The Borderline Bar and Grill: A Tale of Men and Masculinity | 5 Minute Video
On November 7, 2018, a gunman opened fire inside a crowded bar in Thousand Oaks, California. Lives were lost that night, but lives were also saved. Who saved them? How? What can these heroes teach us? Journalist Abigail Shrier answers these questions in this powerful video.
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Script:
The mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Southern California on November 7, 2018 is a tale of men and masculinity.
Lost in the carnage is a lesson we would all be advised to heed. That lesson has little to do with the monster who took lives and everything to do with the men who saved lives.
The killer was 28 years old, lost, lonely and living with mom.
He had been a regular at the Borderline Bar and Grill. He knew that on Wednesdays—college country night—the place would be packed with kids laughing and dancing. He entered tossing smoke grenades, then unloaded his handgun—fitted with an illegal extended magazine—into the crowd.
But there were other young men there, too. One of them was 20-year-old Matt Wennerstrom. In interviews, Wennerstrom looks like a typical college student—backward baseball cap, gray T-shirt, jaw scruffy with a few days’ growth. On camera, he seems laconic, humble, willing to answer questions; neither eager for the limelight nor afraid of it.
As soon as he heard the shots, Wennerstrom told ABC News, he knew “exactly what was going on.” He and some friends grabbed everyone they could and pushed them down behind the pool table, placing their own bodies on top of the girls. One woman, who was celebrating her 21st birthday, told Good Morning America: “There were multiple men who got on their knees and pretty much blocked all of us with their back toward the shooter, ready to take a bullet for every single one of us.”
When the shooter paused to reload, Wennerstrom grabbed a bar stool and tossed it through a window. He and his buddies pulled 30 to 35 people to safety. After getting each group safely to the parking lot, Wennerstrom and his buddies went back for more.
A reporter asked Wennerstrom how he knew immediately what was going on in the loud, crowded bar. “Instinct, I guess,” he said. “I’m here to protect my friends, my family, my fellow humans, and I know where I’m going if I die, so I was not worried to sacrifice. All I wanted to do is get as many people out of there as possible.”
This is the masculinity we so often hear denigrated. It takes as its duty the physical protection of others, especially women. This masculinity doesn’t wait for verbal consent or invitation to push a person out of harm’s way.
It sends hundreds of firefighters racing up the Twin Towers to save people they’ve never met. And it sent Sgt. Ron Helus of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office rushing into Borderline Bar and Grill, where the shooter was waiting for him. “I gotta go handle a call,” Helus had just told his wife over the phone. “I love you.” The 54-year-old husband and father died at the hospital from the wounds he suffered as he tried to stop the rampaging gunman.
For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/the-borderline-bar-and-grill-a-tale-of-men-and-masculinity
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I agree but transwomen are women. Please stop treating us as men when we are not. We dont shouldnt be housed in prison with men, especially post op.
Well, when push comes to shove SJWs and radical feminists will always call the cops when they are afraid. They hate them until they need them.
Well said!!!
i used to think that rescuing women was an honorable role as a man. but then they say constantly that "men are not needed, men are evil, etc." so that desire to protect faded.
if an event like this were to happen and i am there, good luck to the women because i ain't saving anybody.
That was a Marine, but but why he do that crime?
Was he honorably discharged?
Ooof this was waaay before Uvalde. Such masculine officers that day.
I love this video. I also wonder what would have happened if the illegal extended magazine had not been illegal thus allowing all the members the option to return fire at the guy, who obviously didn't give a fig about obeying laws or decenty, in kind right away rather than immediately having to only seek cover and a way out.
In the battle of Hurtgen Forest, a US battalion was cut off, running dry, and starving. The legendary 442nd army regiment knew that if they didn't act, the lost battalion would die. Without hesitation, they launched a full on Banzai charge on the German positions. They took losses when running into the machine fire, but they didn't stop. The Germans fought hard, but the 442nd kept on coming, and eventually shattered the German line and saved the lost battalion. Their men's sacrifice saved so many Americans that day.
I'm a man, and I'm not anyone's canon foder. ultimately this video promotes male disposability.
No magazines are illegal according to the constitution
Matthew Wennerstrom the young man who was hailed as a hero after saving more than 30 people during the 2018 mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California was killed in a motorcycle crash. He was 24 years old. May he rest in peace.
It's telling that there are so many mass shootings in the USA that not only do I not remember this one, I don't even remember ever knowing about it at all. It's a sick culture.
Matt Wennerstrom just passed away recently due to a motorcycle accident.
I had a dream I was a dishwasher at a bar and I heard gunshots followed with panic and chaos. Then I woke up and turned on the TV to see this headline. This was a day before the midterm elections.
–3:19 he was in the Darth Side of his life
A major part of the problem with the media is not only biased and ideologically driven fake news, but also the lack of reporting (via omission) of anything that does not fit their narrative.
P.P.P. Protect, Provide, PRESIDE. You eventually cannot keep the first 2 if you take away the 3rd.
Feminism wants 1st class citizens ( women and those who identify as such), and 2nd class citizens. Is like the mirror image of the r31igi0n of pieces.
What if a women did what he did would that make her masculine?
Let me say out loud. How do you "not" like this video? At the time I watched this, there were 654 thumbs downs. The mindset required to thumbs down a video like this is why we have the problems in our society we have now. The Dragon of the East is experimenting with artificially enhancing their soldiers performance. It is scary to see what we as a society are teaching our young men. France did this same type thing in the 1930's and it took Hitler just 7 weeks to totally defeat them. A society chooses, warriors or wimps, and then pays the cost.
Thank God for your voice Abigail!!! And truth!!
“You say that it is a problem when men act toxic, yet you don’t think it is a problem when men do good things. Curious.”
Also that random “consent” line is pretty weird. “You say rape is bad, yet this guy saved people’s lives without receiving consent. Curious.”
That's so beautifully said,,, there is a need for MORE of this content to uplift the masculinity in men
Why can´t they translate the words into Spanish for Spanish speakers who don´t speak English yet? Please… IT´S AWFUL. (However, in Korean many do).
There are no "Illegal Extended Magazines" There are only magazines.
The shot that killed the VCSO Sergeant was a CHP officer too. Really sad situation.
What are feminists talking about when they say they are strong independent women?
Sounds like my grandsons!… Well done!!
Bravo….great video
This isn't masculinity, this is bravery! Both women and men can have it, and even the most manly men can lack it.
First they don't need a man. Now they're telling is we have to prove we're men by being simps? I'm 20 years old and I still have no idea what women want. 🤦🏿♂️
https://youtu.be/l2g0jEdu8qk
First time ever im hearing this beautiful story, almost moved me to tears
Laws never stop evil. They punish evil.
These aren't acts of masculinity, these are acts of decency.
Is Satan going after men so it can destroy families through a fatherless generation?
"Masculinity doesn't wait for consent"
hmm
I applaud you PragerU, there is no person who can question your credentials based on who is speaking. When there is talk of masculinity a woman always talks. When there is talk of racism an ethnic minority always talks. Thank you for doing what you do.
If masculinity is so good then why cursed us women with femininity
Soooo what you're saying is women can't be heroic like men? Kinda cringe brooo.
Wow! This brought tears to my eyes…
This (TRUE) msg MUST be expressed to our present-day society/culture …
CS Lewis’s writin’s from over 75yrs ago, delivered this (TRUE) msg to the masses.
Ironically, so does God’s Word…
No matter the time, in human history. The Bible PROVES it’s Devine, and God’s way, is the BEST way, for us humans to live in “this world.”
I knew a lot of people who went to Borderline, and one of the victims was a close family friend. Many of the people I know that were there helped in any way they could, but I still wish it never happened, and that I didnt loose that friend
it's a difficult topic. i mean it's good to be heroic in that specific example, but i as a man would've saved myself and got help from the police as fast as i could, because the risk of that guy killing all of us anyways – the protectors and the protected – is too high. if you say that makes me not masculine enough, because i want to survive, well yeah then I'm probably not masculine.
The same can be said regarding the little boy who protected his sister from a mad dog.
Yay. Male disposability!
Eternal truth. Gotta love it!
Call it God or nature or whatever you want. But if women die in mass numbers, the human species will end. Just imagine the hundreds of millions that have died in wars in the past. All of them were male or at least an overwhelming majority were male. Any species can survive with a lesser number of males to reproduce, but that is not so if females die. Maybe that is the reason why males instinctively want to protect females.
“Neither eager for the limelight or afraid of it.” 🐐
Well said.
Who are these 'Thumbs Down' Freaks ?