Just a few hours ago Chattanooga, TN was struck with tragedy as four United States Marines were shot and killed and one Law Enforcement Office was wounded in attacks on a Navy/Marine Corps recruiting office and Navy Reserve center. First and foremost my thoughts and prayers go out to the families those four Marines left behind. This incident IS an act of domestic terrorism, regardless of how Washington spins it, regardless of what nationality, color, creed, or otherwise the shooter was. This was a planned attack on the United Stated Military on United States soil. Now is not the time to come out waiving photos of bullet holes in the glass calling for more gun control and spinning the story to yield a further separation of peoples in the Unites States. Now is the time for a call on the American people to finally realize the state of the world we are living in and the enemy that we face. Now is the time to call on the on the American people to ignore the propaganda that special interest groups have been shoving in our faces and unite as a country so that we may become our neighbor’s keeper. Evil is not just over seas, but also here at home. Moments after this tragedy had occurred ISIS sent out via Twitter that they were responsible for the attacks and that the shooter, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez was one of theirs. ISIS said recently that they were coming to American soil to kill members of the United States Military and now that threat has come to fruition.
I, for one, do not plan to give away by ability to defend myself and those I care about. I carry a firearm with me at all times legally under the conceal and carry laws in the area that I am in. I do not call for a disarming of American but instead a full institution of the 2nd Amendment so that we may defend ourselves as a country from all threats, both foreign and domestic. The threat is here, this is real, and this will not be the end of it.
One of the most insightful things ever said about defending against terrorism came from SF author L. Neil Smith: “A diffuse threat requires a diffuse defense.” Terrorism is the ultimate diffuse threat: no one can know who will strike, or where or when. No defense can ever be more diffuse, or more widespread, than a nation whose citizens are armed, and freely go about their business that way.