10 December 08 - 09:22Mumbai's Harsh Lesson on Gun Control
People across the globe watched in shock as the terror attack on Mumbai unfolded on television screens everywhere. The meticulous planning and the sheer audacity of the attacks stunned the world and, in the final analysis, set the stage for a pure human tragedy: 195 lives lost, many times that number seriously injured, and hundreds of families scarred forever.
The terrorists targeted iconic landmarks like the busy CST railway terminus, two luxury hotels, a local Jewish outreach centre, a cafe, and a hospital. They placed bombs in taxis and other locations. All of these attacks occurred almost simultaneously, compounding the confusion and completely exposing the inept emergency services.
Now as the citizens of Mumbai go about the business of rebuilding their burnt out landmarks and trying to heal shattered lives, the emotions of a nation turn from horror to anger at being let down by those very people whose duty it was to protect them. But instead of playing the blame game it is time for the citizens of India to pause and try to understand why was it that these merchants of terror succeeded so well in their dastardly enterprise and how culpable are we for creating the circumstances which multiplied the magnitude of this tragedy many fold. After all, this was only a group of ten terrorists and those ten were mostly split into teams of two each, to enable them to cover several locations simultaneously. Why were they not stopped sooner? Did so many people really have to die?
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02 December 08 - 00:52Back in the stone age?
Image courtesy Oleg Volk - www.olegvolk.net
As per
this news report bystanders at Nariman House in Mumbai tried to thwart the terrorists attacking the Jewish centre by throwing rocks at them. Rocks!! Rocks versus AK-47's and grenades? Yet people still debate whether armed citizens could have meant a substantially lower body count??!! If just one or two of those bystanders had a handgun or a semi-auto rifle in stead of just rocks, the rabbi and many others who died at that location may still be alive today...
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02 December 08 - 00:35I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera!
"I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera!" These were the words of the Mumbai based news photographer who clicked the photo of one of the terrorists, while they attacked the CST railway station. You can read more of what he had to say here
here >>
Disturbingly he had this to say about the armed railway police charged with guarding the railway station -
"There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything..." This simply underlines the need for more private citizens to be armed and prepared to defend themselves, we should not and cannot depend on the police to come save us in such situations.
Image courtesy Oleg Volk - www.olegvolk.net
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02 December 08 - 00:17If only we had guns!
Image courtesy Oleg Volk - www.olegvolk.net
The dastardly terrorist attack on Mumbai last week (once again) exposed how strict gun control laws directly help criminals target law abiding citizens with impunity. The terrorists came to Mumbai armed not only with AK-47's, grenades and bombs, but also with the knowledge that they could safely expect no armed resistance from the citizens of Mumbai!
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