Real Las Vegas Attack Solutions
I've waited to respond to #lasvegas. I'm furious. Here's my SOLUTION and it can be implemented TOMORROW and I'll tell you who's to blame for this massacre:
I was a Federal Air Marshal (2003-2016) and we had many ground assignments. For months at a time, I would be part of a team that protected train stations, airports, commuter areas, and numerous temporary details for large events that needed extra manpower (and firepower) for EXACTLY the scenario we saw in Vegas, #nieceattack, whatever. Except we weren't ready and we all knew it! The Federal Air Marshal Service had purchased enough rifles to arm each officer on ground based assignments but guess what we were told: They’re too "scary" and "militant" looking. They told we'd get too many complaints and then have to stow the rifles eventually anyway, so why issue them at all, they asked. So our agency spent heaps on the rifles because they saw the need but couldn't get past the political correctness—does that make sense? So each day, I put on my "scary" black fatigues, my Department of Homeland Security plate carrier, my Sig Sauer handgun and knew that when-- not if-- an attack came, we were at an extreme disadvantage. If an active shooter or truck rammer attack happened and it didn't occur immediately within 30-50 yards of where I was standing or on patrol, I would have to sprint to put the attacker in my effective range of my pistol-caliber handgun. If the attack occurred far out, say from a rifleman perched high up, and shooting at a distance of 300 yards out we would have to sprint against the gunfire to make up the distance? (Kennedy assassination, anyone? Why haven’t we learned!?) In the time it takes law enforcement to sprint to the gunfight instead of returning fire, innocents are dying. If the attacker used a high-speed heavy vehicle, my handgun would have a much tougher time penetrating and neutralizing the vehicle.
And why? Because me with a rifle scares uneducated sissies (uneducated in what real combat looks like) and sissies hold too much clout in this country. Now that’s scary and it should scare the hell out of anyone who really wants to keep innocents alive in this country.
When I was in the Air Force Security Police protecting bases around the world, we were issued a rifle AND carried them, because handguns would be stupid at ranges beyond, say, 50 meters, especially when there’s incoming enemy rifle fire or enemy vehicles coming in fast. It makes zero sense for police and private security forces (that have the training and qualifiers) to keep their rifles at HQ's or in their squad cars—because when the attack happens they will have to sprint away from the fight, get to their cars, grab their gear, and then return to the fight. In the meantime, people die! My effective range with my rifle is well beyond 400 yards. And at the very least, we can suppress the enemy at that distance. When rounds start incoming on the attacker, he’s going to duck or die—and that means innocents stop taking incoming! It’s not rocket science. It’s combat, security, and good police work 101.
Did I mention I was in the Secret Service protecting the White House against such security threats for twelve years and helped train Secret Service to respond to exactly these kinds of attacks?
So the solution we can implement tomorrow to stop these kinds of attacks? GIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT THE RIFLES THEY ALREADY HAVE AND LET THEM CARRY THEM FOR THESE KINDS OF EVENTS! And when sissies say they are scary, just point to any one Which brings us to WHO is to blame and the next solution. First, the shooter… BUT so long as Senators are walking out on moments of silence and the career, losing democratic presidential candidate is actually blaming the National Rifle Association, I say “Enough!” So lets walk down this trail of leftist logic. Lets put our leftist logic hat on for a moment and see how it fits: By the way, who does Hillary Clinton think does so much of the training for much of the first responders that stop these attacks every time they happen? It’s the NRA! So if she thinks the NRA is to blame, I say, Leftists are to blame because they keep arming bad guys and disarming good guys. The hotel and the event where this recent attack took place was made a soft target, aka a “gun free zone,” by sisses and leftists. When I was in the Secret Service (and I helped protect First Lady Clinton) I had no problem creating “gun free zones” because the Secret Service took complete 100% responsibility for any kind of attack. If teams of highly trained and highly armed attackers with bombs, guns, and vehicles descended on The White House or an event, the Secret Service was ready. of the active shooter events, sieges, massacres, or whatever you want to call them and say, “Well, my rifle keeps the bad guys at bay, [sir or mam], and keeps you safe.”
Which brings us to WHO is to blame and the next solution. First, the shooter…
BUT so long as Senators are walking out on moments of silence and the career, losing democratic presidential candidate is actually blaming the National Rifle Association, I say “Enough!”
So lets walk down this trail of leftist logic. Lets put our leftist logic hat on for a moment and see how it fits:
By the way, who does Hillary Clinton think does so much of the training for much of the first responders that stop these attacks every time they happen? It’s the NRA!
So if she thinks the NRA is to blame, I say, Leftists are to blame because they keep arming bad guys and disarming good guys. The hotel and the event where this recent attack took place was made a soft target, aka a “gun free zone,” by sisses and leftists. When I was in the Secret Service (and I helped protect First Lady Clinton) I had no problem creating “gun free zones” because the Secret Service took complete 100% responsibility for any kind of attack. If teams of highly trained and highly armed attackers with bombs, guns, and vehicles descended on The White House or an event, the Secret Service was ready.If that’s good for a First Lady or any of these leftist politicians protected by men and women with firearms and “scary” looking things who stand ready to do violence to protect them, shouldn’t the American people be given the same security? If you’re going to disarm citizens and take full responsibility for their security, you best take 100% full responsibility. Instead, leftists continue to bang the broken drum of disarming innocent good Americans while hamstringing “scary” law enforcement and private security forces. Chose one: take 100% responsibility for securing an event or let people protect themselves, but the soft targets leftists are creating are literal recipes for attackers, no matter their weapon of choice.
Have we learned nothing from any of these attacks that have happened for decades? The terrorists and active shooters apparently are! To reverse the losing presidential candidate’s words around on her, here’s what I propose: “Our grief isn’t enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to [these leftist combat-virgin sissies (who are all protected by guns) such as Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the likes of Everytown and Ceasefire] and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”
And for that matter, I’ll quote former President Obama, “If there’s even on thing we can do, if there’s just one life we can save—we’ve got an obligation to try.”
Keep in mind that my solution of permitting (trained and qualified) law enforcement and private security forces to keep their rifles on them for large events, could be implemented TOMORROW without any dithering from congress.
But while we’re down this road of using leftist logic of blaming massacres on others because of their political views to push political agendas; I blame faux-Republicans. That’s right, I said it. We didn’t send a majority of Republicans to Congress to only retort Democrats and otherwise do nothing. Why is it that this paradigm exists where Democrats propose “solutions” of “gun-control”—whatever that means—and Republicans try to respond as if the losing team holds the majority? What are the Republican solutions?
We get crickets from these faux-Republicans.
And then there’s the announcement that Speaker Paul Ryan has indefinitely shelved suppressor legislation that would have treated suppressors under the same NICS background checks as acquiring firearms from registered dealers instead of going through the ATF. Lets be clear: if the attacker had used a suppressor, less innocents would have died. How can that be? Real life (non-Hollywood movie) suppressors reduce the initial rapport of firearms by about 30-50 decibels, which is still too dangerous to your hearing to not have hearing protection. But most normal ammunition breaks the sound barrier anyway, so there is always going to be the crack that follows each shot. And a suppressor for automatic fire shooting at 300 yards out, would have greatly reduced the shooters velocity, precision, accuracy, and greatly increased the likelihood of jams—not to mention would have literally gotten so hot as to get near molten and made the firearm inoperable if not seriously defective. But pundits from DC and NYC don’t know that. How would they? They live in gun-control areas that intimidate all forms of gun ownership.
Here’s a solution from a real Republican: give me and other law enforcement the ability to carry my damn government issued rifle so I can protect you and every other American from an attacker whether it be a perched shooter from Dealey Plaza in Texas or an attacker using an assault weapon with a high-capacity engine block and axle such as we saw in Niece, France.
What? If you thought “assault weapon” means a rifle, you’re part of the problem. Stop cow-tailing to their agenda. Stop using their loaded words. Just like you’re going to leave actual combat to professionals, leave gun-rights/gun-control to the professionals. If you don’t know what a 4473 form or can’t explain the current legislation regarding Federal Firearm licensee purchases or National Firearm Act regulated “devices” then don’t bang the drum of more gun control. Simply put, the body count of the Niece car ramming in France was 86 and New Orleans and Chicago, where the hundreds of deaths by black Americans in Democratic controlled gun-controlled areas continues on. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful and Democrats don’t care about the real killers: gangs, drugs, broken homes, and broken economies, and scared, not “scary,” police forces.
We sent you, Republican Congressmen, to be the champion of Republican ideals, not simply retort and get free air time. And if leftists are going to stand on the graves of victims and blame “deplorables” as if we pulled the trigger or put our foot on the gas pedal after every attack, I expect you to do the same. Because if they’re going to make emotional arguments and blame me for killing the people that I spent my life (in the Air Force Security Police, the Secret Service, the Federal Air Marshal, and now as a concealed-carrying and medically-trained American) trying to protect, I expect you to do the same.
Get on the soapbox. Go walk out on moments of silence. Push Republican solutions and blame the deaths of the defenseless on the leftist mindset that keeps making soft targets across the United States and then blames its warriors. Simply put, do your job.
-Gary J. Byrne
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Crisis of Character
Military and Law Enforcement Veteran of 29 years.