The Fayette Citizen-Opinion Page

Wednesday, May 29, 2002

A common-sense approach to stopping suicide bombers in U.S.

By ERICH PRATT

It's going to happen, we're being told. Suicide bombers are coming to America and they are going to blow people up just like they have been doing in Israel.

That's the frightening report that FBI Director Robert Mueller gave the nation recently.

"I think we will see that in the future, I think it's inevitable," he said. So what is our country doing to stop the inevitable?

Mueller says that the FBI is trying to improve its evidence gathering and investigative capabilities. But he's not too hopeful.

He says that "there will be another terrorist attack. We will not be able to stop it. It's something we all live with."

One can see why he's so pessimistic. Our intelligence experts are hard workers to be sure. But even they would have to admit that they've let some bad guys slip by them.

FBI agents failed to stop the Sept. 11 tragedy last year and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. And they failed no, in fact, they actually assisted the terrorists in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

FBI agents, while helping the terrorists build the bomb, were hoping to supply the bad guys with dummy powder and then arrest them before they planted the bomb in the garage of the World Trade Center. Unfortunately, the terrorists were no dummies themselves. They used real powder, and more than a thousand people were injured as a result.

So back to the question, what can be done to stop the inevitable suicide bombers?

Well, how about trying an idea that works. No country has been plagued with suicide bombers as much as Israel. What have they done to help slow down the attacks on innocent civilians?

They recently issued up to 60,000 gun permits so that ordinary citizens can drop perpetrators who try to set off bombs. A crazy idea?

Hardly. In late February, one alert woman shot dead a terrorist who tried to set off an explosive device in an Efrat supermarket. Authorities praised her for saving the lives of many innocent people.

And then in March, a shoe salesman used his gun to stop another suicide bomber from blowing up people in a Tel Aviv restaurant. Ironically, a police officer tried to stop the bomber, but he was killed on the spot when the terrorist stabbed him in the chest.

In the end, it was the citizen a shoe salesman named William Hazan who actually ended the attack.

Even in this country, we've seen good guys with guns stop attempts to commit mass murders. The most recent event occurred earlier this year in Virginia, when two law students used their own guns to stop a crazed gunman who shot and killed three people at the Appalachian School of Law.

He would have killed many more, but students Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges forced the perpetrator to drop his gun. Chalk up more saved lives for the good guys bearing arms.

This is an important lesson we must learn, or we will never win the war against domestic terrorism. The police cannot be everywhere. They cannot be on every street corner and in every home. Nor would we want them there.

The lesson is really quite simple: guns save lives. Good people use guns to protect themselves or their families almost 7,000 times a day. Most of those times, the police are nowhere to be found.

So, Mr. Mueller, please hold the dire predictions and pass the ammunition.

[Erich Pratt is the director of communications for Gun Owners of America. GOA is a national gun lobby with over 300,000 members located at 8001 Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151 and at http://www.gunowners.org on the web.]


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