Hood Mothers Video: A Lesson In Ghetto Survival

This video shows a scene recently taking place in downtown Atlanta where a security guard is trying to kick some mothers and their children off of a mall’s property. Things escalated and eventually he had to tase one of them. This just infuriated the crowd and caused more to jump into the conflict. So many thoughts I have from this video that I am seeing Youtube more and more as a saving grace. We can learn as Blackneks what is needed to survive these type of situations ahead of time. Nothing is better than prep.

1) WHAT I ADMIRED ABOUT THE MALL COP: This guy did not panic at all and knew what tools he had available. He was packing a taser and a handgun. I don’t care how big and bad an aggressive person acts, there is nothing like have an armed weapon pointing at them to get them to reconsider their actions. It is so important Blackneks that you learn handgun safety and stay packing. Know the concealed weapons laws in your state. It is getting crazier and crazier out there and sooner or later some of that craziness is going to come to your door step.

2) MALL COP CRITICISM: I wish this guy can get a better job. He was doing what he had to do in a horrible situation. Unfortunately, when dealing with people in lower economic communities, you have to understand how important RESPECT is. It means everything. It affects their social standing. This cop seemed to target everyone when you really have to pick your battles. Unfortunately, because he disrespected so many of these people so publicly, I truly worry about his safety. It’s one thing if you are defending yourself against a random thug. It’s another when you are a target by an entire community. I hope he finds a new place of employment fast.

3)HOW TO DEAL WITH A KIR SITUATION: I will refer to the aggressive individuals seen in this video from this point on in this blog as the ‘Keeping It Realers’ or KIRs. As you can see in this video, KIRs can turn any living area into a war zone. IF you ever visit a city with a low-income community, you are bound to encounter KIRs. Often this might be on a bus or subway or in a store. One of the keys to surviving an encounter with KIRs is to not escalate their aggression. Avoid eye contact but don’t appear timid or fearful. Act like you belong. If a KIR starts to act up directly towards you, it is likely an attempt to impress their friends but could be a planned robbery. Let them express their bravado and remain calm. Stay polite. Especially if it is women involved as they can join together pretty quickly and through being vocal, as seen in the video, attract onlookers and more aggressive male KIRs. Remember,they are looking for any sign of disrespect. At the same time, stay alert and plan your defense in case the KIR desires to make a physical move. KIRs only act big and bad because they either have a weapon or are surrounded by friends and associates. If you have to reveal your weapon in self defense, back the KIR down but then remove yourself from the location/situation before the KIR can set up their attack or get reinforcements. I highly support having a taser as it allows you to make the first strike without it being fatal.

4)NEVER SEND YOUR KID TO A KIR SCHOOL: As you can see in the video, the children were kicked out of the mall for being unruly. Apples don’t fall far from the trees. In a largely KIR community, these are the bulk of the parents. Your child will either be influenced to be like a KIR kid or be the victim of them. If you want to give your kids any kind of chance at all, avoid living in these types of communities at all cost. If you love the city then live somewhere just outside to make weekend trips easy but don’t risk your family to crime and chaos.

5) Thank you Youtube. It is easy for us not to deal with internal issue when others are reporting it, but when we can see the ugliness and disease ourselves, we have no choice but to confront these behaviors and issues and improve.

More Thoughts On The Gun Debate

As I listen to more argue for and against more gun control, something seems very obvious. There are two different problems needing two different solutions, but everyone is trying to address the situation with the same paintbrush. Gun violence in high crime, urban problems has been a problem since American cities were created. Solving this problem means addressing the causes of the high crime to begin with. There are many smart and hardworking people working on this issue and in many cities, like New York, the problem is being addressed. However, this is a totally different issue than controlling and preventing the actions of random nutcases who get their hands on guns and shoot up specific, crime-free locations, such as elementary schools, churches, malls, and movie theaters. The laziest of thinkers are trying to turn this into a race issue. All shootings are terrible. All deaths are sad and we should work hard to prevent them. But the gun control steps which make sense in the first situation, such as criminal background checks, would have little impact on the events of the second situation. None of the mass shooters of recent years had crimes in their background.

Meanwhile, people in rural communities who have exercised responsible gun ownership for multiple generations are rightly upset by the control solutions being floated out there. Let’s stop trying to find one solution to fix every component of gun violence. Only addressing the specific problems will bring the best answers.

Gun Law Proposals Don’t Seem Effective Against The Primary Problem

In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, many politicians and gun advocates are proposing ideas and laws to prevent such gun violence in the future. These basically are coming down to stronger and more required background checks and improvements in the evaluation and treatment of mental illness. But when it comes to background checks and mental illness, these proposals seem to be missing the obvious: none of them would have prevented the shootings such as those at Newtown or Columbine. These crimes were done by kids who snapped. We are not talking about life long criminals, but people who lose all sense of a moral compass. These shooters had no past felonies and appeared to be functioning (though maybe anti-social)  students or workers in society. More over, in the case of Newtown, the shooter didn’t even use guns he owned. So, while all of these proposals might have a good effect as we don’t want felons and the mentally unstable getting a hold of guns, I’m not seeing the actual problem being addressed. Unfortunately, unless we create some type of Person of Interest system for monitoring all behavior to look for sudden changes and escalations, it’s going to be difficult to get a jump on such individuals. I did hear of someone who suggested making new gun mechanisms which would disable the gun around schools, malls, and other places of large gatherings. This sounds the most promising.

PROTECT: Parts Of A Gun

Believe it or not, I am just starting to learn about firearms and their proper use. I wanted to write something about the gun used in some of the recent tragedies, the Bushmaster AR 15 but I know nothing of gun vocabulary to even pass on basic info. I found the diagram below on a ‘prepper‘ website. These websites and people believe in hardcore prepping for some possible event which breaks down all of societies laws and order, creating a Wild Wild West for food and resources. So they take protecting the family to the extreme.

“1. Barrel. The barrel is the part the bullet moves through after it is fired. The muzzle is the open end of the barrel that the bullet exits the gun through.

2. Action. The action is the part that has the mechanism that fires the bullet. My rifle picture is a bolt action. There are also lever action, semi automatic, break action single shot rifles. The top handgun is a semi automatic. The bottom is a revolver.

3. Grip or Stock. The grip or stock is the part you hold onto. Generally it’s a grip on a handgun and a stock on a long gun.

4. Trigger Guard. The piece around the trigger that protects it from getting bumped.

5. Trigger. The part your finger pulls to make the gun fire.

6. Sights. Sights come in various styles also. Most firearms have a front sight at the muzzle end of the barrel, and a rear sight at the back end of the barrel. Funny thing, the rifle picture I used has no sights (it wants a scope real badly) so I just put the arrows approximately where the sights would be if it had them.”

Following Newtown, NRA Makes Good But Wishful Suggestion

After a long and probably wise delay, the National Rifle Association finally came out with their post-Newtown tragedy comments.  The big suggestion to come out of all of it was to have armed guards at every school.  Considering how vulnerable schools are, especially elementary schools where the kids don’t have a fighting chance, I think armed protection would be a great idea. I even think the cost would be nullified by the number of fathers willing to volunteer on rotation to serve such an honorable post. Beats the heck out of cookie baking for the next PTO meeting.  Whatever cost might come out of this security could be offset from a special tax coming off of gun registrations. What gun owner would mind paying 1-5% more to keep kids safe while keeping the government off their guns.