Hours before the horrific radical Islamic attacks in Paris, the Daily Mail reported
President Barack Obama said that ISIS was ‘contained’ just a day before the terrorist group claimed responsibility for a horrific attack in Paris that killed 128 people on Friday.
In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that aired on Friday’s broadcast of Good Morning America, Obama declared that he didn’t believe ISIS (also known as ISIL) was gaining strength.
‘What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them,’ Obama said in the interview. ‘They have not gained ground in Iraq, and in Syria they’ll come in, they’ll leave, but you don’t see this systemic march by ISIL across the terrain.’
I’m certain the world is relieved to know that ISIS has been contained and isn’t gaining strength—although the downing of an airliner in Egypt and the slaughter in Paris might imply that the ISIS JV team might be flexing varsity muscles. An alternative scenario, rather unappetizing for some palates, is that the varsity team has been in play all along, and that the Obama administration might not have an adequate grasp of the situation.
Of course, something like this couldn’t have happened if France didn’t have “a gun for roughly every man, woman and child in America.” Oops, excuse me. Obama said that in reference to the United States and its failure to enact “common-sense gun legislation.” France appears to take it a few notches further so that even the police have complained that they are inadequately armed. Indeed, France’s gun laws are significantly stricter:
French gun laws date back to April 18, 1939, though they have been amended a number of times since. They are certainly tough: There is no right to bear arms for the French, and to own a gun, you need a hunting or sporting license which needs to be repeatedly renewed and requires a psychological evaluation.
According to Gun Policy, a project by the University of Sydney, the punishment for illegally having a gun is a maximum of seven years in prison and a fine. In 2012, the French government estimated that there were at least 7.5 million guns legally in circulation.
As The Post’s Thomas Gibbons-Neff notes, the men who attacked Charlie Hebdo appeared to be carrying two different types of Kalashnikov rifles. Such weapons are highly restricted and require extremely stringent background checks to buy (CNN describes it as rivaling the “clearance work done by the FBI for anybody employed at the White House”).
You see, in the United States, we can shoot back. As Live5News reports,
Authorities say one burglary suspect is dead and another arrested after a 13-year-old boy opened fire at a home in Ladson on Tuesday.
The Charleston County Coroner’s Office identified the deceased suspect as 31-year-old Lamar Brown of Summerville who died at Trident Hospital at 2:32 p.m. from gunshot wounds.
Investigators with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office arrested 28-year-old Ira J. Bennett of North Charleston and charged him with first-degree burglary and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.
Around 1:53 p.m., deputies responded to a home on Elderwood Drive in the Woodside community for a report of shots fired.
An incident report states the 13-year-old was asked to come out of the home. Deputies say the boy then exited the home without incident.
Deputies spoke to the teenager who said he was home alone when a vehicle pulled up behind his home.
The boy said one of the two suspects attempted to get into the home, at which time the teen said he feared for his safety, got his mother’s gun and began firing at the suspect.
“He saw a subject out back trying to get inside so he fired his mother’s gun through the door and the subject reportedly fired back,” CCSO officials said.
According to authorities, the juvenile fired several more times as the vehicle drove away.
And, thankfully, some store employees in Reading, PA were prepared when armed thugs burst into their business:
RPD officers were dispatched shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday for the report of a shooting at the Latino’s Meat Market at North 11th and Greenwich streets. When police arrived on scene, they found two men suffering from gunshot wounds. One of them died at the scene; the other died a short time later at Reading Hospital, police said. Reading police said it looks as though three masked men entered the market. One of them was armed with a pistol, which he fired inside the market, and another man could be seen pointing a stun gun at one of the employees, according to police, who did not know if the third man was armed.
[S]ometime during the robbery, police said both employees pulled out their own guns and fired several shots at the masked men, striking two of the three.
Two thugs are dead, and nobody else was hurt. As our recent history demonstrates, cowardly thugs prey on unarmed innocents. It’s high time that the Utopians wake up from fantasy land and get a grip on the fact that dependence on the government is inadequate. Responsible citizens can and should defend themselves. We shouldn’t wait until 129 innocents are slaughtered before the government shows up.
