fascinating! -- j
.

Thank you. I have ordered the book.

Jan

Switzerland is similar in regards armed and trained citizenry. When they leave the service they keep their weapons as well. Shooting is also something of a national sport there.

The international black market in arms is thriving. Criminals will have access to guns no matter how hard misguided bureaucrats make it for legal acquisition of firearms. Only a worldwide ban on gun ownership, rigorously enforced by a global police state, will have a chance of shutting down access to guns.

If they don't respond, it gives us counter-propaganda ammunition to paint ISIS as false prophets, which undermines their credibility with potential new recruits.

In Australia, a gun permit is obtained with great difficulty (not personal experience).
Yet a 15 yo Islamist punk gets a gun and kills a police accountant, an Iranian refugee gets a gun and shoots up a central Sydney coffee shop. etc.
I am not sure what all this proves, maybe gun control is not strict enough, or, maybe does not work.
Proper immigration control would help.

Passive opinions do not change laws and certainly not whole societies. If 5% of Americans took to the streets to non-violently protest the laws, those laws would change. See my comment to JLC above about the research of Erica Chenoweth, et al.

Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict by Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, International Security, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Summer 2008), pp. 7–44.
On her website here:
http://www.ericachenoweth.com/researc...

aren't they too smart to respond to a ploy to group them
together in one place? -- j
.

Thank You! . this is good analysis, IMHO. -- j
.

Something too many people and analysts miss is the simple equation of Terror or Asymmetrical Warfare. Real aggressive war is, according to Tom Clancy, "Grand Theft writ large."
Asymmetrical Warfare and Terror are less destructive, as a comparison to real conventional war and definitively so when compared to war employing WMD. They are about Control of the peoples, and through them, of the wealth of nations. In short, its all about the money, the promotional propagandas of religion or faith or what ever are just that, promotional propaganda.

Old news, published in a dozen multiservice & JTTF/DHS FM's & pubs since 1971 [Predates DHS, but JTTF existed with a different name.]

I agree on the Noisy part. Blasts you outta the room. But I still like to see the movie on the big screen.

Jan, wears a sweater to the movies

If that were true, why has pot been illegal for 81 years? You're not going to convince me that 95% ever supported that law staying in place.

As a gun owner and former military member, I would suggest that, had other employees in San Bernardino been armed, the outcome likely would have been much the same. Semiautomatic pistols and revolvers don't stand much of a chance against semiautomatic rifles. I recall a recent situation where an armed man walked into a diner and killed 4 armed police officers before they could even return fire.

Now, saying that...I solidly believe that those people should have been allowed to have been armed. Regardless of the outcome, at least they could have had some control over their final destinies. Without firearms, they were helpless pawns.

I would be interested in seeing that research, MM.

Jan

Interesting point, MichaelA, of shifting the blame from 'the people who caused it' to 'the government that was supposed to protect me'.

'Avoiding crowds' is the only protection I can think of. Unfortunately, I do go to movies, which are prime targets.

Jan

Excellent article!

Israel's problem, however, is proximity. If America weren't an entire ocean away, I'll bet that we'd be seeing similar issues - or that we'd be neck deep in actual military conflict. Israel actually stops a lot of incidents from happening - you just don't hear about those because most of the people who are dangerous get preemptively incarcerated because they engage in lesser forms of violence and threats first.

I would also point out, however, that every single Israeli citizen gets conscripted into the military for at least two years - including women. Then they take their service weapons home. So every single Israeli citizen is well-trained in both armed and hand-to-hand combat. The majority of the attacks are conducted in stealth, and most happen in certain areas which are easier to get to from the West Bank and Gaza - where the Palestinians live.

One big missing piece: carve the heart out of the evil, decisively and with malice. ISIS has built a fantasy about a holy war that will be final in an ultimate battle between the warriors of Allah and the infidel armies of the world in a little town in Syria. Rather than let this infected boil of lies fester and grow, I say challenge ISIS to Armageddon! Set a day when we will engage them at the appointed location, and challenge them to make their prophecy come true. If they back down, their myth will collapse, and the allure will fade. If they rise to the occasion, it will draw them into one location, where they can be pulverized, for all the faithful to witness as to the lie of their sham.

nice analysis...

police arm themselves to protect themselves first...everyone else second...arm yourself...

I will have to dig out my research on this, but I have links and papers demonstrating that if 5% of the people support peaceful change, it happens. Violent opposition routinely fails.

Thanks. That was interesting, insightful, and well-written. Allow me offer an amendment: "3. More armed civilians and the elimination of “gun-free zones”. (This has been tested and found effective in Israel. In the wake of San Bernardino we are beginning to see police organizations recommend it.)"

Israel has strict gun control. It takes about two months to get a license, and certified training is part of the process. All the guns in Israel do not stop suicide bombers.

When I heard the news about San Bernardino, I, too, wished that those innocents had been armed. But, then, I reconsidered. In the 2012 Empire State Building shootings, nine people were wounded by police bullets. And the police actually practice with their weapons.