Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting
courtesy Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The man who opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue this morning reportedly used an AR-style rifle and multiple handguns to murder at least eight and wound six more including three police officers.

According to those who examined his social media accounts before they were taken down, he targeted the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood because of its association with HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society which brought refugees from all around the world to America.

According to heavy.com, the synagogue had undergone prior safety drills, but it isn’t clear yet as to whether anyone in the building was armed when the shooter attacked, reportedly yelling “All Jews must die!”

The synagogue’s former president Michael Eisenberg said that while he was president, he had the Department of Homeland Security come to Tree of Life. Eisenberg told the Post Gazette the agency ran safety drills. Eisenberg added, “We had to step it up as far as security, although there had been no threats. The building isn’t designed for today as far as security purposes.” Eisenberg went on to tell CBS Pittsburgh that a maintenance worker who escaped was able to do so because of the DHS’ work. Eisenberg said, “He was able to get out of the building… because the exit doors were working well. I just can’t tell you how thankful I am just to do that one task that Homeland Security told us to do.”

The shooter reportedly crawled out of the building after being wounded by police and has been taken into custody.

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103 COMMENTS

  1. I heard it fires semiautomatic rounds on the news. Thank goodness it doesn’t fire fully semiautomatic rounds

      • Not to diss a fellow gun owner but the perp bragged on Gab that he had truglow sights on his Glock. And he stores his glocks in the original factory Tupperware. Lame squared.

        What a loser.

        • Pretty sick to snipe at his hardware aftr he murdered 12 innocent people. BAN ALL AR-15 – AK-47 – anyone with one goes to prison = simple enough.

        • @ Bruce: Have you given any thought to that statement whatsoever? Not emotional content or irrational ravings, I mean real, observant thought. Do you have any idea what the implications of an action like that are?

        • He should have been tracked down and locked up the minute he started threatening to shoot up the synagogue.

          Just like anyone of your commie buddies who threaten to kill the President, OR who try and tear up our Constitution by threatening to confiscate any guns owned by law-abiding Americans

          He also should have been interrogated on the spot when he was wounded and captured, and then killed while trying to escape.

          PS – HIAS does suck but so do Catholic Charities which also beings in muslims and other turd worlders.

          Nazis, Communists and Jihadis are our enemies, people.

  2. Hope I can pickup muh black rifle before SHTF…and here I was thinking ILLinois would ban in January. This chit will be national. Stay tuned…

  3. See it coming now, armed Trump supporter mows down jewish worshippers with machine gun and 50 handguns firing them all at the same time. More lies and foolishness.

    • I’ve seen anti-semite and something about conspiracy theories. Confirmed he didn’t support trump. Not that it’ll matter, I’m sure someone somewhere is already screaming about it being his fault for not repealing all SYG laws on the planet or some other idiotic thing…

      • Once they open their mouth to perpetuate a false narrative, you have the opportunity to expose the propagandist with the quickness. This was an attack against Trump, Israel and Neo Cons, which sounds more like a Democrat/Leftist motive than a Republican one. They can say it’s Alt Right, which is correct, but the Alt Right are Leftists in disguise.

        • Leftists are obsessed with keeping the migrant caravan out? Cause this guy was. Ehhhhhh your slippin now CZ, your losin me, you kinda made sense there for a while, but I don’t know now?

        • Nazis are just another flavor of communist, and you sound like one yourself. Nazis whine about non whites and illegals but STILL WANT MARXISM.

          Marxists just like to take it in the caboose from turd worlders. YOU?

    • Unfortunately it will come down to President Trump and the NRA’s fault,even though neither committed the crime.

    • Notice, too, that nobody but nobody is talking about how things might well have been very different if just one person in that congregation had been armed. Once again if there had just been one “good guy with a gun” the bad guy with a gun could have been stopped. This spree killer knew perfectly well just who he was attacking and so had little fear of meeting armed opposition.

      • POTUS said that very statement at the bringing of this post.
        Be ye ever ready……. where were those MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE to take this shit off the net..OH WAIT IT’S PART OF THE MIDTERM NARRATIVE OF THE PROGRESSIVE LEFT. THEY ARE DANCING IN THE STREETS RIGHT NOW.

      • And if people didn’t claim diversity is a bad thing and manipulate people into keeping America White by force of arms, this might not have happened in the first place. Instead we have people stoking the flames of division and supremacy. White people don’t consider Jewish people to be White, thus those pesky Jews are part of the diversity problem…

        It only takes one person to commit such a massacre. You are not supposed to feed the animals (so to speak), it only leads to problems for us humans.

      • this guy shot four cops…one still critical…so armed security would have been nebulous,..at best…

  4. So how many dead today in a Motor Vehicle Weapons. From DUI DWI texting and driving illegal driving an simple accidents. And in 2017 over 40,000 folks dead in Motor Vehicle Weapons. Where the news coverage on that.

    • So when the Alt Right commits a terror attack minorities must give up their human/civil rights? Is that what white people are saying in Washington?

      • Yes, because had Pennsylvania raised the age to buy a rifle to 21, required a half day training class before buying “semi-automatic assault rifles”, and added a $25 “semi-automatic assault rifle” tax, this 46 year old would never have been able to buy a rifle.

        • Got to do something, right? If you do nothing that means you don’t care about children and minorities. Oh, and it’s racist.

        • curious what “training” would entail…other than providing an additional obstacle to ownership, of course…

  6. Declared an AR by the experts at NBC…so it could be anything from a lever-action Winchester to a revolver. The press ALWAYS declares it an AR-15. The Navy Yard shooter’s Remington 870 pump was an “AR-15 style rifle” for most of a day according to the press.

    • Yep. Declare any rifle an “AR” or “AK” and your local news reporter will stand a much better chance of getting a network feed. Call it a “lever action Winchester” and you might not even make the local evening news. Same thing happens with dog bites. Call the dog a “vicious pit-bull attack dog’ and you’ll get guaranteed news coverage. Doesn’t matter if the dog isn’t close to a pit-bull; in the news-is-for-sale world, the label is what counts. Who cares if the gun isn’t a AR or the dog isn’t really a pit-bull? The object is to get something, anything with your name on it, into the news cycle.

    • He could have held a broom handle and said “pew pew” and the media would call it an AR 15 style rifle.

  7. The nazis had lots of guns, too. You’d think some would learn that prayer isn’t enough to save lives in the face of armed hate. And maybe, you know, figure out a way to prevent it in other ways.

    Which, to be fair, many have- Israel has plenty of armed guards for just such a reason. They face such violence regularly enough that they can’t afford to be soft, complacent and then say “how could this happen?” It can happen because sometimes violence is the answer, and if you decide not to accept that, it doesn’t mean you’re immune.

    • Even Israel can be beaten down. With in-your-face border attacks every single day, I would have expected shoot-to-kill orders months ago. Like, when you move to your position, take at least 1000 rounds with you.

      • Are you kidding? They have absolutely unassailable overmatch against any of there potential threats save Iran, which they could still beat fairly easily in a conventional combined arms fight with our help. You really think there society has been “beaten down”, tourism there alone is billion dollar industry. Talk about hyperbole.

    • Like the black church goers in Charleston or the w.a.s.p. church goers in Sutherland Springs TX? 26 of them in TX no less. What’s the point about this particular shooting that your trying to make?

  9. Given our (Jewish) history, it truly blows my mind that all Jews aren’t rabidly pro-gun. Why is it that we believe that what happened in the past cannot happen now? Arrogance? Stupidity? An unyielding belief that if we just keep trying harder, Gov’t (oh, Great and Beneficent one! lol) can save us all? Makes it tough to not be openly contemptuous of such naivete…

    • Amen!

      Every Jew should read the Book of Esther and interpret it literally. The King was notballowed by Persian law to rescind his edict to kill the jews. All he could do was recogize their God given right to arm themselves to resist their attackers.

    • For a start, being a victim gives you moral authority. And more victims equals more moral authority.

      Prepare for more “events” in the lead up to the mid-term elections and anti-gun proposals.

    • The 9 blacks in a church in Charleston? The 26 wasps in a church in TX are you contemptuous of them? If not why not? Why these people?

  10. A Trump supporter? I guess this guy didn’t get the memo that his wife is Jewish, and that the Trumps have ties to several Jewish charities…

  11. Originally the weapon was an AK. Now it’s an AR. Soon it will be a fully automatic assault weapon. Been reading he was rabidly anti-Semitic and anti Trump. So we’ll see how this goes. Kinda convenient most of these shootings happen on Friday or Saturday so the news can roll with it all weekend long.

    • Hey, people got to work on the weekdays. Shootings are reserved for the weekends unless you’re a student.

    • Jon you have if backwards. The progs and swampies have long dropped big turds on Friday afternoon as they know most in the lamestream media won’t notice as they are out boozing by 3. Since web news arrived this doesn’t work so well but the Obumer admin widely continued the BS.

  12. So…would dems/libs feel better if he had burned the place down and blocked the doors …or used poison gas…instead of using guns?

    • I’m a conservative but you are correct in that there does seem to be some sort of racism problem with the Republicans. I will vote Democratic in hopes of pushing the GOP toward some sort of return to normalcy.

      • No Fig, you’re not a Conservative, you’re not pro gun, you’re just a lame liberal trying to troll people. Get lost.

        The nutcase in Pittsburgh was a nazi who hated both political parties and hated trump. But you don’t care about facts

      • STUPID, STUPID COMMENT..
        HE IS ONE OF YOURS…PLEASE DO VOTE DEM, IT FITS YOUR TROLL IDEOLOGY. .. SOCIALIST LOVED THE JEWS just Ask FDR and Joe Kennedy, SR….

  14. I’m pro-gun but it does look like a ban on all semi-automatic firearms is warranted. These weapons are military weapons, like grenades and such, too dangerous to be allowed into civilian hands. Pump-action shotguns, bolt-action rifles and revolvers would still be legal and are more than sufficient for civilian needs, including hunting and self-defense. Please don’t call me a “Fudd” again for this, because many of us hunters believe in responsible gun ownership, not the video-game play world of the tactical-heads.

    • What do the following massacres have in common:

      San Ysidro McDonalds
      Columbine High School
      Washington Navy Yard
      Sante Fe Texas Highschool
      Anapolis Newsroom?

      The weapons or primary weapons used were 12 gauge shotguns.

    • You appear to have the same reasoning capabilities as a Fig Newton. The AR-15 is a military rifle? Please enlighten me as to what branch of service the “AR-15 style” rifle was issued to and when? I never got one. Where’s mine? Additionally, please let us know how the Second Amendment, and firearms ownership by free people in general, has anymore than a miniscule relevance in the realm of hunting? Normally, I’m rather civilized in these discussions, but we need to hear a giant “POP” as you pull you head out of your cognizantly biased rear orifice. I’m not even sure you could be more willfully ignorant.

      • M16 and M4s ARE versions of the ArmaLite AR-15. The M is the military designation, just like a M-9 is a Bereta 92. The name AR-15 was used by Colt for the semi-auto versions as well AFTER ArmaLite sold the design to Colt.

        The fully automatic capability of the military rifles are almost never used. Firing them in semi-automatic mode is far more efficient. The B.S. the pro-gun side spouts about how lack of fully automatic fire would make the AR-15 somehow any less effective as a military weapon is almost as bad as the anti gun side somehow thinking that there is something special about individual military weapons versus typical firearms used by the average citizen.

        Now if you want to start talking about crew served weapons, we can get into a very interesting discussion.

        • I’m aware of the history of the rifle and your technical description is accurate. I know I was splitting hairs, but what I was getting at is how the Fig Newton FUDD’s of the world continue to conflate the military rifle narrative independent of actual facts. Often, their intention is to represent the AR-15 as having fully automatic capability. Or, they neglect the fact that it’s been available in some variation in the civilian market for decades, (us old guys remember the Colt SP1, as well as the FAL and HK91 and HK93) and compared to many common hunting calibers, the 5.56 is a pipsqueak. Based on FUDD logic, a wood stocked BAR or FAL isn’t nearly as much rifle, yet we know better. To the FUDD and hoplophobe, all AR pattern rifles are fully automatic machine guns with the cyclic rate and lethality of an M134. What Fig Newton gooey cookie brain fails to recognize is that the technology of the AR-15, ballistics plus rate of fire, has been available for over 40 years. What changed? People…

        • Tom, time been flyin’ while you been snoozin’. 40 years? Mid-60s to 2018 is closer to 55 years than 40. I often refer to something happened 5-10 years ago, then discover it was 25 years ago. Welcome to the elderly.

        • Larry you’re exaclty right! I was trying to make sure I didn’t exaggerate. Being over 50 and mathematically challenged is not a good combo!

      • And to get super snarky, all military AR-15 pattern rifles have to be called AR-15 style unless they are manufactured by Colt because Colt owns the trademark on the name AR-15

    • “I’m pro gun but” translates to you are a butt, and definitely not pro gun. As to your comment above, you introduced race into a discussion not remotely about race, and that defines *you* as a racist. And a liar. Given your attitude here, I doubt you have *ever* been hunting, either.

    • Fig Newton, why do you start your statement with the FUDD motto? “I’m pro-gun but…”

      You also reference “responsible gun ownership”. In this scenario, the suspect was OBVIOUSLY *NOT* a responsible gun owner. So, why do the rest of us responsible gun owners need [according to you] to have our Constitutional enumerated right further infringed?

    • Above poster is correct. Semi automatic guns are bad. Pistols okay until they are bad too. Fudd is a mean term and does not respect my clear individuality. Orange man bad.

      • Orange Man Good. NPC 511793252 clearly clueless. Semi-Auto guns don’t kill people. Nutbags who have been provided defenseless targets kill people.

    • Fudd…the enemy within. You can’t be pro-2nd with a statement like that. You’ll eventually wake up when everything ‘semiautomatic’ is on the chopping block, including your shotgun. I have neighbors like you, wanting a ban on ARs and not concerned that their duck/goose hunting might be relegated to a single shot shotgun. But that’s ok, you just sit back in your easy chair with your beer, we’ll do the hard part for you, lazy bastard.

    • STUPID comment and TROLL SQUARED…
      PLEASE SIR, March your ass down to the nearest POLICE station and turn in any Bang sticks you possess, as that will Make America Great Again…and ALL of Us POTG SAFER.

    • @ FiggyNewton

      I won’t call you a Fudd because you’re worse than a Fudd. Semi-Auto weapons have been around for a long long time. We didn’t have a problem until politicians started making it easy for these nutbags to do what they do. The problem FIGGY is politicians. Not semi-auto weapons. If I could snap my fingers right now and end all gun free zones this issue would go away instantly. Nutbags can only do their evil when they have targets that can’t defend themselves.

    • The second amendment isn’t about hunting or sports. The second amendment is about free cyitzens being able to defend themselves whether against a government, against criminals, or against an unruly mob. Cowards and fascists always use “safety” or “it’s for their own good” to deny others their human rights. So which are you? Coward or fascist?

      I don’t believe you’ve ever even held a gun as you seem ignorant about them. Almost any hunting rifle has more power than an AR-15. When you are attacking a group of people who are crowded together and defenseless, ANY weapon is going to injure a lot of people. The perpetrator could have been armed only with a common kitchen knife and done as much or more damage to a group of passive churchgoers. Would it be as sensational? No. But that’s mostly because Hollywood portrays guns unrealistically- and is probably where you are getting your “knowledge” of guns.

    • Hey Figgy Fudd Newton, why dont you go peruse the FBI data on weapons used in homicides. The number and percentage of murders committed with rifles has been on a steep downward trend for half a century. The weapons used in the deadliest mass murder (by a single perpetratot) in US History were a match and a pop bottle filled with gasoline.

    • believe that ship has sailed…considering how many are out there….they never stop trying though…this guy spewed out an endless stream of anti-jewish hatred on social media…then began displaying his weapons…with the final post being.. “I’m going in..”…clearly someone wasn’t paying attention…

      • Yeah the FBI has been running commercials on the radio for half the summer saying “you can’t threaten your school on social media, it is a crime, we WILL investigate it” and i keep yelling back at it “just like Parkland, huh?

    • How many times have you come back to look at the replies to your ridiculous comment, thinking all these knuckle dragging cowardly punks would have some feedback for your (not at all) witty comment. You are a joke and nobody likes you.

      • Go home, paste-eater. Your unsolicited and vibrantly stupid comments are neither wanted, nor appreciated.

    • Nothing will come of this. The dems, as usual, will screech like harpies. The rest of the nation is simply tired of their nonsense.

      Wait til November. Then you’ll hear them screech.

      • Good Gov’t, I hope you are right BUT never underestimate the will of the sheeple. While I’d like to believe that we are capable of rational and independent thought as “a people”, the Leftists (and, unfortunately, more than a few conservatives) lead me to believe otherwise. In this day and age, we have more access to the clear cut effects of Big Gov’t (all praise to Xe!), socialism, intrusive technology, etc. and yet candidates who tout true freedom can barely eke out a win, if at all. I ain’t holding my breath…

  17. GOD and ONLY GOD….GIVE US ALL OUR RIGHT TO KABA. NO MAN or WOMAN on God’s earth will take that RIGHT AWAY..PERIOD, DAMN THE POLITICIANS and their FUD PROGRESSIVE boot licking minions. Charlton Heston, said it best. And if you FUDS DON’T KNOW what he said…look it up. Then March down to the police station and turn in your bang sticks….

  18. Please splan what the F**K is an AR “style” weapon? Either it is or isn’t an “AR”, the tool is inconsequential but I’m sure all you will hear is “Assault weapon” non-stop on every channel. So does this mean the MSM is going to do a 180 & sympathize with the jews?
    This is another tragedy perpetrated by a crimminal and not by a gun. All the evidence needed for an execution should be completed by the end of the month 10/31/18.

  19. I carry a gun wherever I go. And I practice hitting targets out to 50 yards with a pocket carry Beretta 21a.

    Many years ago it was a long distance shot from a church balcony that stopped an attack at a S African church. The defender only had a 38 caliber revolver. The attackers had AK47s and grenades.

    • A dozen cops who I’m sure were at least armed with 15/17 shot .40’s or 9 nines and probably 12 gauges and AR-15’s tried to stop this guy. He shot 4 of them at close range and got away, temporarily at least. Your confidence in that little bobcat is unfounded I’m afraid. You can always rely on the element of surprise, being against you that is. If you can comfortably carry something bigger, better you should, if not so be it. Something is better than nothing.

      • Please go back to your glory hole. Your 15 minute break is long past over. You have customers waiting.

  20. How to shut up a leftist anti-gunner: “So you want to get rid of guns bcz a few people use them for bad things, and you feel we’d all be safer removing them, right? Then by the same reasoning you must want to get rid of illegal immigrants because some commit violent crimes and we’d all be safer if they were removed.” Be sure to stand back and watch their heads explode (thus helping to save the world from climate change).

  21. As schools become hardened and trained to mitigate active shooters we will see places of worship become the next soft target of choice. Churches tend to have open access and worshipers believe they are in a place of peace and safety. Will we be able to close our eyes in humility to pray anymore?

  22. Interesting how the non sequitur troll-speak has ramped up in this here comment zone. Across all the articles.

    Interesting timing. What could be going on about now?

    Interesting how that noise clogs up the info here. Come to TTAG n get the wrongthink people’s P O V, except with all the noise you can’t. Works better than making yr argument, when you don’t have one.

    Seems like a cheap way to discourage the deplorables, disinform the persuadables, n wee-wee up the excitables. When you don’t have a case, the only way.

    Is it a boiler room disinfo operation? You can tell when all the noise-bots disappear after the election. I do wonder who’s orchestrating the cut-and-paste rabble? Could our D-party friends be P O-ed at the Russians because the troll-ovitches are getting into their e-turf?

    It’ll be quieter after their contracts run out. Til then, the jackholes behind them think you’ll get conned, distracted, n fold. Double-down in the other direction. I was just gonna vote goid sense, but you’re gonna pull this kind of crap, I’m dragging some friends to the polls.

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