Terrorism in the USA:threat & response

[omarali50]

I storified all the tweets on my TL about San Bernadino. I think they may be of some interest.
I am "happy" (happy is not really the word) that I got it more right than not..

https://storify.com/omarali50/san-be...ror-the-horror

Some of these themes obviously deserve a more detailed look. Maybe later this weekend.

[davidbfpo]

[Bill Moore]

The sky is falling reporting is exactly what our adversaries desire. At the end of the day terrorism is theater, and our politicians and media have made this attack a Broadway hit. We'll never escape this self defeating behavior in a democracy where everything will be exploited for political gain. We need leaders that can provide a balanced response, not ignore or inflate, but rationally address the challenge.

[slapout9]

This is pure NYT PC Propaganda and it is nothing but an attack on our Constitution, which they do not like. Most of these attacks are drug/gang related and most are black on black!!!!! go get the raw data!!!!! Also DOJ reports gun violence (murder) has and is on a multi-year decline.

[Firn]

We discussed the fall in (gun) homicides earlier. I'm glad that the Washington Post injected similar facts into the discussion.

The use of rifles be it the illegal automatic ones used in Mumbai or Paris or the semi-automatic legally aquired ones used in San Bernadino seems to have become more common in terror attacks which are of course a specific issue. Proper intelligence and police work is of course vastly more important in general in this regard with gun control sometimes being a non-issue.

Keep in mind that for decades in Europe semi-automatic rifles similar to the ones used in the various armed forces were largely rather easy to acquire and we had a hardly any homicides comitted with those. Overall the EU comission should present (more) facts and information before coming up with blanket 'ban' proposals.

[omarali50]

MY promised article on the attack.

http://brownpundits.blogspot.com/201...or-attack.html

I think I have said it all before, except maybe the bit about Saudi Arabia.

[omarali50]

A corrected and better edited version of my article on San Bernadino shootings is up at 3quarksdaily.com

Comments welcome

[AmericanPride]

This is pure NYT PC Propaganda and it is nothing but an attack on our Constitution

The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

most are black on black!!!!

(1) This is not true and (2) even if it were, how would that diminish the importance of mitigating gun violence?

Speaking of raw data:

- the most efficient terrorist attacks are those perpetrated with guns. Bombs sometimes fail to explode. Guns almost always function. Of 236 terrorist attacks or attempted attacks in the U.S. between 2001 - 2013, 63 were perpetrated by individuals acting alone. 36 people were killed in those attacks; 32 by firearms.

- the closer you are to guns, the more likely you to be killed by them; hence, the majority of suicides and homicides conducted by firearms. The proximity of firearms leads to higher risk of death by homicide or suicide.



- handguns are the most common firearm used in homicides and suicides.

- 36.8% of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty between 2005 - 2014 were killed by firearms.

- how many mass shootings have been stopped by the 'good guy with gun' theory? Trained law enforcement officers struggle to hit their target 30% (I think it's closer to 20%) of the time in shooting incidents - how do you think the average joe will fare?

The fact that more attacks like San Bernandino do not happen is probably a function of potential terrorist attackers failing to understand just how vulnerable America is to gun violence. Want to throw America in a frenzy? Every day for a week, a separate lone attacker armed with a gun targets a school, hospital, movie theater, and other soft targets in different parts of the country.