Roy Exum
There is a old saying that on Thursday took on a more chilling effect: “A Marine with a gun is a Marine – A Marine without a gun is a victim.” So as we recoil from an unthinkable rampage that left four of our best defenders against terrorism dead this week, there is already something each of us can do. I have already done it.
A petition was filed on Thursday on the government website “We The People” asking for signatures to “Allow Military Service members that are properly licensed carry concealed weapons and handguns on military installations."
In a recruiting office on Lee Highway that the gunman riddled with bullets, there was a sign in front that read, “No handguns allowed.” What if just one of our service personnel could have returned fire?
The petition reads, “The need to allow Military Members to carry concealed weapons is real. We need to push the government to open military installations and offices to allow carrying of weapons. There has been too many shooting on military bases to allow this to continue. Please support this petition and let's get some changes going."
The petition asks for your name, your email address and your zip code. When you submit it, an email asking for confirmation will be sent to your email address. Validate your “signature” by clicking where instructed.
It takes 100,000 signatures to get it acknowledged by The White House. Since it was posted on Thursday, there have been over 2,000 signatures, but as news spreads, it is believed it will be a success. All signatures have to be submitted within a month. My goodness, we have enough shocked people in Chattanooga alone to do that.
In May the U.S. House addressed the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2016 fiscal year, but the bill is working its way through Congress. More importantly, the bill allows base commanders to authorize concealed-carry to properly-licensed personnel but does not include recruiting stations and other targets for terrorists. It most certainly should after the Chattanooga killings.
Here is what Brian Michael Jenkins of the Rand Corporation told The Military Times: “Recruiting offices have been kind of on the leading edge of targets simply because they are both ubiquitous and they’re vulnerable.”
“These recruiting offices are everywhere. They’re in shopping centers. They’re all around the country. So if you think about attacking a military target, as opposed to driving to some military base where there will be armed guards at the gate; if you want a geographically convenient, readily accessible target that the shooter can portray as a military target, then recruiting stations fit the bill.
“So the attack, while shocking, is not surprising,” Jenkins said.
I believe that Marines are among the most skilled people in the world in the use of firearms. If just a few of the Marines in “Mike” battery had been armed, perhaps lives would have been saved and our entire nation would not be in mourning.
Click here to sign the petition.
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LOUISIANA GOV. BOBBY JINDAL is beginning to campaign for the presidency in Iowa and opened his first campaign stop in unusual fashion on Thursday. “Tonight I want to start by doing something a little different: I want to ask you to join me in prayer. For those of you who haven’t seen the news, you may have seen four American heroes were slaughtered today—there’s no other description for it—and so I want to pray for them and their families, so if you wouldn’t mind bowing your heads and joining me in prayer before we start.” (He prayed for well over two minutes.)
Minutes later he said, “We have to stop hiding who we are as conservatives and endorse our own principles. We need someone who is unafraid to stand up for our beliefs and can show that our ideas can transform people’s lives for the better … I’m asking folks to meet with me and join a movement. I’m asking people to believe again; to believe again in the power of conservative ideas and to believe again in America.
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RAY MABUS, the Secretary of the Navy, said, “The tragedy in Chattanooga is both devastating and senseless. On behalf of the entire Department of the Navy family, I offer my deepest condolences to the families of those killed and wounded in service to our nation during this incident.”
“I'd like to express my gratitude to the first responders on the scene whose prompt reaction was critical to stopping this individual from inflicting further violence,” the secretary added. “Though we can never fully prevent attacks like this, we will continue to investigate, review and guard against future vulnerabilities and do everything in our power to safeguard the security of our service members and their families."
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RABBI SHAUL PERLSTEIN of Chabad-Lubavitch of Chattanooga wrote a beautiful message in his weekly blog, “How do we explain the killing of four innocent men who dedicated their lives to make this world a safer place for others? We don’t. What then should be our response?
“The name of this week’s Torah portion is Matos – Masei. Literally Mato means a staff, Masei means traveling. The message is clear in the face of evil we must be steadfast, strong as a staff in our devotion and conviction to morals and ethics at the same time we must transform the darkness and become ambassadors of light, to move the world in the right direction, bringing it closer to (God) and goodness one step at a time.
“Yesterday’s horrific actions remind me of the terror attack on a school in Kfar Chabad where Palestinian terrorists opened fire killing a teacher and five young children. The community was devastated and the authorities wanted to close the school for some time. Yet the Lubavitcher Rebbe responded with a brief letter saying: "We can never understand such an event, but how we must respond is clear - now we must grow and thrive, through continued building we will find solace.”
“Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez was a man of hate and destruction. His goals together with many other terrorists around the world was to divide a country, to place fear and hatred into the hearts of people. What greater response is there than to achieve the exact opposite of their goals. We must grow, we must unite, and build in the memory of those who gave their lives. Where the terrorist wanted destruction we must build, where they wanted to sow hate we must love, and where they want to divide we must unite.
"Locally we must find a way to add in our educational programs, particularly those that teach the truth; that it is we who have the moral high-ground in this conflict. As Jews we must certainly find ways to enhance our unity, to build our communities, and to be strong in our attachment to each other, and (God’s) Torah."
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Perlstein
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Yes, Bobby Jindal, we must pray in earnest and heed the Rabbi’s healing advice: “Now we must grow and thrive, through continued building we will find solace.”
Royexum@aol.com