If we’ve learned nothing else from history, it’s that it will be almost impossible to stop one lone asshole (e.g. ex-Marines Lee Harvey Oswald and Charles Whitman) from doing bad things to people in a public place.
As happened in gun-free Sydney AUS over the weekend:
Authorities received calls around 3:30 p.m. local time that a knife-wielding man was attacking people at Westfield Bondi Junction, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said during a press conference.
Footage obtained by 9News Sydney showed the suspect, wearing a gold and green rugby jersey and shorts, brandishing a long knife and approaching several horrified shoppers.
Point of interest: the “gold and green jersey” is in fact the team jersey of the Oz national rugby team Wallabies — no doubt, the OzGov should ban sale of said jerseys to prevent future events like this from happening.
Or, as Reader Mike L. suggests, the OzGov should institute commonsense knife control laws, like:
- No one needs a knife longer than 18 inches
- No one needs a knife with more than 10 serrations
- No one should be able to buy a knife more easily than borrowing a library book
- etc.
Much praise is being heaped on the “hero” Oz coppette who ventilated said stabby asshole and reduced his body temperature to the “room” setting. Doing her job, in other words, and not going all Uvalde, running away and hiding. And yes, good for her.
Of course, had a situation like this occurred in, say, Arizona, Florida or Texas, there is an equally-good chance that a Concerned Citizen would have applied the same solution as the hero Oz coppette did, perhaps even before he had a chance to stab anyone. (We call that “pre-emptive goblin disposal” — okay, “fear for one’s life”, see next post — but cops usually have to wait until the stabbing actually begins before applying the appropriate trigger pressure.)
As I write this, we don’t know why our Wallaby supporter went all Apache in the mall, but frankly it doesn’t matter because in matters of this nature, he may have had what he thought was a good reason (Oswald), or else because his head was all fucked up (Whitman).
Sic semper dementis.
bingo. and many of these shooters, almost all of them are loners or at least act alone when they commit crimes.
rather than use the term shooter, I should have used the word murderers. Sorry for poor choice of words before coffee
Hmmm…I take it this is a different whack-job than the one who attacked people in a church yesterday with a knife, also in Sydney. Taken from the Reuters report on that one:
“A separate eyewitness video, verified by Reuters and taken in the aftermath of the incident, shows the man being pinned to the ground by several others, his face obscured. A voice speaks in Arabic and says: “If they didn’t insult my prophet, I wouldn’t have come here. If he didn’t involve himself in my religion, I would not have come here.”
Authorities disclosed no motive for the attack and have not identified the suspect.”
If he was yelling “All o’ you, snack bar” then his motives will NEVER be known.
Cue Ann Coulter: “This is how we knew the Super Bowl party shooters were not white Christians”
Whether alone or in packs, the *only* solution ever to people bent on mayhem and murder is the presence of an armed protector who is capable and determined to act, and there will never be anyone more interested in your survival than yourself.
Well said Geek, well said.
And the (expected) response from Australian governments?
• Tighter restrictions on knife sales and ownership (age of owner, knife type, reasons for owning, knives kept under lock and key out of sight etc.)
• Strengthening police authority to stop people at random and search them and their possessions for “weapons” with no need for justification
• Body scanners at shopping malls
• Increased numbers of (still unarmed) security personnel at malls
• No one needs a knife with a black finish. That’s a weapon of war – an assault,/i> knife – its only purpose is to hide in the dark and kill as many people as possible. Ban assault knives. Now.