No one in the world of counter-terrorism was surprised at what happened in Paris.  Terrorists have been performing such atrocities for a very long time.

And counter-terrorism experts have been predicting that it will happen here, too.  ISIS has threatened as much.  Remember Fort Hood, for example.

Around the country, police are being advised to be especially cautious even off duty, and some departments are telling their armed personnel to carry their service pistols and a couple of spare magazines on their own time, not just a little .380 in the pocket and no more ammo than what’s in the gun.  My old friend Dave Workman gives an example here.

And as Dave points out, armed citizens are facing this reality too.

In recent weeks, we saw an armed citizen on the street shoot and kill a rampaging jihadi who had just stabbed a rabbi to death.  That righteous gunfire ended the rampage without further loss of innocent life.

Inevitably you will hear, “Aw, that’s not going to happen here.”

I’m sure that’s what each of the Parisian victims would have said in the moments before the gunfire and explosives erupted there last week.

31 COMMENTS

  1. WOW, that has really struck a note!! There are police officers in Europe that aren’t even armed!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!
    My EDC used to be a Kahr pm9 with a spare mag……these days that doesn’t seem to be enough. I have gone to a gun (I have several and so do most of you) with higher capacity these days….it’s not always the same gun, but I’m very familiar with anything I carry.
    We are at war whether Obama says so or not!! AND we all know that this is not a war with an enemy in uniform, therefore any capable “American” needs to be a defender of this Nation!
    I’m a Veteran, what can I say……I do love my Country!

  2. Yeah, I just received an email, from a long time friend, and retired Border Patrolman, who actually worked in the Middle East, and made many friends, and information sources there, who gave warning about the so-called refugees being admitted to the US, who also include many devout Islamic Jihadist Terrorists among these groups as well.

    Further, even the more peaceful of these refugee’s still have family, and friends left behind in the Middle East, who can be used to threaten the One’s in America, to force them to provide aid, and support, to the Jihadist Terrorists, both among the American Refugees, or those illegally entering the US, to preform specific Terrorist acts against U.S. Targets!

  3. Look what the anti-gun ownership Chief of the DC Police, Cathy Lanier, had to say on “60 Minutes”: “If you’re in a position to try and take the gunman down, to take the gunman out, it’s the best option for saving lives before police can get there.”

    What weapons would the citizens use? Chief Lanier has dragged her feet so as to nullify the Supreme Court’s ruling on the 2nd Amendment rights of DC citizens. She is trying to make the CCW process onerous and when you have a firearm in your home, you practically have to disassemble it (a slight exaggeration.)

    She is a hypocrite and I have told her so in an email. Think about who resides in the District. Many hold security clearances based upon full background investigations, not Name Checks. Many have more combat experience than many District police officers. She’s a former Army MP officer and should get the idea. I’ve suggested that she use that resource. Lastly, I wrote “60 Minutes” pointing out this glaring contradiction in her views.

  5. Ron, good points, but I found no evidence that Lanier is ex-Army. I did find that she is, however, making $253K this year, stands to get more than $11 million in pension payments (provided she can draw a pension for 40 years after retirement) and is nearing the end of a five-year contract, due to expire in ’17. Now here’s the important news (from The Washington Post) regarding the D.C. gun law case and the latest hearing last Friday:

    A federal appeals court considering the District’s strict laws for carrying concealed firearms was consumed Friday with the technical question of who should preside over the case.

    Last spring, a visiting judge from upstate New York ordered the city to stop enforcing a provision of the District’s gun laws that requires a person to state a “good reason” to carry a firearm on the streets of the nation’s capital. U.S. District Court Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. said the provision “impinges” on the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

    The debate Friday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit focused not on whether Scullin’s preliminary injunction was properly decided, but whether the visiting judge had authority to preside over the case.

    Scullin was initially appointed in 2011 to help with a backlog at the federal courthouse, including an earlier case that challenged the city’s outright ban on carrying firearms in public. The D.C. attorney general’s office said Scullin’s authority ended with the first case.

    Deputy Solicitor General Loren L. AliKhan said in court Friday that Scullin’s order over the “good reason” requirement was “void” because his authority had lapsed. She asked the three-judge panel to send the case back to District Court to have it reassigned to a D.C.-based judge.

  6. I’ve taken to CCing my full-sized .357 SIG Glock 31 whenever I can get away with it lately, rather than the little 9mm Kel-Tec that fits in my pocket. The Glock isn’t quite as comfortable or convenient, but it’s more powerful, carries a heck of a lot more rounds (16+1 plus 17 in the spare mag versus 7+1 for the 9mm), and I can shoot it quite a bit better. At least this time of year, the weather dictates outfits that make it easy to CC a full-sized handgun in an OWB holster.

  7. You are SO right Mas. Just a matter of time and I believe it will be soon. The refugeee situation will only serve to bring more trouble to our land. Wise to carry whenever possible.

  8. “Aw, that’s not going to happen here.” And, after it does, there is always someone who whimpers, “I never thought it could happen here.”

    My city has been experiencing a rash of armed robberies. After some thought, I realized that most of the places we go frequently (supermarket, gas stations, post office) have been robbed, some of them multiple times. The only exceptions, so far, are church and the public library. I subscribe to the mantra, “Don’t do stupid things in stupid places with stupid people at stupid times.” Not being stupid is up to me. However, I’m running out of places and have no way to keep stupid people out of them. That only leaves me with times and the thugs are hitting places during daylight, not just late at night.

  9. After watching videos and reading reports of Paris, I sent what follows to my brother last Friday night and thought it would “fit” here.

    First, we must pray for all the souls of the murdered innocents, the wounded – and all the responders who will be drawn into this latest debacle – in Paris. I just don’t know how many of these massacres must be perpetrated before our “leaders” grow a set (think Ronald Reagan here) and take the slaughter to the enemy. We’ve already had several minor (compared to this one) attacks here, but it’s just a matter of time till it escalates and we’re looking at those big numbers of dead bodies here in America. This is certainly NO TIME to be disarming anyone who is exercising their God-given right to self defense and their Constitutional right to make that an armed defense. Could it make a difference? Hell yes! It is precisely the wishy-washy approach that emboldens our enemies. America has no spine anymore. It makes me very concerned for not just our kids, but also these beautiful grandchildren whose pictures we share. Has everyone forgot this is AMERICA, the greatest country on earth? The sacrifices of all those who worked, fought – and died – for our freedoms, must not be forgotten. Those sacrifices are being relegated to the same trash heap as our vanishing historical heritage. That historical heritage, which I know you value just as much as I do – is being allowed to vanish – and we are complicit by not doing something about it. How can this be, dear brother?

    Please stay safe – now more than ever! Try to be – at least – the very best observer/recorder/reporter – you can. If you ever have any more…tactical thoughts…well – let’s talk – I can help you with those!

    Now, my friends here, on this blog – I beg you all to fulfill all those clichés: “stay safe, watch your six, condition yellow, head on a swivel, et al. – now more than ever before. God help us all.

    Love you, Jackson – thanks for listening.

  10. Yeah, it is going to happen here. Sooner rather than later. And the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared,” has never been more prescient.

    Taking on a Jihadi with a full auto weapon in spray and pray mode is bad enough, but how does the average citizen, or an armed one for that matter, defend against a devout Muslim wearing a suicide vest and in a hurry to get his 72 virgins?

    I’m afraid most people just hope it happens somewhere else.

  11. Europe has been “de-fanged” since WWII when it comes to citizenry possessing firearms. As for Chief Lanier, she may have been an ex-Army MP, but she’s now a politician. She talks a good game, but her actions are the opposite.

  12. Has anyone added up the number of French citizens and visitors killed by individual Jihadis, or just “criminals of a certain religious group” over the past 15 years?
    Geoff
    Who is a curious fellow and remembers the “honor killing” trial in Cleveland, OH just before 9/11…

  13. And, of course, we are getting the usual PC gibberish from the politicians and the media.

    Rep. Jan Schakowski (D-IL) said that the tragedy is a reminder of the need for “sensible” gun laws. Maybe she thinks that ISIS bought the weapons at a gun show in Arizona or in a sporting goods store in Florida.

    Salon.com thinks the same way. They tweeted that “maybe now the gun nuts will open their eyes and realize that the NRA is putting us in grave peril.”

    Bernie Sanders blames terrorism on climate change.

    The British Home Secretary insists that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. Just as the Holocaust and WWII had nothing to do with Nazism.

    John Kerry said that the massacre had “nothing to do with Islam, and everything to do with criminality, terror, abuse, psychopathism…I mean, you name it.” (As long as you don’t name it Muslim extremism.)

    Hillary said that terrorism had “nothing whatsoever” to do with Islam. That was hours before the massacre in Mali. The attackers spared victims who could quote passages from the Koran, and killed those who couldn’t.

    And, the day before the Paris massacre, Obama said that ISIS was “contained.” And he still wants to flood the US with thousands of Muslim migrants (while turning away Christian refugees) from Syria.

    Leftists ridicule any concerns about Trojan Horses. They claim that “most of the refugees are women and children.” But ISIS is training children as young as four to fire AK-47’s and automatic pistols, and to throw grenades.

    BTW, if ISIS is really contained, why are there refugees fleeing from Syria in the first place? And why should Europe and the USA take them in, when Saudi Arabia and the UAE won’t?

  14. Even if the Government as a whole did something worthwhile to deal with this situation, they’d always be fighting the last battle. If they were farmers, they would close the door after the cows left, but ignore what the horses were doing…and when the horses left they’d deny the cows ever left and make sure horse couldn’t leave, but then ignore the goats.

    Since the PTB have abrogated all responsibility for the safety and well-being of this country and have whizzed all over their oaths of office, it is totally up to us. Despite their insistence that We The People should never try to defend ourselves and should rely on Official protection, I for one will never give up my God-given right to defend myself. In fact, to give up that right is to give up and throw away the gift of my life that God also has given me.

    Molon Labe, and may God continue to bless America no matter what our “leaders” may say!

  15. Notice how liberal ideas can only exist in an environment of security and wealth. When the environment changes, those liberal ideas begin to fade like plants without water. Conservatives want to fight crime by shooting back, liberals want to light candles, hold hands, and set up flowery memorials at places where violence occurs. I know there are exceptions, (some liberals will shoot back) but the two approaches to crime are very different. Here’s an old phrase, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” Rev. Schuller.

  16. When I look at the events in Paris, I am reminded again of the folly of “Gun Free” zones. Most of Europe and, certainly, France is one big gun free zone where only the military and (maybe) the police are armed but the civilians are nothing but disarmed, easy, “soft” targets. Certainly, all of the entertainment venues, targeted by these terrorists, were gun free zones which enabled the terrorist to kill at their leisure and systematically.

    Sadly, this folly is alive and well here in the USA too. Simply moving up from a .380 to a bigger gun is nice (in theory) but means little when one is stuck in a gun free zone.

    I know since I am forced (and I do mean FORCED) to commute to/from and work in a gun free zone every day. I would gladly carry even a little .380 if I could. Unfortunately, if I did so and got caught, the least I could expect would be to be fired on the spot. The worst would be to also have criminal charges applied and to lose my CCW license entirely. I will just have to put up with it for about 2 more years. Then I can retire from my job and its associated (and accursed) gun free zone!

    Until the scourge of gun free zones are wiped out, soft targets will abound in both the USA and Europe. Terrorists will always be eager to exploit them.

  17. I’m doing my part to fight worldwide workplace violence by contributing more money to Al Gore so he can solve global warming and stop this senseless slaughter of innocent people by nice, peaceful Moslems.

    But in case that doesn’t work, I have started carrying a scoped Remington 700 rifle in .308 caliber with 40 rounds of ammunition in addition to the 12 gauge Remington 870 currently in my car. I don’t usually keep an AR-15 or semi-auto AK 47 in my car unless I’m traveling a long distance. The reason is that I don’t want to lose any high priced guns to theft. I don’t plan on getting into a close range gunfight with terrorists if possible since there is a good chance of getting hit by friendly fire, in addition to hostile bullets. I would do more good by attaining a concealed and/or covered position and exploding the bad guys’/gals’ heads with well placed shots from a distance. My car rifle is one of three Remington 700 models in .308 I own and is a basic, skinny barrel version with Leupold 3X-9X scope, unlike the other pair with heavy barrels and higher end Mark 4 scopes.

  18. Old friend…well written!

    Like you, I fear the war is upon us. My contacts are all in agreement, as I’m sure are yours. Have changed EDC — you were right all along! — many bullets is better! And as I hobble through my brutal knee rehab, my constrained practice focuses on 25 yard head shots.

    Faith, and watch your ass!

    Michael B

  21. Well done, Mas.

    People cling to micro-guns — it’s like dealing with cops all over again. It was incredible the trouble I went to just to get my detectives to carry *on-duty*.

    “It’ll never happen to me” is a drug. As to happening here, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened more here. It’s a matter of time. I learned, first from reading Chas. A. Skelton, then reinforced by you and by Jim Cirillo. Happy to say the old habits die hard.

    Take care, bro.

    Rich

  23. I’m saddened to say that it will likely find it’s way to North America at some point-just look at what happened in Ottawa last October and what might have been were it not for an armed security presence (retired RCMP officer). People need to realize that they will be on their own for a period of time when shooting starts and demand that their rights to self protection be recognized and provided for ahead of time.

  24. Since 9-11 I have believed patrol car officers should carry a rifle in their vehicle. I still believe this and wonder if maybe civilians now should carry a rifle in their vehicles.

    As a civilian, if I am in my vehicle, I may just get out of Dodge, unlike the officer who is duty bound to follow the gunfire. So maybe it is impractical for civilians to carry rifles in their vehicles. But then again a civilian may not be able to escape or maybe the situation would be such that he decides to stand and fight.

    If I am in a fight that is basically military in nature I want a military weapon, if I can. Full size, high capacity handguns are ok, but give me a rifle, if possible.

  25. Mr. Bane – if I may – if your knee rehab is due to a total replacement – hang in there, the “bad” times will soon be behind you and, Sir – there ain’t nothin better than a new one – I know from personal experience.

  26. TXCOMT, you are right – no military service. Years ago I was listening to her introduction and I heard “MP”. It was the first part of a police unit designation and just stands for Metropolitan Police! All those ribbons are police ribbons and I won’t comment on them, but Google explains them. I am bewildered by her Wikipedia biography and leave it to others to draw their own conclusions. In her email response to me she does not correct my assumption about military service!? She said that the obstacles to carrying weapons in the District are all due to the DC Council and not her. She forgets that she was consulted and made recommendations.

    It’s hard to counter a shotgun or AK without a weapon.

  27. Though it seems probable that Islamic State jihadists will step up their attacks on American soil, currently I’m more worried about our usual domestic threats: mass killings by lone nutcases, gang banger shootings, drug cartel murders, and home invasions.

  28. Yep, Ron, I did a little digging beyond the Wiki fluff stuff just to make sure she truly wasn’t a vet…funny how you interpreted MP to mean military police. I bet I would’ve done the same! Of course, it’s even funnier that she didn’t correct you.

    Man, I’d hate to live in D.C.

    TXCOMT

  29. Bo, yep, you’re right, Lanier is now a politician and that, as we all know, changes everything!

    Mas, that leads me to wonder what big-city police chiefs have managed to maintain their pro-2A and pro-CHL holder beliefs after getting the top spot. Seems like Detroit PD Chief James Craig is one…any others?

    TXCOMT

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