What looks to be an amateur car bomb has detonated near Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville. Fortunately, the only fatality was the driver. Via James Joyner, who observes:
But, had this been a sophisticated terrorist operation, a lot of the people in those 2881 rooms and the adjacent shopping mall could have been killed. If we can’t stop amateur suicidal nuts–and we can’t–then we can’t stop committed professionals.
The day is coming.
That’s why those of us who are smart either live in rural Ontario (trying to figure out welfare forms), Saskatchewan (growing and harvesting rapeseed) or Newfoundland (who’d blow up UI participants?). We’re all to busy shooting groundhogs and prairie dogs and safe from both both professional and amateur terrorists. I think.
Keep spending your extra welfare pennies on ammunition. While we do have to think about a terrorist strike from Osama and his buddies,ie splattering something thats big and flies on the Pickering atomic power plant,the biggest threat in Canada comes from within. Namely the clowns, goofs and mental incompetents we elected on June 28/04. It’s called “BIG” government!
To think you can stop committed professionals or even amateurs committing random acts of violence is a pretty naive statement. It only gets worse. There may be the lucky intelligence coup on occasion, but there’s plenty more whacko’s to slip through the net. It’s just a matter of time.
Fortunately, it’s probably easier to stop the organized wakcos than it is to stop the lone-nuts. You can wage a war on organization: through wiretaps, spies and things such as profiling (if the authorities aren’t too politically correct for that).
Going after lone nut-jobs isn’t nearly as easy. And it’s usually not even be a good idea. Remember, that gun registry was largely the result of the feds trying to stop another Marc Lapine. Overreactions to solitary incidents just produce bad laws and excessive regulation.