Shofar? Shogood! The Oregon militiamen have horns now

The group of Ammon Bundy-led militants—who are still occupying a government building in a wildlife refuge in Burns, Oregon—appear to have acquired what they are calling “BATTLE TRUMPET”s. Here they are tooting them:

“SHARE UPDATE BURNS OREGON!” writes militant Blaine Cooper.”CHRISTIANS THE BATTLE TRUMPET HAS BEEN SOUNDED TIME TO RISE! CALL TO ACTION SEND INT HE TROOPS TO STAND WITH US IN BURNS OREGON!”

This is all well and good, but those are not battle trumpets. Those are shofars. Like, definitely shofars.

And blowing the shofar does not, in 2015, signify a call to action. Blowing the shofar means either that it is Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year, or that it is Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. The shofar is in most cases a sign that there are several more hours of synagogue and/or fasting left.

It’s curious that these men are not calling the shofars by their proper names, considering how excellent their form is. It’s hard to blow a shofar! Especially the large, fancy shofars those militants are blowing. They must have been practicing a lot. Surely they must have had some training, or at least have been YouTubing shofar blowing tutorials.