“Knowledge is ‘provisional:’
Measurement is not explanation.
Data is not wisdom.
Calculation is not truth”
Richard Feynman
Early Sunday morning, a lone terrorist, using a pistol and an M4, randomly shot and murdered three innocent victims and wounded at least a dozen more in Austin, TX.
The shooting happened at a trendy Austin bar/nightclub in the town’s downtown “entertainment district” just before 2:00am. Most shooting victims were seated in the patio outside the bar.
At the time, there was a heavy police presence in the area. APD officers thus arrived on the scene in less than a minute and immediately engaged the suspect via gunfire. The single terrorist was DRT. Swift and incisive action by APD officers doubtless prevented additional murders/injuries.
However, innocent victims were still murdered and otherwise harmed, as noted. In a terrorist attack like this one, even with the best of police responses, expecting a casualty-free outcome is mostly wishful thinking, as we see!
Lessons:
1) A “heavy police presence” doubtless serves as a deterrent to some violent criminals, and thus often represents a sound public-safety tactic. But, for suicidal terrorists like the one in the above case, the “deterrent value” of highly-visible police is minimal. For this terrorist (and many others like him) this was a one-way mission, and he probably didn’t expect to live through it. Thus, even when police are “on the way,” and the murderer knows it, the murdering doesn’t necessarily stop
Our leftist media has already labeled this terrorist “mentally ill,” just to soften his terrorist connection!
2) Where this shooting occurred is an infamous “gun-free zone,” and I doubt that fact was lost on this terrorist. In the seconds before armed police arrived, none among the innocent immediately present was able to return fire. “Gun-free zones” insure murderous terrorists that all their potential victims are defenseless!
Accordingly, for those of us who routinely go armed, “gun-free zones” don’t exist!
3) A “nocturnal lifestyle” is not associated with good health! Making it a habit of being out in public late at night is dangerous and represents a habit I don’t recommend. Conduct your business during daylight hours and be in bed by 10:00pm. The “after-midnight crowd” place themselves in great peril, even when they don’t realize it.
Like it or not, we are currently in “The Age of Terrorism”
We’re on our own!
Apologists for Joseph Stalin’s liberal use of terror and engineered famine to promote socialism complacently argued, “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs”
To which George Orwell acidly replied:
“So, where’s the omelet?”
/John
