Van hits pedestrians' on London Bridge in 'major incident'

[Peally]

Just watched the New Scotland Yard press brief. Three attackers shot dead within 8 minutes of the first emergency services call: first call at 22.08hrs, attackers dead by 22.16hrs.

Apparently they were wearing simulated suicide vests. And there is still chatter of 4 attackers and not 3 so it will be interesting to see how the investigation unfolds and the personal linkages it throws out.

Only good terrorist is a dead one in the gutter, excellent reaction (and aim) and hopefully your guys safely catch up to any stragglers.

[walker2713]

I found this in a Daily Mail article....

How complex and extensive will the next attack be?

[Hambo]

I found this in a Daily Mail article....

How complex and extensive will the next attack be?

Complex? How complicated is it to get three dipshits to attack at one time? The reason these attacks work is that they are not complex. They use simple weapons and the only goal is to create carnage and chaos. Aside from deaths and injuries they have tied up part of the city and dominate the news networks.

[walker2713]

Complex? How complicated is it to get three dipshits to attack at one time? The reason these attacks work is that they are not complex. They use simple weapons and the only goal is to create carnage and chaos. Aside from deaths and injuries they have tied up part of the city and dominate the news networks.

You're right about the lack of complexity of these attacks themselves, but the more widespread they are, the more difficult it is to respond to them in a crowded metropolitan area. It doesn't require much to get their desired result.

The chaos and carnage obviously has a huge impact on a population that has been denial for years about the dangers, and still is mentally and physically ill equipped to protect themselves and their loved ones.

In the past the jihadis have shown themselves capable in numerous instances of attacks which require some degree of sophistication and organization: 1992 WTC, 2001 WTC, embassy bombings in Africa, etc.

In this case, the method and tools of the attack were simple....vehicles and knives; but the results were widespread confusion and terror.

It's likely to get worse, before it gets better.

[blues]

There is no practical way to prevent the sort of acts committed with simple / common methodologies.

Let's face it, if you had a "Book Club" that met once a month to discuss (ostensibly) the latest and greatest book but while at their meeting they all agreed to drive a vehicle to an assigned location on a given date and drive their cars into a mass of shoppers or vacationers or what have you...and then jump out with cricket bats or tire irons or golf clubs or knives you could create bedlam from one end of a city to another quite easily.

It doesn't take brilliance. It takes the willingness to carry out the task and accept the consequences. So far these individuals have demonstrated that willingness.

[Hambo]

Exactly, Blues. 9/11 was complicated, but this stuff is as lowball simple as it gets and impossible to predict or prevent.

[LittleLebowski]

And from what I have seen she would minimally shoot herself in the foot, or at worst another innocent person.

Most of the successful stories in the NRA's Armed Citizen column concern an untrained citizen prevailing against criminals.

[HCountyGuy]

Whilst I agree, I also believe in people being competent in their firearms handling and use. Sometimes I see little to no evidence of that which gives me no warm fuzzy feeling as to how useful most individuals would be if they were being shot at themselves. I have seen hairy arsed soldiers freeze up when the real shooting starts, and they have been trained.

You'll have to forive and bear with me, I come from a place where the culture is different, even though I have been around firearms for most of my life. If you think I'm bad you should go shoot with some Germans, they are so upight they make me look like Genghis Kahns younger brother.

We're all in agreement of wanting firearm owners competent in the usage of these instruments. Even we roll our eyes and cringe at the antics of others who commit flagrant violations of safe firearm handling. There's even a thread or two buried around here where we discuss horrifying experiences at public ranges and gun stores.

But let's not lump all the average joes into a category of dangerously incompetent gun owners. There's documented cases of what many here consider vastly undertrained civilians fending off dangerous attackers with their firearms with a remarkable level of efficiency. At the same time, we have folks who have had some training/experience to know better do stupid shot like shoot at shoplifters while at trying to play Johnny Law.

Some folks rise to the ocassion, in spite of the conventional wisdom that one will typically fall back on their training.

[Lon]

The UK is doomed if this is their mindset.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...hide-tell.html

[Chuteur]

Exactly, Blues. 9/11 was complicated, but this stuff is as lowball simple as it gets and impossible to predict or prevent.

You'll never stop an attack planned by one lone individual with a 'mental illness'*, or even a small group who decide within themselves to perpetrate such an attack. The larger the infrastructure, the louder the chatter and the more likely something is to get picked up.

However, there are individuals out there, ethnic arabs, muslims, born in europe and probably the US, who have been actively in combat for several years and probably have as much practical tactical and command experience as many military SNCO's and junior officers. Those are the one's we need to be worried about. As ISIS gets it's arse kicked in the middle east those individuals will filter out, probably returning whence they came and then the problems will really start as they change from an overt force to a covert terrorist force

I remember 25 years ago talking with muslims in the UK (don't ask, I would know their names, just people you bump into, mainly taxi drivers) who were happily telling everyone that they used to go to Pakistan on vacation and they were spending a couple of weeks learning how to shoot AK's and RPG's. There was also an article in, I believe it was The Times (London) newspaper, about muslim IT contractors who were earning top dollar on six month IT contracts and then going over to Pakistan for 'adventure holidays' for six months. All well before 9/11, it was out there.

Note: * Mental illness. That is a term thrown around because there is always some politician who rather than facing the issue that these people are killing others because they are some peculiar sort of muslim fanatic makes the excuse that they are suffering mental illness.