This past Friday a former military member flew from Anchorage, Alaska to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his handgun legally secured in checked luggage. After picking up his bag at the luggage carousel, he reportedly went to a restroom, retrieved his firearm and came out to the baggage claim area – a gun free zone – and began shooting. Five souls lost their lives, six were injured and dozens more hurt in the panic to escape the terminal.
While his motives for flying all the way to Florida to perpetrate his act of violence have not been disclosed yet, it was clear he experienced mental health issues, committed domestic violence, had recent contact with law enforcement including the FBI and may have been influenced by radical ideology.
Immediately following this incident, the kneejerk reactionists around the country were coming to the rescue. Interviews with air travelers abound who were shocked to learn that you could bring a gun on a plane. Pundits were arguing about what must be done now to close this dangerous loophole. Clueless newscasters paraphrasing the law into a narrative of how easily you can take dangerous weapons on airlines.
Among the recommendations: Not allowing any firearms in checked baggage. Allowing firearms but no ammo – since you can just order it online and get it mailed to you in a day or two (obviously not from a California politician), having the airlines give firearms “special handling” and having the secure zone extended to every entrance of the airport building.
What the airlines and TSA don’t tell you is the backside of the airport is less like the sterile high-security zone they claim it is and more like Obi-Wan’s description of the Mos Eisley Spaceport.
Those of us who are a little older will remember the way unloaded firearms used to be checked in at the airport. On declaring it and signing the form, a big-ass red tag that said FIREARM(S) UNLOADED was placed on the outside of your bag. Why is this tag now on the inside? Because that big-ass red tag was a magnet to thieves and the “special handling” meant your firearm got stolen. It is now against federal law to mark containers that contain a firearm.
Airport security is always a huge problem and we’ve consistently shown how to do it wrong. Every time you put in a new security checkpoint or perimeter, you create a queue of soft human targets on the other side. Airports around the world who extend the security ring further out have learned how vulnerable these locations become. In response, they just move the queues, and targets, further out.
What nobody has mentioned is this is another case where someone with obvious mental health issues and criminal intent fell through the cracks. All of the warning signs we as citizens are told to be on the alert for were there. Acts of violence, evidence of radicalization, contacts with law enforcement including him going to the local FBI field office himself, having his firearm – the very firearm used in the attack – confiscated by the FBI and later returned and being referred for mental health screening. Yet somehow, nobody felt it was important enough to investigate further. A very sad commentary on what might have been prevented.
What will happen next? You can be sure the elitists and politicians in gun-hostile states will be demanding more restrictions on the legal carriage of firearms if not an all out ban. All of it is of course just more security theater and will only impact the law-abiding citizens who choose to legally transport their firearms with them. Two-bit thug terrorists and criminals will find a way around the security measures. They always have and they always will. Meanwhile, an unarmed and vulnerable public will be waiting there to be their next victims.
Simply put, gun-free zones do not work. They are a magnet for anyone who wants to commit acts of violence with impunity. Honest, law-abiding citizens will follow the rules and will be caught in a trap. Criminals – who by the very definition of their existence do not obey the law – will not. And the result will be more sacrifices in the name of ‘public safety’.
Only by putting the fear of being put down immediately by one of many unidentified legally armed citizens who are willing to protect their lives and the lives of their loved ones will these thugs be deterred.
Yes, it really is that simple.
Bob
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