A terrorist attack struck the London Bridge and Borough Market neighborhoods of London Saturday evening, leaving seven dead and 48 injured. The assailants slammed a white van into a crowd of people on London Bridge before attacking other victims with large knives — they carried no firearms.
“Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!” President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday.
“We need to protect all Americans, of all backgrounds and all beliefs, from radical Islamic terrorism — which has no place in an open and tolerant society.”
Gun ownership in the United Kingdom and in London is rare and requires gun-seeking residents to jump through many hoops.
While the jihadi attackers were able to inflict terrible carnage using a vehicle and then entered a pub with slashing weapons, they encountered none of the citizens carrying a concealed firearm more likely to be found in an American bar.
Since 1997 “all cartridge ammunition handguns” have been banned in the U.K., according to a March 2016 report in The Guardian.
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“All small-bore pistols and rifles used by target shooters were included in the ban,” the report noted. “Penalties for anyone in possession of an illegal firearm were tough — from heavy fines to prison terms of 10 years.”
“The U.K. has some of the toughest gun-control laws in the world,” read a November 2010 report from the BBC detailing what gun ownership is like in the U.K.
“If you want to own a gun, it is very difficult to do so,” the report continued. “In short, it has been designed to put as many barriers in the way as possible and to assume the worst, rather than hope for the best.”
Not only are private citizens in the U.K. very likely unarmed and vulnerable to extremist attackers, but even the vast majority of police are not readily equipped to bring down a terrorist assailant with deadly force.
An unnamed British Transport Police officer confronted the three knife-wielding assailants during the attack Saturday, armed only with his baton. The officer is being lauded as a hero who “showed enormous courage in the face of danger,” according to Chief Constable Paul Crowther.
“Although he is seriously unwell, he was able to recount how he faced the attackers armed only with his baton, outside London Bridge station,” Crowther said in a statement. “For an officer who only joined us less than two years ago, the bravery he showed was outstanding and makes me extremely proud.”
“All of us at BTP wish him a swift recovery, and I know he will be touched by the hundreds of messages of support from across the U.K. and the world,” Crowther added, noting that the officer was one of the first responders at the scene of the attacks.
Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh also offered his praise for the unnamed officer and the other officers who quickly responded as the attacks began to unfold.
“There can be no doubt that the swift response of our colleagues — both armed and unarmed — saved further lives from being lost … There are barely words to describe their bravery — officers who ran towards danger with no thought for their own safety,” Marsh said.
It is not uncommon for British officers to patrol the streets without firearms. Although all police officers in Northern Ireland carry firearms, most officers in England, Scotland and Wales do not carry firearms on patrol. In 2012, the BBC reported that just five percent of officers in England and Wales were authorized to carry firearms. Former Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick told the BBC that the officers want to appear “approachable” to the public.
It finally took eight armed officers who fired an “unprecedented level of gunfire” — 50 rounds — to take down and kill the three attackers in London Saturday evening, police said.
The firearm-free London rampage casts fresh doubt on the ability of strict gun control to protect citizens in western countries from terror. Instead, the attack puts in fresh focus longtime warnings about the danger posed by radical Islamic terror and undermines U.S. liberals eager to focus on gun control.
After the June 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting — the deadliest terror attack to hit the U.S. since 9/11 — Democrats and the American media focused their outrage heavily on the issue of gun control.
Then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton retweeted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who tweeted “I am prepared to stand on the Senate floor and talk about the need to prevent gun violence for as long as I can. I’ve had #Enough.” In her retweet, Clinton added, “Some fights are too important to stay silent. Preventing gun violence is one of them. Stand strong.”
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Clinton also added in her initial response to the Orlando massacre, in which shooter Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53: “It reminds us once more that weapons of war have no place on our streets.”
Former President Barack Obama issued a five-minute response to the Orlando massacre that never once mentioned Islam, saying, “What is clear is that he was a person filled with hatred.”
“The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle,” Obama had noted. “This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub.”
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Trump expressed his frustration at the time that gun control consumed the national conversation, criticizing Democrats for their politicized laser-focus on gun-control advocacy. Trump said the national conversation should instead focus on stamping out the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.
“Last night, our nation was attacked by a radical Islamic terrorist,” Trump had said at the time. “President Obama disgracefully refused to even say the words ‘radical Islam.’ For that reason alone, he should step down. If Hillary Clinton, after this attack, still cannot say the two words ‘radical Islam,’ she should get out of this race for the presidency.”
“We need to protect all Americans, of all backgrounds and all beliefs, from radical Islamic terrorism — which has no place in an open and tolerant society,” Trump had added. “If we do not get tough and smart real fast, we are not going to have a country anymore … I am trying to save lives and prevent the next terrorist attack. We can’t afford to be politically correct anymore.”
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