Could the Mumbai Attacks Be Replicated In America?

As news of the terror attacks in Mumbai dominate the news, a critical question to ask is how similar attacks can be prevented. There are likely to be several schools of thought as to the best way to prevent attacks such as these, depending on the beliefs of those asked.

One school will insist that we need tighter security regulations and more law enforcement. While these may be helpful, they can only go so far. India has been at war with Muslim extremists much longer than the US, yet clearly was still vulnerable. Indeed, there were reports that the police station was the first target.

Another school will insist that this is the time for more gun control. This, of course, ignores the fact that those who are going to kill many people do not mind violating some government regulation. Banning guns will not have an effect on their availability to terrorists for several reasons. One, by banning them, their value will increase, along with the reward for trading in them. The prime example of this is illegal drugs. No one has any problem finding drugs if they want them, despite their illegality and the resources wasted on trying to reduce their supply. Second, guns are very easy to make. The technology for an machine gun is about 150 years old. Nothing that old is that hard to build. Guns can be made in any machine shop. They are routinely made covertly in prisons. To go back to the drug example, it is infinitely more difficult to make cocaine than a gun, yet anyone in America could get cocaine in a day if they tried hard.

Rather, the necessary solution is more guns, that is, to allow concealed carry by any and all sound minded citizens who do not have a criminal background. This is how Israel prevented shootings like this from occurring. They generally now only take place where Israeli citizens have been disarmed. This tactic has also been proven to prevent such tragedies in the US. Indeed, this is one of the reasons that most mass shootings in the US now take place at schools, which are "gun free zones". What they really are is free victim zones, where the law abiding cannot defend themselves. Until we extend the single most basic right, self-defense, to all citizens, we will always be subject to these types of attacks.