By David. Republished with permission from DefendAndCarry.com
A traffic officer armed with a pistol is all it took to take down two Jihadist equipped with body armor and rifles.
The gunmen were prepared to carry out a full-fledged assault on the Garland, Texas, event until the unnamed law enforcer used his sidearm to eliminate the threat.
Just one gun can prevent so much.
They wore body armor. They carried assault rifles. And one had declared loyalty to ISIS.
A day after police killed two gunmen who tried to ambush a Garland, Texas, event featuring controversial cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, details began to emerge about the shooters.
One suspect, identified as Elton Simpson by a federal law enforcement source, linked himself to ISIS in a tweet posted just before the attack.
He also was no stranger to federal investigators. In 2011, he was convicted of making a false statement involving international and domestic terrorism.
The other suspect, identified as Nadir Soofi by two federal law enforcement officials, was Simpson’s roommate in a Phoenix apartment.
He wasn’t well-known to federal law enforcement and was not on the FBI’s radar, one of the officials said. Investigators were combing through evidence retrieved from the shooters’ Arizona home to help piece together a timeline of how their plot came together, the official said.
Authorities are still trying to determine the suspects’ motives, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said Monday. At this point, he said, one thing appears clear: A quick-thinking police officer “likely saved a number of innocent lives.”
Simpson and Soofi never made it inside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, where in addition to the cartoon contest, a right-wing Dutch politician who’s on an al Qaeda hit list was speaking Sunday evening.
A traffic officer working after-hours as security for the event and armed only with a service pistol killed both men, who were wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles, Garland Police Department spokesman Joe Harn told reporters Monday.
“We think their strategy was to get into the event center, and they were not able to get past our perimeter that we had set up,” Harn said.
This story is reminiscent of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France earlier this year. Two Islamic terrorists managed to kill 11 people and injured 11 others in the attack.
Much like the event held in Texas, the French magazine attracted controversy with its anti-Muslim depictions of Muhammad. They were both targeted by Muslim extremists for their use of free speech.
How many lives could have been saved in the Charlie Hebdo attacks if French officers were as well-equipped as Texas law enforcement?
This is purely speculation, but one could argue that just one person with a concealed firearm could have prevented the shooting in France. The more responsible and trained sidearm handlers in the world, the better.
We need to defend ourselves even more as our foreign enemies become increasingly brash and severe over time.
This goes to show that the combination of situational awareness and proper training can overcome a more heavily-armed adversary. We can overcome the terrorist threat, and it all starts with being prepared for any situation.
