By Jeff Knox
Buckeye, AZ –-(Ammoland.com)- By now, we’ve all heard about the atrocities in Paris; Islamist terrorists driving through the streets randomly shooting people, Islamist terrorists wrapping themselves in explosives and nuts and bolts, and blowing themselves and innocents apart,
Islamist terrorists strolling into a crowded music venue and opening fire with automatic weapons, killing dozens and injuring hundreds. It’s an outrage.
It’s a travesty. It’s a perversion of religion. And it’s coming to America. Soon.
We’ve already seen some of this, but we don’t have high concentrations of “radicalized” Muslims here like they do in France and most of Europe. We also don’t have their strict gun control laws.
That last point is worth further consideration. Did strict gun control laws in France serve to mitigate the terrorists’ actions? Or did they empower the terrorists? If terrorists there could easily purchase semi-auto firearms – or have their wives or girlfriends buy them – as they can here in the U.S., would that have resulted in more attacks by more terrorists with a greater loss of life?
When (not if) it happens here, I’m certain we’ll hear that assertion from the usual quarters.
Acts of terrorism are rarely spur-of-the-moment things. Even acts by madmen or “lone wolf” terrorists have been planned out well in
advance, with weapons acquisition, target selection, and timing all thought through.
As the most recent attacks in Paris demonstrate, someone determined to commit mass murder is not deterred by restrictions on access to weapons. At the very best, laws that deny legal purchase may offer a possible tripwire that might alert authorities to someone’s evil intentions, but that is a pretty thin hope. It clearly didn’t apply in Paris, where terrorists managed to bypass strict gun laws and acquire, apparently fully-automatic, AK47-style assault rifles and plenty of ammunition and magazines. They also had no trouble acquiring significant quantities of high explosives for constructing their bomb-vests. Explosives too are highly regulated, but it turns out that bombs are easier to make than crystal meth. The Paris terrorists used a popular terrorist recipe for an explosive compound made from acetone and hydrogen peroxide, ingredients that can be bought by the gallon at any hardware store. The end product is very unstable, but suicidal terrorists don’t seem to be overly concerned with that.
The fact is only a limited number of people in the world are interested in mass murder. Regardless of motive, whether religious or political extremism, or just old-fashioned madness, when those people make the decision to act, there is little anyone can do to predict or prevent it. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S.A. has mostly faced “lone wolf” attacks. Whether terrorist or madman, the worst mass murders have been solo acts.
The few terrorist conspiracies we have encountered have been so poorly organized and undisciplined that they have generally been discovered before they could take action.
That will change.
The other advantage we have here is that in most of the country (sorry not you, New Jersey), many Americans are armed as they go about their daily business. A portion of us — somewhere around two to three percent— carry when we’re out shopping, dining, or enjoying a concert. And while the odds of an armed citizen with the skill and fortitude to take out a terrorist or group of terrorists being in the right place at the right time are still pretty slim, at least there is a chance of it happening, and it’s something that a terrorist or mass murderer here must take into account.
It is no accident that virtually all high-profile mass murders in the U.S. take place in areas that are supposedly “gun free.”
Having a gun is never a guarantee of safety any more than having a fire extinguisher in my kitchen guarantees my house won’t burn down. If I happen to be the first guy a terrorist or other mass murderer decides to shoot, I probably won’t have an opportunity to prevent others, but if I’m not the first target, I at least have a fighting chance.
I saw something posted by one of Mike Bloomberg’s hoplophobic sycophants dismissing the idea that a person with a pistol could ever hope to take out multiple assailants with assault rifles. I guess she didn’t hear about the cop in Garland, Texas who used his pistol to kill the two terrorists that attacked him and a security guard last May at a “Draw Muhammad” contest. This was not some SWAT jock, but a regular traffic cop. Fortunately, the officer had the will, the skill, and most importantly, the means to fight.
The biggest factor in what has been happening in Paris, has nothing to do with gun control laws. This is about the will to kill, not the means. It has to do with Islamist terrorism, and the growing concentrations of Islamist radicals in ghettos around Paris and throughout Europe. While most Muslims are not interested in murdering people, it is clear that some are, and the more people with those inclinations that come together in one place, the greater the probability that they will take action on those propensities.
The swarms of poor “refugees” from the Middle-East and Africa flooding into Europe over recent years have created incubators for terrorism. Amazingly, the guy in the White House wants to bring tens of thousands of these people to the U.S. Do we really want the escalating crime rates, violent rape epidemics, and terrorism that is now plaguing Europe? And if we do bring these “refugees” and their inherent problems into our country, do we really want to also make it harder and more complicated for our citizens to be legally armed for self-defense?
Someone’s not thinking straight.
About:
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition is a project of Neal Knox Associates, Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org
The big problem we have is that we have hundreds of thousands of people with concealed carry permit, but very few are really carrying. If you don’t carry the permit does you nor anyone else any good. We all need to make it a habit to take our weapons everywhere we go, even on short trips. The permit is not going to protect anyone unless you have the weapon to back it up.
At one time the French were a force to be reckoned with. They were allies of the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Some where along the line after WWI or before, I am not sure when, but most of them they became a bunch of pansies giving up easily to Hitler without a fight. It might have had something to do with the Antisemitism that had always plagued France and their wanting to annihilate the Jews . If it was not for the Underground and the US forces during WWII France as well as the rest of the world would… Read more »
Anything that sucks slug snot out of a shell, and considers it a delicacy; needs to have their heads realigned! The French were pretty easily swayed by the Nazi’s aggression during WWII, and only WE, and their “underground”; saved their asses. Our fearless, POS ISIS CINC will gladly allow thousands into this country to brew up a mess of terrorist stew; because it’s his desire to make this country equal to those of his liking. Fortunately, our Founding Fathers hammered out a Constitution and Bill of Rights, which denies people like BHO the ability to destroy our country; all we… Read more »
CORRECTION ,,,,,,,,,,,WE LIBERATED IT TWICE.
Yet is the operative word here. Didn’t we liberate Paris once before?
Nailed it! Very accurate thoughts.