In gaming the scenarios in my mind that possibility really concerns me...Originally Posted by Glenn E. Meyer
In gaming the scenarios in my mind that possibility really concerns me...
"A man's character is his fate."
Better yet, think about what you would look like through the Aimpoint of a responding officer's patrol rifle. Not a good day out.
Call me a pessimist, but I figure if I'm ever in this situation, there will be six bad guys with AKs who have heard of fire and maneuver. Pop one and the others pin me down while they move in for the kill. Or some well meaning CWP holder (who took two hours of classroom training and fired one underpowered .22 in the back of a gun shop) will accidentally put one in the back of my dome while aiming at the guy with the AK.
There is no heroic movie outcome. It will be fast, chaotic, and mostly about reducing the body count or number of hostages taken.
Call me a pessimist but if there is a well executed Beslan or Mumbai type attack on our soil in the future, the damage done by the terrorists will greatly surpass any good a civilian with a gun will do and regardless of how the terrorists obtained their rifles (hell, if Holder himself gives them to them) - this will be the event the anti's have been waiting for to show the 2A is no longer relevant and push for its curtailment or actual repeal.
Call me a tin foil hatted pessimist, but I doubt this fact is unknown to people in power who may see ISIS clowns as a way to achieve their desired means......
In short, the only thing I fear worse than an ISIS attack on our soil will be our response to it.
Agreed.
#RESIST
More over the top political correctness, pandering and wholesale restriction of civil liberties?
Yep!
It will give just about anyone with a desire to restrict our constitutional rights, be they gun or privacy or whatever, a chance to capitalize on our human need to "do something" and enact some insane knee jerk reaction before we come back to our senses.
Can you hear the shrills and cries of Bloomberg and Shannon Watts if such an attack were pulled off?
And I can just picture those on both sides of the aisle saying that this would have never have happened if it weren't for old Edward Snowden....
Either way I fear the long term damage of such an attack on our freedoms will be far worse than the tragic aftermath of the attack itself.
Last edited by Suvorov; 08-31-2014 at 01:28 PM.
Do you feel that's true regarding 9/11?
The answer, it seems to me, is wrath. The mind cannot foresee its own advance. --FA Hayek Specialization is for insects.
As someone who interacts with the TSA every day of their working life.........
The answer is I'm not 100% sure. I think the wars sparked by 9/11 have brought about quite a bit of localized pain and you certainly can not say we are as "free" as we were before 9/11, but whether that it worse than the 3000+ killed that day, its a judgement call I suppose.
Maybe I should have said "worse" instead of "far worse." It is only a fear however and I pray for there never to be an opportunity to be proven right.
Last edited by Suvorov; 08-31-2014 at 01:42 PM. Reason: Added more thoughts
Good answer! I've felt for a long time like there's a paradox here. If there are lots of committed jihadis committed to execute another 9/11 - even if we assume that the TSA is effectively preventing that - then why not get 6 guys to commit suicide by cop throughout a random weekend? Then 6 more dudes rent a car and careen through the 6 biggest pedestrian malls in the country? One single bomb in front of the elementary school in the richest zip code. Shall I go on? I mean, if the terrorists are good enough that we need the freedom-stealing protections (and again, that's assuming those protections are effective,) then surely they have the wherewithal to effect some simpler alternatives that would wreak similar havoc as 9/11?
Yet these attacks stubbornly continue to not happen. There is something wrong with our (layperson's) assumptions about terrorist motivations. Maybe they're not playing smart small ball, maybe they're swinging for the fences because personal glory has more jihadi allure than long-term effects on the enemy? Maybe their leaders are actually more worried about accumulating wealth and power in their own little slice of hell, than about wreaking Allah's vengeance on non-believers half a world away?
So, yeah, I don't think there's even a mildly effective motivator in place for the jihadis to attack US soil. Not saying it can't or won't happen, especially if organizations like IS evolve in ways I don't understand, but I feel like it's basically a red herring today. The alternative possibility is hard to swallow, like maybe the NSA is reading everyone's encrypted emails and stopping every single attack before it starts. Or maybe only most attacks, because that would be good counterintelligence.
The answer, it seems to me, is wrath. The mind cannot foresee its own advance. --FA Hayek Specialization is for insects.
A handful of motivated terrorist types would wreak chaos in major cities throughout the U.S. if they pulled a Chris Dorner. A few Boston bombing type incidents coordinated in several large cities to blow at once... Just a few motivated individuals would change our way of life in some major ways.
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