Posts Tagged paris

President Says Mass Shootings Don’t Happen in Other Countries While In Paris

President Obama speaking in Paris two weeks after a mass shooting terrorist attack said that shootings don’t happen in other countries.

 

OECD data on shootings per capita:

mass shootings

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European Gun Laws Failed To Prevent Terrorists From Getting Them

From Washington Post:

The problem has been rendered vividly in recent weeks by a pair of deadly assaults that each paralyzed a European capital. In Paris and Copenhagen, the attacks were carried out by former small-time criminals turned violent extremists who obtained military-grade illicit weapons with apparent ease.

In contrast with the free-firing United States, Europe is generally seen as a haven from serious gun violence. Here in Denmark, handguns and semiautomatic rifles are all but banned. Hunting rifles are legally available only to those with squeaky-clean backgrounds who have passed a rigorous exam covering everything from gun safety to the mating habits of Denmark’s wildlife.

 

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Individuals Need Weapons to Stop Unforeseen Attacks

From Fox News:

After the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris earlier this month, France placed10,000 uniformed soldiers in front of Jewish sites across the country.  Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be very effective.

Possibly this lesson is why this past week a leading European rabbi, Menachem Margolin, called for European Jews to be able to carry handguns.  Of course, in countries that won’t even let off-duty police carry guns, that isn’t going to happen.

Parisians, who were as close as a dozen yards away from the terrorists, took videos of the killers, but they were powerless to stop the attackers.

French gun laws only disarmed the law-abiding citizens.

 

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Muslim Kids Cheer Outside Paris Siege

From Pamela Geller:

During the reportage of jihad siege and slaughter in a Kosher supermarket, Muslim children can be seen cheering, giving the thumbs up and making machine gun-firing gestures behind an on scene reporter. The only thing missing is the passing out of candies. Perhaps Mahmoud Abbas will take care of that.

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A War Between Two Worlds

A War Between Two Worlds is republished with permission of Stratfor.”

By George Friedman

The murders of cartoonists who made fun of Islam and of Jews shopping for their Sabbath meals by Islamists in Paris last week have galvanized the world. A galvanized world is always dangerous. Galvanized people can do careless things. It is in the extreme and emotion-laden moments that distance and coolness are most required. I am tempted to howl in rage. It is not my place to do so. My job is to try to dissect the event, place it in context and try to understand what has happened and why. From that, after the rage cools, plans for action can be made. Rage has its place, but actions must be taken with discipline and thought.

I have found that in thinking about things geopolitically, I can cool my own rage and find, if not meaning, at least explanation for events such as these. As it happens, my new book will be published on Jan. 27. Titled Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe, it is about the unfolding failure of the great European experiment, the European Union, and the resurgence of European nationalism. It discusses the re-emergingborderlands and flashpoints of Europe and raises the possibility that Europe’s attempt to abolish conflict will fail. I mention this book because one chapter is on the Mediterranean borderland and the very old conflict between Islam and Christianity. Obviously this is a matter I have given some thought to, and I will draw on Flashpoints to begin making sense of the murderers and murdered, when I think of things in this way. Read the rest of this entry »

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Morten Storm: More Paris Style Attacks Likely

From Fox News:

Morten Storm, who, as an informant for Denmark’s national intelligence agency Security and Intelligence Service (PET), had first-hand dealings with Anwar Al-Awlaki while the U.S.-born cleric was head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said western countries must  protect themselves by canceling the citizenships of homegrown radicals who travel to the Middle East to fight or train. Once radicalized, homegrown jihadists can easily blend into society until given the signal to strike, he said.

“Deception is their warfare,” Storm said on a conference call facilitated by the New York-based terrorism research group Clarion Project. “One of the things that these groups believe in is that you are allowed to trick someone into believing that you stand for something else when you really have other agendas. They will act as normal members of western society.”

 

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Paris Attack Underscores a Deeper Malaise

Paris Attack Underscores a Deeper Malaise is republished with permission of Stratfor.”

Wednesday’s deadly attack against a French satirical publication has the potential to upset relations between European states and their Muslim citizenries. The strategic intent behind such attacks is precisely to sow this kind of crisis, as well as to influence French policy and recruit more jihadists. Even though Islamist extremism is, at its core, an intra-Muslim conflict, such incidents will draw in non-Muslims, exacerbating matters.

Three suspected Islamist militants attacked the Paris office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo with high-powered assault rifles, killing 12 people. Among the dead are the editor and cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier, who was on a hit list appearing in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Inspire magazine for “insulting the Prophet Mohammed.” Eyewitness said they heard the attackers shouting, “We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed,” and chanting, “God is Great” in Arabic. This is the third such attack in a Western country in less than three months. The Paris incident involves perpetrators who displayed sophisticated small arms and small unit training. Read the rest of this entry »

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Editor of The Onion on the Attacks in Paris

From MSNBC:

They cannot kill everyone who disagrees with them. There are not enough bullets in the world for that. The most responsible thing we can do is be aware that the most likely threat to freedom will now come from within. We cannot, should not, police our own thoughts – or the thoughts of our fellow citizens. Because the First Amendment does not just protect our free speech; it protects all expression, including religion.

 

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