CPRC in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Don’t leave our military personnel defenseless

Jul 30, 2015 | Featured

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John Lott’s newest piece in the Tribune-Review starts this way:

Anytime, anyplace, terrorists can strike. With just his signature, President Obama could eliminate the gun-free zone policies that leave our military personnel defenseless. Late last week, Republicans in the Pennsylvania Legislature called on Gov. Tom Wolf to exercise the same authority for the state National Guard.

Uniformed guards may help prevent mass shootings, but they aren’t really a good solution. It’s prohibitively costly to constantly guard all possible targets. And uniformed guards make for tempting first targets.

The FBI is monitoring potential threats in all 50 states, but it is stretched thin. It is hardly surprising that the Chattanooga killer, who left five people dead, wasn’t on the FBI radar.

Interpol Secretary General Ron Noble noted two means of protecting people from mass shootings. “One is to say we want an armed citizenry … . Another is to say the enclaves (should be) so secure that in order to get into the soft target you’re going to have to pass through extraordinary security.”

Warning how difficult it is to completely secure areas, he added that, “You can’t have armed police forces everywhere.” Referring to a terrorist attack in the Kenyan city of Nairobi, where people are banned from carrying guns, Noble asked: “If that was Texas, would those guys have been able to spend hours, days, shooting people randomly? What I’m saying is it makes police around the world question their views on gun control.”

Mass public killers understand this. They talk about finding easy targets. . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.

johnrlott

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