How I Ended Up Here

I never thought that I’d be that guy.

I never thought this would be something I’d spend my time and energy on.

I have plenty more important things to do. I have a family. I have work. I have plenty of day-to-day drama. The last thing I need to add to the list is an extremely dangerous activity.

And that’s how the average person today views the who concept of firearm ownership.

An unnecessary extremely dangerous activity. Lethal.

Only something that’s extremely dangerous. Nothing else. We’ve discounted anything beneficial.

Yeah, firearms might be useful for someone in the military, someone in the army, a police officer. But they’re not useful for me. They’re not useful for us. We have no business with a firearm.

This is what the average person thinks. This is what I used to think.

I for the most part agreed with these sentiments. Primarily because I took these default positions that were fed to us, and I didn’t particularly feel that I had a need for a firearm.

Which is a little odd, considering I’m very much the type of person that likes to be prepared. I’m the guy with jumper cables in his trunk, tools in my backpack, a plastic bin of cables of every type of connector imaginable. You need a #10 Torx screwdriver? I have it. I have single-use tools that have one-function that I’ve used all of one time. I four foot flexible drill bit? Yeah I have one of those. Guess how many times I’ve used it.

Yet a firearm was the last thing on my list of items lacking in my life.

That slowly changed over the last five to ten years.

We had covid where you were not allowed to leave your house. Or the initial mad dash that emptied all the shelves in the stores and you just bought anything so you could at least use the receipt as toilet paper which was a luxury item.

We had the George Floyd riots and continual protests across the US in which the way participate was via breaking property and through arson.

We had the horrible events of October 7th when suddenly it became fashionable to blame Jews for provoking a terrorist group to attack and murder innocent kids.

We had the continual protests on college campuses and in general public places where it was unsafe to be to simply exist and be Jewish.

Every week there were multiple incidents of Jews being attacked.

I happened to have lived for a period in a pretty affluent town and area. There were break-ins and burglaries constantly. So much so, that one morning someone was car-jacked right in their own driveway. The thieves made off with two luxury cars right out of the garage.

All this was happening and we were all sitting on edge with our hostages being held and tortured in tunnels under Gaza.

My journey started at some point during all of this, and I was reaffirmed this past year during the High Holidays.

If you don’t remember we had spent two years waiting for our brothers and sisters being held captive to be released.

There was a constant and continual feeling of unease. Not only of the situation in Israel, but of our general safety and that of our children in college and anyone living in a large city. We gathered and listened to stories of captives that had returned home with bittersweet stories of survival and loss.

I know I continually felt on edge. And I know it wasn’t over nothing.

And then came the end of September beginning of October and a cease fire was called - a final return of hostages. And somehow over the course of a week, we were supposed to believe that suddenly we were safe. All was OK in the world again. And the feeling of unease from two days ago was supposed to be considered fretting over ancient history.

I realized that nothing materially in my life had changed to make me more safe other than the suggestion that all was better.

It was not.

I was not.

I wasn’t willing to be told it all was OK.

I had already started my journey. I had already started taking responsibility for my safety. I had already started to view gatherings and events from a security perspective. I wasn’t about to stop just because we were suddenly told to.

Then we had the tragedy at Bondi beach in Australia. We watched as the police hid and cowered.

Is this what we’re supposed to rely on in our time of need?! I have no issue deferring to local police and law enforcement for safety. I do have an issue being told to be purposely helpless.

Part of that view is from doing the training and taking this seriously. Police do not have a monopoly over being the only ones capable of dealing with dangerous situations. We can all take steps whether large or small with safety in mind.

I started my journey because I was interested in having some agency over my personal safety. It is not something that you can do half way. If I wanted to be responsible for my safety and the safety of my family, I would do this properly.

I would educate myself, and I would put in at least the time any safety officer would. If they could learn it so can I.

And I did.

And I kept the receipts.

I started this post speaking about all the random stuff I own just in case I ever need it. What happens when I need that 4 inch putty knife to fix a drywall hole and I don’t have it? Nothing. Nothing happens. I find the closest thing that I might be able to use instead. Or I go to the store and buy one. I suffer some inconvenience. That’s pretty much it.

A firearm and something that is used to protect yourself is a completely different story. Not having it isn’t simply an inconvenience. It can be dire.

If you go hiking today, you pack water, You pack basic first-aid kit. If you are seriously hiking you pack a compass and a map. Perhaps a GPS and a radio. It’s a no-brainer.

No one leaves their house today to drive anywhere without a cell phone. And we’re talking locally, running errands. Would you even consider taking a trip and not packing a cell phone?

Let’s talk about our kids.

Parents today are buying their children devices younger and younger so they can always be in touch. A watch perhaps that can dial 911, and our cell phone for our 8 year olds. Because, what if they need to reach me? What if I need to reach them? In an emergency.

An emergency!

Except we’re preparing and preparing, and those are not emergencies.

They’re inconveniences. They’re exercises in patience and dealing with some frustration.

Those are not emergencies.

The emergency is when you have a lunatic in your school, or in your synagogue, or in your temple, or in your house, and what’s your plan of action then?

Call the police?! Yes! Call the police! But are you sure you can? Are you sure you can do that hiding in the closet hoping a crazy person doesn’t find you?

Everyone knows that in dire situations you are faced with a dilemma. Fight or Flight. You need to chose one.

But that is wrong. That isn’t really your choices. And that isn’t what the typical reaction is. There’s a third reaction: Freeze!

It’s Fight, Flight, or Freeze!

And Freeze is actually what most of us will do.

We would freeze and not move and hope that whatever is hunting us doesn’t find us. No, you’re not jostling your phone trying to dial 911. You are powerless to fight back against an attacker that can overpower you with their strength or weapons. And running will just allow to them chase you and cut you down.

So, you freeze and pray you aren’t found because you’ve already lost.

And I know you agree that’s a terrible situation, and in that same breath you think, that wouldn’t happen to my house, my school, my shul. And you are right too! It probably wouldn’t.

We aren’t preparing for a certainty. We need to prepare for that slim possibility.

The issue is that the calculus cannot be only over whether something might happen. “Well, I’d prepare, if there was a good enough chance I’d need it.” You need to factor in what the consequences are, and how much the you’d suffer if that thing that shouldn’t happen, actually does. You need to factor the consequences as the weight in the calculus, not strictly how probable something may happen.

My point, and I will stress this again and again throughout this site, is not to advocate that you yourself get a firearm. It is to change your mentality of no-one except law enforcement should have one.

Your position should be, those who want to take this seriously and be responsible for our safety should be welcomed and encouraged. And we should all be encouraging others to be one of those people for us.

This is how I started on this journey.

I wanted other people people to do the training and be responsible. And without approaching the topic directly as soon as I got close to it in my parent groups, in my community, I was overwhelmed with knee-jerk reactions shutting out even the thought or the consideration.

Guns are deadly. Guns are bad. Absolutely not!

And so I started on the journey on my own.

I would need to put in the time and effort and learn about this subject on my own.

I would learn about safety. I would learn how to be safe. I would learn how keep myself safe. I would learn how to keep my family safe. I would learn how to keep others safe. I would learn how to keep my community safe.

I’m not saying I will merely learn how use a firearm to keep myself and others safe from those who seek to attack us. Yes, that is one goal. But just as important, I will learn how to keep myself and others safe from the firearm itself. At least half the training I realized along this journey is specifically that.

And I hope to share this knowledge with you.