By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Everything you’ve ever doubted or made to be believe as false, is real. & vice versa,” Facebook posts published Sunday by the suspect arrested for a Tennessee church shooting declared. “Become the creator instead of what’s created. Whatever you say, goes. You are more than what they told us.”
Sudanese immigrant Emanuel K. Samson, 25, allegedly shot and killed one woman outside the church and then went inside, opening fire on the congregation and injuring eight others, including himself. Samson, reportedly wearing a mask, was stopped in his rampage when, per WKRN News 2 Nashville, church usher and concealed carry permit holder Robert Engle, 22, retrieved his firearm from his car and held the attacker until authorities arrived, an act described by police as “extraordinarily brave.”
“A motive wasn’t immediately known,” the report noted. A statement from the U.S. Department of Justice advised:
“The Memphis FBI Field Office’s Nashville Resident Agency, the Civil Rights Division, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee have opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tennessee. The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence. As this is an ongoing investigation we are not able to comment further at this time.”
Pending release of further information from that investigation and further reports where interviews with family and friends can reveal more, that motive is subject to speculation based on what can be learned from other resources uncovering who Samson is. One such resource is “real-time news and information portal” Heavy.com, which has posted “Emanuel Samson: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know.” Included in that report are further background details and a video interview with a police spokesman and the fact that he is “Trilingual in the following languages: English, Arabic, and Acholi (tribal language).”
Checking social media, Samson had a Twitter account, which now indicates “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!” Samson’s Facebook page has not been taken down at this writing, but in anticipation of its possible removal, several screenshots have been taken of posts he has made that may give further insights into what might have influenced his action.
Two major influences appear to have been bodybuilding and religion. A proliferation of self-portraits highlighting his muscular physique speaks of a person very much into his physical appearance and strength. Spiritual references also appear throughout, News accounts indicate he used to worship at the church he attacked although he has not attended in recent years.
Other posts that may shed further light are more political in nature and reveal stories and ideas he believed worth sharing his opinions on, and include subjects like Islam, Black Panthers, Africa, the police, and being against “white extremism.”
Noting that some of Samson’s opinions and concerns are not without basis, the fact remains his opinions have been colored by “progressive” interpretations. In no case can these excuse, mitigate or even make understandable why he developed murderous rage, snapped and took it out on innocent churchgoers in a country that took him in and provided opportunities he’s have never known in his native Sudan.
What’s undiscovered at this writing is if Samson’s guns were legally owned, or if he had a concealed carry permit. What’s known is that a lawful concealed carrier saved the day before the police could have possibly arrived, something the gun-grab groups scoff at.
So leave it to the Bloomberg lackeys at Everytown to not even mention that, but to instead self-righteously snivel:
“Churches should be peaceful places where families gather to worship without the threat of gun violence.”
If it had been up to them and to the citizen disarmament policies they demand, Samson would have had plenty of opportunity to up the body count.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
Thank you for explaining your views. You might be able to help out with some other questions I have. I agree that there are deep social issues that drive crime. Guns sold in the US don’t cause crime, but they certainly facilitate it, not just in the US, but in Central America as well. A large number of the crimes we read about would simply be impossible to commit without guns or similar-level firepower. A person intent on mass-knifing a crowd probably wouldn’t get very far (though I know there have been some significant ones), and a large portion of… Read more »
Your message on the heals of the Las Vegas massacre is very poorly timed at best. More, your logic in justifying the proliferation of guns in this case is badly flawed. The Second Amendment surely could not have anticipated such an abuse of its intent and purpose. What I see more today is “the Chicken and Egg story” whereby the USA has become so impacted by violent acts and simply violence that it has caused the citizens to arm themselves as protection against the likelihood of violence against them. In essence, let’s arm all of the Chickens as defense against… Read more »
The purpose of the Second Amendment was to allow colonists to defend themselves against Indians and Canadians (who were essentially British). If the other nations threatened, the militias could deal with them too. As we found in the revolution, moving a continental army in response to every attack was extremely difficult and had some bad side effects (see 3rd Amendment). Except for the preamble, the Second Amendment is the only place in the Constitution and all of the Amendments where any sort of reason is given for the framework it enacts. There is no mention of self defense or of… Read more »
Not correct at all. You should read Patrick Henry’s comments in DEBATES, the journal of the Virginia debates on adoption of the US Constitution. I won’t copy and paste from the text of the book available on line from the Library of Congress. But Henry opposed adoption of teh new US Constitution in 1788 because the protections of individual rights were inadequate. He refers directly to the militia in many places, one that I can almost remember perfectly goes like this… Henry— Let’s make him a king [the president] at the head of the army. Your militia will desert you… Read more »
Irrelevant, as I said above. There were strong differences of opinion in many aspects of the constitution and even the concept of a federal government. The words in the Bill of Rights are the ones they agreed to and continued to enforce for many years afterward. Even the NRA was fine with that, backing gun control laws, until sometime in the 1970s when they suddenly reinterpreted the Second Amendment.
Uh, No. Irrelevant as the 2nd amendment was always held to maintain individual firearms possession absent of government permission, hence it’s nature as an individual right, until it was “Reinterpreted” by politicians in the 20th century.
The personal writings of the founders back that up, like it or not.
If more laws against guns will make us safer then why is Chicago not violence free ? They have lots of anti-gun laws !! How is a young lady on rer way home from work who must be out on the street at night supposed to protect herself from the gang of guys in a car that are looking for a girl to rape. How about the older person that encounters a weight lifter perhaps with a chain that just wants to harm a person. These persons may be all drugged up. The police “may” arrive 10 minutes later to… Read more »
@Allison I personally favor ladies such as yourself being armed. As someone who wants to be a good husband and father someday, my family’s safety would be of top priority. I strongly support your right to carry and to terminate any individual who would attempt to cause you bodily harm, and ask only that you educate every friend you possibly have to the honest truth involving firearms and self defense. You can’t legislate morality, and you can’t legislate sanity. Sadly, Lawrence will never have an honest answer for your reply because there is no rational response. All he can do… Read more »
This message needs to be heard. There are already laws against murder. Did they work? You coward ass liberals want a world where you feel some higher power or law will keep you safe. Guess what criminals are already by definition Breaking the Law. Until every man and women in this country take their own personal safety and that of their loved ones into their own hands- we will continue to have VICTIMS. How long would it take for a cop to get to you right now? Any cop will tell you this, police are a reactionary force. Something happens… Read more »
Willie, what if you notice that the intruder coming through the door is unarmed. What will you do, hand him one of your guns first? Make it a fair fight? Because that is exactly what you are doing when you support a policy of arming everyone, with no questions asked. You live in a fantasy world where your guns will save you, but in fact they are less than worthless for that. You are more likely to shoot yourself or your family members. And for spree shooters, read the Buzzfeed article that Recce1 posted below. Over a span of 20… Read more »
Ness your are living in a delusional world. The criminals will always have a gun so I just want a fair fight by being armed my self. If someone came through my front door and didn’t have s gun I’ll hold him until the cops get here. What ru gonna do when a criminal come through the door and you have nothing but a dumb ass look on your face? Your gonna be a VICTIM! That’s your choice to make. I have had to use my guns to protect myself and my family. I know damn well what I’m doing… Read more »
It is too bad that nobody will be around to teach your kids how to think. You may be an excellent marksman. Your kids could go on to win national-level shooting awards. You could all be accredited gun safety instructors. What about the guy next door who isn’t? When you arm everyone as we are doing now, you arm the morons, the drunks, the criminals, the Hillary lovers, and the people who you plan to shoot when they come through the door. You arm people who want to overthrow the government you elected and replace it with a free-love socialist… Read more »
@ Lawrence Ness Oh, So since shotgun Willie disagrees with you, and since he has no intentions of capitulating to a confiscation scheme you seem to be in favor of and won’t give up his guns until he is dead. So because of that you seem to think it is ok to now wish death upon him and leave his children fatherless? “It is too bad that nobody will be around to teach your kids how to think.” And please, don’t try to say “That is being taken out of context!” Most of us here aren’t stupid, and we can… Read more »
Factual Notes. Anyone “Intruding” in a house is already breaking the law, since it implies having gained entry illegally and not having any legitimate right to be present. This also means the point raised about shooting family members is a false premise. This further highlights Lawrence’s ignorance of firearms handling rules since you verify your target before you pull the trigger, and you don’t aim it at anything you do not intend to shoot. Further, legally, the idea of suggesting someone is unarmed does not eliminate a threat or prevent the capability of an intruder causing you grievous bodily harm.… Read more »
Lawrence Ness is of the same ilk as the people trying to quote the “Well Regulated” portion of the second amendment while ignoring everything else. They are trolls who just repeat the same mantra over and over. The last idiotic Canadian who tried it and insisted he was a Historian with a secret cypher that only he was given the revelation of (See also, the delusional joker named Geoff Smith), thought that by writing an article on an online blog should count the same as a peer review legal journal. Essentially, they’re morons hoping we will buy into their view,… Read more »
Sounds like you are trying really hard to ignore the Well Regulated clause and everything that came after it. If you can’t win an argument, start throwing insults. Once you are finished laughing, you can return to your obsession that some dark figure is waiting in the shadows to get you, and you will miraculously send him to his grave. I just hope the target of your split-second decision is not an innocent person, but, if the case arises, odds are 5 to 1 that it will be. That will be a hell of a thing to live with.
Ahh, so when you can’t win an argument, accuse the other of being an unhinged individual likely to murder an innocent from being trigger happy? And it sounds like you are trying really hard to ignore two things “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” and the more important “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted… Read more »
Finally, after hundreds of thousands of gun homicides and millions of gun suicides in the US, we have the mythical “good guy with a gun”. Miracles do happen … well, not quite. The shooter wasn’t taken out with a gun, but only held at bay after he had already shot himself. Sorry, we can’t quite call it that. You know there is a reason why a good guy has never taken out a spree shooter. People realize, when confronted with the situation, that they have a strong likelihood of missing and hitting an innocent person, or of drawing the shooter’s… Read more »
Confused as to why you would call it a “mythical guy with a gun” when clearly it would have been worse if one of the church goers hadn’t been armed. Would the attacker have turned his gun on himself? Who knows, all I know is that when confronted with some person who has a gun and is willing and intent on using it- I will have one of my own to protect myself. To say anything different is to be victim, who in the hell are you to even suggest that I become so. How about you grow a set… Read more »
Your logic is pretty twisted, and I am not sure I can untangle it for you, but I will give it a try. By supporting universal unregulated gun ownership, you are making yourself a victim, and everyone else too. You are painting a bulls eye on your forehead. Why? Because you are arming both sides! And there are a lot more of them, and there are much less predictable, and your years of careful training won’t prepare you for the split second life and death decision you might have to make. And here is the awful part: the people most… Read more »
@ Lorence Ness, your logic is definitely twisted. You are an absolute liberal that made and drank the kool aid. Your posts will not change the minds of anyone on this forum. Most everyone here are Constitutional conservatives so you are wasting your time and spinning your wheels. This country was founded on the Constitution and we will abide by it. Some of the suggestions you make about accidents with guns is prespostorist and has no meaning except in your mind. Accidents can happen but they are rare and that perp you referred to in your neighborhood could come into… Read more »
You are probably correct – many people in these boards are completely immune to logic and facts. Statistics showing your gun is 5 times as likely to kill you or a family member must be fake news.
You call yourself a “Constitutional Conservative”, but I know that there is one part of the Bill of Rights about which you are clueless. I can save that for another post, since it would be the ultimate blasphemy,
I see Lawrence Ness is a firm believer in a police state. I assume he’d love to see Facebook and other media monitored by No Such Agency and SWAT teams sent out without warrants to raid homes and confiscate any weapons found. I also assume he’d raid homes of individuals who “stockpiled” guns, whatever he means by that. I also assume mass shooting are never stopped by those with private weapons because the MSM rarely reports such cases or because Lawrence refuses to believe it happens. But maybe if he read https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/10-potential-mass-shootings-that-were-stopped-by-someone-wit, he might change his mind. But then aqain,… Read more »
You completely misunderstand my post. I was trying to point out how absurd the idea is of trying to predict who might go nuts at any point. Of course I wouldn’t want Facebook to undertake such a task, and I believe that NSA activities that spy on Americans are illegal for reasons entirely unrelated to the 4th amendment. It is a fact of life that crazy people will always turn up in random places and there is not much you can do about it. As a technology and a science, psychology is somewhat behind alchemy, and it grows even more… Read more »
As opposed to the argument of “Let’s ban guns!! That will solve everything if we make those illegal for civilian ownership!”
Worked really good when we made murder illegal didn’t it, or banned booze in the 20’s?
No, lets regulate guns and ban the ones that have no useful purpose for hunting or self defense. Let’s require gun owners to be responsible for their guns
Ok, Perhaps we should also regulate the internet and require people to obtain permission to use their free speech rights as well. Wouldn’t that keep people like you from being able to post a lie over and over again trying to prop up your own opinion in the hopes of forcing it on others? Of course, that’s not going to happen. The problem with your current argument is that you are suggesting we pass laws to restrict and control the firearms of people who have not broken any laws, namely the very individuals who are Responsible. Again, why not just… Read more »
Lawrence, my apologies for “misunderstanding” your post, but perhaps you should have been more clear. However, there’re many liberals who desire to institute a nanny police state. They’ve forgotten Benjamin Franklin’s adage that those who’d trade essential liberties for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security. However, I’m quite relieved that you staunchly believe that NSA and other agencies who spy on Americans without a court warrant is unconstitutional and absolutely wrong. I also had to pleasantly smile about your description of psychology. Although I’m a firm believer that the 2nd Amendment gives INDIVIDUALS the right to own weapons, I… Read more »
I have a few things to agree with, and to disagree with your comment Recce1, but I’ll keep it short and without sarcasm as I often insert in other areas. First, Individual rights are not limited to only a select number or group of individuals. The cost of a free society is a loss of some safety due to the unknown. Second, Note that in the first eight amendments each one is not an individual right, but as you say are individual restrictions and restraints on all levels of Government, with the 9th and 10th stating “Just because we didn’t… Read more »
@Recce1
Case in point. Take a look at Lawrence Ness’s comment to Shotgun Willie that he made at 6:08PM Eastern time tonight, on this very same page. That should tell you very well your original reading of him was on point.
The Revelator, Thanks for your comments. Please keep in mind one of Lawrence’s arguments against the 2nd Amendment was about arming EVERYONE. In response I WAS NOT suggesting restricting people from owning weapons by law, except in cases of violent criminals and those adjudicated as mentally ill by a court. What I was suggesting is that NOT everyone is psychologically suited to owning a gun, even though it’s their constitutional right which shouldn’t be infringed. Perhaps this is a bit sarcastic, but I’d be concerned with arming all of the snowflakes, leftist professors, Antifa, and BLM crowd. But Lawrence is… Read more »
“And never forget what gun control is REALLY about. It is not about controlling guns, it is about controlling people. Lawmakers who want to disarm you really want to control you. History is full of governments who first registered guns, then confiscated guns, then rounded up and systematically killed those who the government deemed were trouble makers… 170 million of them! Don’t think it could not happen here. Look at the freedom and liberties we have lost since 9/11. Sandy Hook Elementary is just another scapegoat to take another step at controlling the American people. After every mass shooting, we… Read more »
@V E Veteran, you did your homework and came up with a lot of good statistics. Good job! all the long winded posts here do not change a thing. You ARE correct the only reason for gun control is to control the people, not the guns. If they take our freedoms the only ones with guns, conceivably, will be criminals and the criminal government.
You are right when you say that is the end of the discussion.
Imagine, a black immigrant shot up a church. He, probably, got upset about the nfl and decided to level the playing field. Whatever his reason was is not a conceivable way to conduct himself. This is close to Nashville that has turned somewhat liberal and they probably welcomed him with open arms and lots of dollars. Keep giving to us or we will protest and, possibly, shoot you.
Many people I know from church carry. I would pity the fool that tries to rob our church. No signs on the doors restricting guns and no one objects.
Keep on carrying to church. It is our God ordained and right. I preach sometimes while wearing my pistol on my side open. I always carry when I go to church sometimes concealed simply because of having fun being diverse. All my deacons carry and many members also. Kudos for the one brother that was at least cognizant to go to the car and retrieve his gun. This and other stats agree with John Lotts great book More Guns less crime!! We as a country have given more help to the peoples of the world than any other country and… Read more »
I would definetly feel at home in your church where are you hopefully near Bessemer, AL
Just another murdering foreign thug. No name, No glory or fame. No trial, just kill him.
In this country we follow due process. In some dictatorship — Putin’s Russia, Assad’s Syria — they would just kill him.
Samuel, I take it you’re not an American patriot who believes in the Constitution, the rule of law, or the Bible. So what makes you any better than the miscreant? You need a Saul type experience.
Maybe he was watching too much NFL Football?
It couldn’t happen in a church they are a “gun free zone”! AKA “free kill zone” Surely the best way to save lives it to make people defenseless.
My church isn’t a gun free zone. We have a guy who open carries every Sunday. I haven’t seen anyone say a peep about it either.
When I get my CCW, I will likely carry there too, as I volunteer at the entrance 2x a month, and am in a great place to see anyone coming in with ill will.
Hope somebody tests him for ‘roids.
Yep!
Seeing as how they were all white victims and the shooter was black could it be termed a racial crime, or a hate crime?
Probably not as it wouldn’t fit the liberal definition of a hate crime.
What , you expect the same treatment as an immigrant. I’m sorry this is part of your “white privilege” you will receive no concern, no it isn’t a hate crime it was directed at White people by a black man. Don’t you know we the white people who haven’t owned or even told a black man to do a single thing, are still supposed to feel sorry and make restitution for something that happened hundreds of years ago. This is why I carry ever day. So that if/when a crazed individual with a death wish is trying to make a… Read more »
So I suppose you know something the rest of us poor ignorant white folk don’t? Please enlighten us all.
VE Veteran, He was being satirical at first, then got serious. What he is attempting to say is that people here in the US are being held in a constant state of “Us vs Them” by the political parties and the media, while our schools have been turned into glorified daycare centers for toddlers within the ages of 5 to 35, and with a sizable portion of the world population that absolutely hates the idea that we have free thought and free will lurking just behind the shadows looking for opportunities to kill us. His solution as stated is for… Read more »
Close however being a veteran neither qualifies nor disqualifies an individual not everyone needs to be trained to fight. Being a patriot has nothing to do with serving the military
Mad American, you’re right, one doesn’t have to be a veteran to be a good patriot, but more often than not we veterans are better trained to act in such situations.
@Mad American
A point I have tried to make when people try to use time in the military as an excuse to dictate their opinions to others(Thereby dishonoring themselves next to those who actually served)
Was just trying to offer an easy translation was all. I tip my hat to you sir.
White Christians are not a protected class under left wing orthodoxy. There won’t even be empathy in the MSM.
It should!
A moratorium on immigration… if even one American citizen were saved, it would be worth it.
Yes, a moratorium! They should have started it in 1620.