America is evidence of brainwashing and further proof that American Christians may love Christ, the example servant, but they hate Christ the Lord.

Government can prosecute, enslave, imprison, kill, even crucify and bulldoze into trenches those who would tell the truth of God’s word, but none of that would change the facts at hand, that they are guilty before the throne of the Almighty God, now, right now! But admittedly, judgment is first upon the House of God for these sins.

Everybody loves the meek baby Jesus. But when Christians are asked, how does allowing mass murder of children love your neighbor, they become confused, even defiant, believers and even unbelievers alike. It is the failure of God’s men that has brought the ruin of Western Civilization.

Count it all joy that God loves us enough to destroy our nation, and then you can begin to work with God to repent, which does not mean some mealy-mouthed sorrowful prayer, although it should start with prayer. Repent means stopping what you are doing that’s against the Law of God. Once you understand that the love of Father God is why He will not abide our wickedness, then you can understand that He would be with the effort to right the wrong. There is both sin by commission, to actively participate in evil, and sin of omission, which is knowing to do good and doing it not (James 4:17).

By repentance, we seek forbearance, that He might not destroy us out of the land. God has given us a beautiful, bountiful, and various land, but the people’s hearts have turned cold, ugly, mean, and degraded. If your countrymen don’t stop, they must be made to stop, and being convinced by the totality of Scripture, would not God bless such an effort? Are 70 million babies to be rendered unto Cesar? Are they Cesar’s children or Gods? It is not the love of God or our neighbor to allow the country to persist in mass murder. And how, Heaven help us all, does it love those children to gaze upon their ongoing destruction for decades while doing nothing, the ground crying out with the blood of 70 million innocent?

All beings brought to life arrive by the creation of God. Are God’s pinnacle creation a mere commodity, or are they precious in the sight of the Lord? We know where this is headed. We see it coming all around the edges. The selling of those yet unborn, killed for their body parts, for “research”? And the prior attempts to take Stem Cells all very clinically, scientifically, and sterile in a laboratory environment, but we all know where this leads.

First, do no harm? Is it any wonder the medical industrial complex has turned to sick care, keeping people ill for profit? What kind of sin is this when it’s proclaimed in the name of Science? Science is the observation of God’s creation or His created order. When a people make Science their god, any abomination in the name of Science is called some common good. The mass murder by a vaccine is only a “logical” step in this self-destructive chain. Wholesale slaughter must be en route. It’s what the evil in men excels at when wickedness is allowed to reign unchecked. If not for God’s hand, the whole world would turn to violence as before the flood.

Holy God permits that evil necessary to teach those He loves that He is God, right is right, and wrong is wrong. He is God; He defines these terms and makes the outcome His handiwork of human history. Lord help us; we’re in trouble. When you’re in trouble with God, only God can save you.

Since Roe has been overturned, has a single State Governor called for legislation to outlaw abortion in that State?

Source.

These are tough times for military recruiting. Almost across the board, the armed forces are experiencing large shortfalls in enlistments this year — a deficit of thousands of entry-level troops that is on pace to be worse than any since just after the Vietnam War. It threatens to throw a wrench into the military’s machinery, leaving critical jobs unfilled and some platoons with too few people to function.

But longer-term demographic trends are also taking a toll. Less than a quarter of young American adults are physically fit to enlist and have no disqualifying criminal record, a proportion that has shrunk steadily in recent years. And shifting attitudes toward military service mean that now only about one in 10 young people say they would even consider it.

To try to counter those forces, the military has pushed enlistment bonuses as high as $50,000, and is offering “quick ship” cash of up to $35,000 for certain recruits who can leave for basic training in 30 days. To broaden the recruiting pool, the service branches have loosened their restrictions on neck tattoos and other standards. In June, the Army even briefly dropped its requirement for a high school diploma, before deciding that was a bad move and rescinding the change.

The Army is the largest of the armed forces, and the recruiting shortfall is hitting it the hardest. As of late June, it had recruited only about 40 percent of the roughly 57,000 new soldiers it wants to put in boots by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Even with that much cash, there’s still a shortfall of recruits, and the ones they’re getting stand a larger chance of being subpar.

But they’re being dishonest about why.  This does a better job of explaining it.

Imagine you are an eighteen-year-old, white, Christian male in Georgia with a family history of military service. As you progressed through your teen years, you watched Confederate statues being torn down and military bases being renamed, endless media and elitist demonization of your culture as racist and deplorable and backwards, and military and civilian leadership that thinks diversity and inclusion (i.e. fewer white men) is best thing since sliced bread. Would you volunteer? Identity politics works both ways. Trash my tribe and I won’t associate with you, let alone risk my life. It shouldn’t be a shock, then, that those expressing a “great deal of trust and confidence in the military” dropped from 70 percent in 2018 to 45 percent today.

The long-term health of the all-volunteer force that began in 1973 now appears to be in serious jeopardy. The general public’s declining connection and trust in the nation and its institutions paired with the elites’ incessant culture war targeting the very Americans who traditionally served in the highest numbers spells trouble.

Combine this with some 60,000 enlisted men and officers who don’t want to take the debilitating jab, who may soon be fired, and it all makes for a terrible situation of the U.S. military.

This is basically very easy to understand.  Patriots don’t want to serve in a woke military.  The woke don’t want to serve in a patriotic military where instead of job training they may get sent to fight in whatever latest foreign misadventure the rulers see fit.

It’s all very logical and predictable and by design.

Dan Reedy at Ammoland.

Recently while I was at Petco, a man walked in, and he was quite a sight to see. This man was in his late 50’s to early 60’s, in decent shape. He wore green Condor BDU pants bloused on his black 511 Tactical boots, a black 2A moto tee was tucked into his BDU pants. On his hip was an openly carried Springfield XDS, with extended magazine, jammed into a Serpa holster. He was buying some dog food.

Immediately after paying, his head dives into his smartphone like his neck is a wet noodle. I watch him as he exits, and he remains like this all the way until he gets into his new Chevy Colorado. The man is almost is (sic) struck by two vehicles on his way through the parking lot, with him completely oblivious to the world around him. Bad gun, bad holster, bad outfit, bad mindset. Classic. I’ve seen guys like him dozens of times and it’s always something painfully similar to this.

… open carry is often a sign of incompetence, and I almost exclusively advise people against the practice. I’ve never seen anyone publicly open carry with good equipment, nor with any serious amount of awareness or training.

[ … ]

Open carry doesn’t deter people from attacking cops, and they actually have some level of training to defend against that on top of holsters designed to defeat a gun grab. In addition to training and quality retention holsters, police can call for backup in a jam. I doubt many of you, if any, can say the same thing.

[ … ]

Open carry also presents issues outside of the gunfight. Now you’re alerting everyone to the presence of your firearm, threat or not. This means it is automatically in play in any defensive encounter, not something you can choose to reveal or continue hiding based on the situation at hand. With the gun openly displayed, you are now someone who can be dealt with quickly, instead of you waiting for your moment to counterattack.

[ … ]

Go get good training, read quality resources, and buy good equipment. If you don’t take my word for it, trust people like Greg Ellifritz, who has an awesome piece compiling over 60 recent examples of open carriers losing their guns or being killed due to carrying openly. He then goes on to link dozens of other articles where various experts like Massad Ayoob, Jeff Gonzales, and others give their opinions on the subject.

Dan has made about every mistake you can make in this article.  It’s difficult to know where to begin.

First of all, he displays a very off-putting and bigoted objection to the man’s chosen weapon, a Springfield Armory pistol.  I do not have a SA pistol, but I once did.  I traded it because I wanted a non-striker fired gun.  I only shoot hammer fired pistols.  But while I had it, it was reliable, accurate, trustworthy, and virtually indestructible.  You could have beaten it with a sledgehammer and it wouldn’t have changed a thing about its performance.  It would still be accurate and reliable.  I never had a failure in thousands of rounds.  His bigotry doesn’t do his argument any favors.  I hate it when others lampoon the possessions of others, whether weapons or something else.  I hate it.  He literally lost me with that statement.

Next, “open carry is often a sign of incompetence.”  He doesn’t really know that.  He just made it up.  This isn’t analysis, journalism, or anything else of value.

Next, he makes a hero out of cops who have had all of this “training.”  My wife and I were eating a dinner recently when we saw a cop directing traffic in the adjacent road.  She had to ask me, “How did he pass the test to qualify as a cop, and how does he even move, much less run?”  Of course, he doesn’t.  He probably weighed 350 pounds.  I’ve had a police captain from a major city in the U.S. tell me that most carriers – concealed or open – can shoot better than cops.  Cops normally qualify once a year and never get range time in between.  I’ve had another police sergeant tell me that they shoot striker fired guns because he would never trust his people to de-cock a hammer.

Give me a break with all the super-cop talk.

Next, he cites “examples” of open carriers who have had their weapons taken from them.  Well, then get a retention holster and do better at situational awareness.  There are also downsides to concealed carry, from being slower to presentation, to sweating your weapon (there are many more not listed here).  It’s all just a choice.

Besides, as many instances of both open and concealed carry that happen in America every day, I doubt that this number of situations where a person has had their weapon taken from them even moves the needle in terms of a statistical analysis.  Put another way, this small number of instances would constitute a statistically insignificant metric and I’m not the least impressed by it.

Next, I object to the notion that as a Christian man, I have some sort of duty to be the last one shot at because I want to plan my attack while I see women and children gunned down.  That’s obscene.

Finally, he cites Massad Ayoob.  Yea, he also advises talking to cops without the presence of an attorney.  I do not read anything he has to say.

But I will remark that this guy gets my vote (if I was a citizen in Florida).

An Escambia County man running for a commissioner seat was arrested on July 4 after officers found him openly carrying a prohibited gun and waving at people on a street corner, according to officials with the Pensacola Police Department.

Officers said Stanley McDaniels, 39, was standing on the corner of Baylen Street and Main Street waving at people for just over five hours. When officers approached McDaniels, they saw that he had a black gun in the waistband of his pants. Officials told McDaniels open carry was not allowed in the state of Florida and asked if he had any identification. McDaniels then pulled out his Florida Conceal Carry Permit and showed officers.

Officers noticed that McDaniels was holding a pamphlet and, when asked what it was, McDaniels told officers it was the Constitution. One officer said while he was having a casual conversation with McDaniels, he talked about all the work he had done within the community. McDaniels also had a camera set up on a tripod filming and he allegedly said he was going to take it to the Supreme Court.

McDaniels is running as a Republican for the Escambia County Commissioner District 4 seat, according to the county’s website.

Officers ran McDaniels criminal history and it came up with no results. An officer then removed the gun from McDaniels waistband which turned out to be a Beretta M9 with nine rounds in the clip and one in the chamber. All of the gun-related items were turned into the property management as evidence.

I admire his courage to challenge the idiotic law against open carry in Florida.

As for whether you carry openly or conceal your firearms, I couldn’t care less.  Make your own choice.  Unlike the author at Ammoland, I wouldn’t presume to know your situation or try to tell you what to do.

The gun community has its controllers too, and I object to controllers.

Source.

Amalgamated Bank CEO Priscilla Sims Brown says the reasons major credit card companies have given for not supporting the tracking of gun purchases don’t hold up.

Merchant category codes (MCC) are used for all kinds of purchases by card companies, but not firearms.

Whether you’re getting your car repaired, or buying dinner, nearly every business that takes a credit card has a unique merchant code that reports your purchase — except when you buy a firearm.

A merchant category code, typically referred to as MCC, is a four-digit number used by credit card companies to classify different types of businesses and identify the types of goods or services that a company sells. They were first mandated by the Internal Revenue Service in 2004, and currently, the MCC guidelines are maintained by the International Organization for Standardization.

If you have ever been called by your bank, asking you to confirm prior purchases that were detected as potentially fraudulent, that was by way of an MCC. Credit card companies use MCC intelligence and data to find aberrations or patterns in consumer purchases to prevent things ranging from fraud to human trafficking.

Priscilla Sims Brown, president & CEO of Amalgamated Bank, told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Evolve Global Summit on Wednesday that the banking and financial industry can, and should, use these codes to track gun purchases in order to help prevent acts of gun violence.

“While there are merchant codes for the hair salon and the shoe shine place and every other retailer, there’s no merchant code for gun stores,” said Brown. “If we did have a merchant code for gun stores, we could detect patterns that would indicate that there had been something unusual going on.”

Credit card companies could detect any unusual activity, and submit a suspicious activity report with law enforcement, if needed.

Okay mommy hen.  We know you want to be controller of the whole world.  All CEOs of big corporations do.  Your job is just a chance to run the lives of other people because you know best.

But you see, I see things a little differently.  I see your desire to control others as sinful.

Note: Tagged Gospel Witness with the other posts in this series.

There is a funny story about soul winning. A man asks, how can I be saved and one replies just hold on; God loves you. And another man replies, just let go; God loves you. Then somebody comes and opens their Bible showing the man how to have eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Recently, there was the blessed opportunity to share the Gospel with a lost sinner. They ultimately balked at the idea of serving Holy God. When asked, they flat out said no.

We almost always share 1 John 5:11-13 while discussing the nature of the record (testimony) being set forth. 1 John 5 includes what we know we have, a new life now in Christ and life eternal with the Father.

“11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” – 1 John 5:11-13

You can know that you have eternal life. Many, sadly, confess to a day when they will stand before Christ and find out; the Holy Bible says you can know now, today!

It’s important to note that when sharing the Gospel, the lost sinner is making their covenant with Christ. It’s also important to note that when sharing the Gospel with a lost sinner, we use evangelistic language and substance, allowing the Holy Spirit of God to bring them under conviction for sin and the realization of the need for salvation from death and hell. Telling lost sinners to stop sinning is mostly a waste of time; they need salvation first.

If you have been blessed to lead souls to Christ but did not discuss the things in this post with them, please don’t think you did something wrong. God saves who He will by the manner He chooses, and no two salvation testimonies are the same. Each salvation is personal, from Nicodemus, to the woman at the well, to the Ethiopian Eunuch. There is no formula for salvation; God leaves the perfect intact truth of His covenant with them in the new convert’s heart as the Holy Spirit begins to grow them. But consider discussing the service of God and the authenticity of what you’re sharing from the Bible.

Depending upon how the discussion goes, we share 1 John 5:11-13 very near the end of the conversation if the lost sinner makes it that far. As John does, we can discuss the record of what we have, why, and how we know. By the time we share these verses, the lost have agreed that they are a lost sinner, that God is the judge of their sin, and that they are headed to death and hell being condemned already. They have agreed that Jesus has authority and power over their eternal destination. They have also stated agreement that Jesus died for their sin and rose again on the third day as the satisfaction of their sin debt and proof of the power of Christ to offer new life now and life eternal.

I don’t preach Lordship salvation when I share the Gospel with a lost sinner. But, we always, in one manner or another, as part of sharing these verses with the lost sinner, tell them that God will begin to change them, giving them new desires from the heart outward, that they will begin to be remade into the likeness of Christ, or a son of God. Part of this change that happens after salvation is that we serve Christ in the Kingdom of God. We can state it just like that, or perhaps as, become a son of God to follow the will of Holy Father God or work in the Kingdom of God keeping all that Christ commands. Some variation of this is essential to share, asking the lost sinner, will you serve Christ? Too many Christians have been saved, they claim, but for what they do not know. Service is what Disciples of Christ do.

You can share 1 John 5:11-13 how you feel led, keeping within the truth while evangelizing Jesus Christ as the only Saviour, sure foundation, and way to the Father in heaven. We review the record that we, the lost and the witness, have made, explaining that what we are doing is making a record before Holy God of all that the lost sinner has confessed about himself as a sinner and the futility of works. And also that the lost sinner has agreed upon the only solution, the power and authority of God by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection to save their eternal soul.

If somebody is under conviction of the Holy Spirit, they will not hesitate or reject serving God. Their definition of service, being a lost sinner, especially if raised in religion, may be faulty. It’s essential to tell them that we are not talking about religion (though we are, but not as the world perceives and sadly not as most denominations and cults express) and that we’re not talking about a Church or, again, what they may perceive to be the true church of Jesus Christ. Salvation is personal; it’s a relationship with God, through Christ, the Holy Spirit in us. If they are genuinely saved, they will have true religion and be among the body of Christ. This part of the conversation may vary if the person is a regular Church attendee.

So we review the record of all that’s been discussed, clearly stating that salvation means a change of heart and therefore mind, entering into a life of service to bring glory to the Father through Christ.

We usually share this other verse, that’s in Romans, early in the conversation. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” – Romans 6:23. Sin brings death, which is what God owes the sinner (wages) for their works of transgressing God’s Law but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, it’s a gift; He’s a wonderful and marvelous Saviour, but Jesus is also Lord, King, and Master of His inheritance, which are the converted sinners one and all, His body, the church. If the lost sinner is under conviction, they will testify about their desire to belong to God, working in the Kingdom, as you discuss these verses.

During your talk, if you have not discussed the authenticity of the Bible while sharing the Gospel, these verses in 1 John 5 (or Romans 10:17, faith by the word of God) are a perfect opportunity to do so. After all, John says, this is the record. The Bible and the passages you share are the basis upon which the lost sinner and Holy God are forming their covenant; if the lost sinner doesn’t believe the Bible, they are not being saved at that time, regardless of what else they may say or desire. If the Holy Spirit is upon them, they will confess that Jesus is real, that the Bible is true, the written record is authentic, and that they want to belong to Him in service.

Remember, we’re having a narrow-scope evangelistic conversation with a lost sinner. However, souls get saved over a Psalm (song) or apocalyptic passages such as Genesis 3 and Revelation 20-21, some of which may include symbolism. The Holy Spirit often uses the fall in the Garden and the resurrection of the damned unto the lake of fire to bring fear of God, a conviction for sin, and the need for the one true Saviour, Jesus Christ. But we also count those passages nonetheless to be the record of sin and eternal damnation that God has given us to bring a desire of life and life everlasting through the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The poor fellow who decided against Christ seemed disconcerted and even offended by the conversation and me. He wanted his life cleaned up and straightened out without the pesky bother of a Lord. When they balk, we pray for them, for God to send another messenger, and for the seed to take hold in their conscience that Christ would draw them and call them into His love. It’s important to remember; that we are only the messenger; soul winning is not friend winning. We tell them the truth; their problem is with God if they don’t like it.

You will not win them all, but it’s far and away the better thing to be thorough in showing them the love of God and then let them go away than to make buildings full of lost sinners, some deceived, some falsely converted by easy believism. The object is not ours; the crowns are Christ’s cast at His feet upon the mount of His throne, for the Father is the one that works all in all. God, save that young man’s soul.

I think this is useful because to be frank, oftentimes we aren’t carrying full size pistols, depending upon the circumstances (for instance, in non-permissive environments).  So I suspect there are more than a few readers who carry “pocket pistols” from time to time.

I prefer wheel guns over pistols for pocket carry for a whole bunch of reasons I won’t outline.  It looks to me like the 38 special performed significantly better than the 9mm.