On 3 August 2018, the sheriff’s office of Taos County, New Mexico executed a warrant on a compound in that county to try to find the 3-year old son of the man running the compound, AG Wahhaj. The boy’s father, Siraj Wahhaj is the son of Siraj Wahhaj, the head of the Masjid At-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn. The boy’s body was found buried in the compound. Along with Wahhaj, the younger, four other adults taken into custody and 11 starving children from age 1 – 15 were rescued.

These are the facts as reported by the news and the Taos County Sheriff’s office. There is not much to debate here. What I want to address is the character of bad guys, a category into which Wahhaj fits. Reports coming to light tell us that Wahhaj was training the children to shoot up schools. So, what does this tell us about the character of bad guys? Primarily, they are cowards. Wahhaj was going to send children into schools to do his bidding. There is no indication that he was going to take an active part in any of this.

Let’s look at another case. On 17 June 2016, Dylann Roof went into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina and sat in on a prayer service. In fact, he sat in on the prayer service for quite some time, some say as long as an hour, before he pulled out a gun and murdered nine black Americans. Roof is an avowed white supremacist. None of the murdered was armed and Roof was free to carry out his plan unhindered.

I could go on with many examples and they would all have three things in common. 1) they were all cowards, 2) the bad guy had little to no competition. All of his victims were at his mercy and defenseless, and 3) they all took place in gun-free zones.

In my previous report “A continuing Discussion on An Attitude of Awareness” I stressed the importance of staying aware of your surroundings. This Attitude is probably the most important tactic you can use to keep you safe.

I am very leery of going into gun-free zones and, when possible, refuse to patronize these businesses. Of course, there are numerous places that the law does not allow us to carry such as in court houses and on military bases, to name just a couple. I encourage all citizens to learn where these gun-free zones are.

I also encourage all responsibly armed citizens to get training on how to respond in case of a coward coming in and opening fire. My training emphasizes avoidance rather than engagement. An outstanding way to get this training is the NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home course coupled with the NRA Defensive Pistol course. Both of these courses are offered on a regular basis at Falcon Personal Security.