I live in Columbus, Ohio.  Was born and raised here.  I am 64 years old, graduated proudly from THE Ohio State University.  I currently live in Upper Arlington, about 7-8 minutes away from the Ohio State campus. 


Yesterday morning (Monday, 11/28), I was driving a short distance to get my morning coffee from Crimson Cup on the corner of Lane Ave. and Northwest Blvd.  While waiting at the traffic light, an unmarked police car screamed by me, turned left on Lane headed for campus - wondered what the hell was going on??  I did not know what had happened at the time. 


Sooooo, I got my coffee and returned to my home office.  About an hour later my wife texted me about an active shooter (what everyone thought at the time) on campus.  I couldn't believe it  .  I turned on Fox News and they confirmed that 8 students had been attacked.  The scene on the local news was right out of a bad movie, except it was going on less than 5 miles from me and on the campus of MY Buckeyes.  An Islamic Somali student was the perp and had been shot DRT.


Fast forward to tonight, where the news services are reporting that ISIS is taking credit for the attack.


I am writing to my friends here because I wanted to tell how tentative, angry and concerned I am.  For me AND my family and friends, which I am very fortunate enough to have many.  Two of my best friends are doctors at OSU and I am concerned for them.  Here in Columbus, it is hard to NOT KNOW someone connected in some way with Ohio State.


Here we just polished off Michigan's ass in football, but now have a REAL enemy.


Tomorrow morning I am going to my local gun store to shop for a true, concealed carry that I will actually carry damn near all of the time.


For here, it now seems a little like Dodge City in the 1850's - everyone is talking about getting concealed carry.


And now ISIS is in Columbus.


From my cold, dead hands..............


Pat

Sorry this hit so close to home for you.  It is a terrible tragedy.

Yes, It is sad that we as a country are being targeted here...preparation is a key to survival!  My state is an open carry but I choose to be licensed concealed carry and do so 99.9% of the time.

I have seen the City of New Orleans in decay and it has been spreading out further and further since hurricane Katrina!  I hate going to the New Orleans are, when I have to I actually have a firearm out and in easy reach should a carjacking attempt be tried at a traffic light...      Most of the time I will avoid certain areas totally!

As a transplanted Texas living in Tennessee it's become painfully clear that there are no safe places anywhere..
Columbus, OH unfortunately joins: (to name just a few)
Orlando, FL
San Bernardino, CA
Chattanooga, TN
Moore, OK
Boston, MA
Garland, TX
Fort Hood, TX
Buenna Vista, NJ
New York, NY
Washington, DC.
Shanksville, PA
Paris, France (twice)
Nice, France
(Understand conflating two separate Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups, although it doesn't matter)....
Added the domestic home grown wack jobs:
Dallas, TX
Baton Rouge, LA
Las Vegas, NV
New York, NY
Newtown, CT
Charleston, SC

List goes on and on and on...
All we can do is be prepared, vigilant and go on with our lives.   

PS... Not a Wolverine fan but did watch the game and letting the football characterization reference slide as a show of respect.   

They don't have to be terrorist either.  23 years ago I was part of an en-masse hostage situation at a basketball arena during a religious address.

https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=17128

I was in the choir that night.  Front row seats.  While it eventually turned out the Mr. Cody had no explosive device, it was very tense for several minutes.  More so for my mother than for me.  She was watching via satellite broadcast, knowing I was there.  She saw a man rush the stage, declare he had a bomb, and then the feed was cut.  She was in a fine state.

I watched this documentary on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. If you haven't watched it, I recommend you do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScO4XAL2bOg

Watching it led to watching a video on the Mumbai, India attack and a few videos on ISIS. AK47s, explosives and suicide bomb vests were part of their arsenals.
   
An attack against shoppers in a mall is easy for us to relate to. Easy to imagine ourselves in that situation and how we need to be prepared to deal with it as best we can.

The attackers in both cities acted as if there would be NO armed resistance. And they were right. India, obviously so. Shoppers in Nairobi were searched for weapons before entering the mall. Of course, the scanning staff either ran away or were killed and were of no help to the people in the "gun free" mall.
   
I suspect our police will be better prepared. In those two cities, "help" stayed outside for the most part. There were some brave people in Kenya. Mumbai was a clusterfu... Some Mumbai police entered after hours or days, many ran away. Authorities in both cities should be ashamed.

As we well know, even with better trained police, they'll most likely be elsewhere at the start of the attack.

Be vigilant.

Be ready.

2016, 1880's, 3,000 BC, it doesn't make much difference what year it is. Man has always been afflicted with evil and there are as many evil men today as there were centuries or millennia ago. I've been carrying a handgun for 3 decades (on/off duty and now through retirement) and I don't understand why anyone that can legally carry a weapon doesn't. The police can't be everywhere all the time and if something happens the only defense you will have is what you are carrying.

I remember when terrorists were hitting targets in Europe (Germany-Baader Meinhoff Gang, Italy-Red Brigades, and the UK-IRA) as well in Israel back in the 1980's and knew that we would be getting hit soon enough. We eventually did and people still don't learn that terrorism can happen anywhere at anytime. Not only terrorism, but, there are hundreds of thousands of criminals, gang members (Hell's Angels, Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, Neo-Nazis, Bloods/Crips, MS13, Asian Brother Hood, Asian Boyz, etc, etc, etc), domestic terrorists (Weather Underground, Symbionese Liberation Army, ELF, BLM, Sovereign Citizens, The Republic of Texas-the group that is similar to Sovereign Citizen group that believes that the constitution and all US and state laws don't apply to them), and murderous individuals (Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Charles Manson, Charles Ng, etc, etc, etc)  here in  the U.S. to worry about without having to factor in the foreign terrorists. And, our State Dept. has been importing foreign criminals and potential terrorists for the last 30 years that I am aware of. 

Like the credit card company advertisement, when it comes to my life I have my guns which, for the last 32 years I don't leave home without them. I don't need current events to remind me of the evil in the world and the need to protect myself. 

     

In our Constitution we banned Muslims from entering the USA.

It's time to enforce it.

Quote from: Olgo on December 08 2016 07:57:37 PM MST
In our Constitution we banned Muslims from entering the USA.

It's time to enforce it.

WTF are u talking about?  Please state the article, clause or amendment supporting this statement:

Seems it's more complicated than what I said. I was referring to the 1952 case but we do have a clause concerning Immigration and Naturalizing laws.

To make it clear, I'd say instead that we have the power to deport and ban the Muslims from our country. Trump is working on that.

I am pretty sure any such law would be contradict the first amendment. 

And if you want a real threat to our gun rights, have Trump keep working on that.  Such an attempt would galvanize the left and centrist in such a way to guarantee a future election cycle would give them the power to outright ban most firearms.

While it may seem to contradict the first amendment but it does not allow a religion to disavow other religions and eliminates them.

To them we are infidels and thus must be eliminated. Well, not here in my country you MFers.

It pretty clearly does. 

You can't read the second amendment the way we gun people do;  "What part of shall no be infringed is not clear?", and then turn around and say that the phrase "Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion" allows congress to make such laws in special cases.  A law that provides a religious test for admission to the country, or as a part of consideration of naturalization would certainly promote one religion over another, the very thing the founders wished to avoid.

Further, while such an interpretation seems to solidify our preferred way of life today, what happens in 100 or 200 years if members of congress are mostly Islamic, and decide that it is Christians who are the problem. Such a reading might provide the perception of protection now, but could also lay the groundwork for our destruction under the right conditions.

Case law allowing this type of discrimination based on religious affiliation is bad for our country, and it is bad for our causes, like gun rights.  Lets judge the applicants on the basis of what they personally have done.

Quote from: Olgo on December 08 2016 10:50:05 PM MST
Seems it's more complicated than what I said. I was referring to the 1952 case but we do have a clause concerning Immigration and Naturalizing laws.

To make it clear, I'd say instead that we have the power to deport and ban the Muslims from our country. Trump is working on that.

I was an Immigration Special Agent for 28 years and I don't have a clue about what you are referring to? The US Constitution doesn't ban Muslims or any other religious groups. All it does say is that the government will not establish a religion (kind of like the Spanish government where the Catholic Church was part of the government). It does support freedom of religion and not freedom from religion which the "separation of church and state" people mistakenly believe. You can't (and there is no authority under the Immigration & Nationality Act) ban and deport legally admitted aliens who are Muslim unless they violate their status. There are sections of the I&NA that make aliens (from any country regardless of religion) inadmissible to enter the U.S. if they had certain diseases or were convicted criminals or members of terrorist organizations. The US State Dept. can also set limits on the admission of aliens from certain areas where terrorist activity is a threat to national security. But, not solely based on religion. That would be unconstitutional. And we cannot deport aliens who are legally admitted and have not violated their status just because of their religion. That would also be unconstitutional. So, I would say that you are wrong.