Times Square "machete attack" and NY's carry laws

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Honestly, it was only a matter of time before someone tried something on New Year’s Eve at Times Square. You can’t put that many people in that tight of a space with that many cameras present and expect that no one was ever going to plan some kind of attack.

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And, unfortunately, this time someone tried it.

They didn’t succeed.

An American radical jihadist decided to bring what authorities described as a machete to Times Square’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

A young Maine man who recently became fixated with radical Islamic jihadism wounded two NYPD cops with a massive curved knife just outside the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration, fracturing a rookie officer’s skull before being shot by police, law enforcement sources said Sunday.

Cops and federal investigators are now taking a hard look at the internet history of the 19-year-old suspect, identified by sources as Trevor Bickford of Wells, Maine, to determine if terrorism motivated the bloody holiday attack, law enforcement sources said.

“It’s being investigated as a terror attack, 100%,” one high-ranking NYPD official told the Daily News. “He radicalized about a month ago. He’s not affiliated with any group. It’s more like a lone-wolf situation.”

Bickford expressed extremist beliefs on social media, the official said, adding, “He made threats that he was going to attack a public official.”

First, let me commend the NYPD for preventing this attack. They saw something suspicious, acted accordingly, and while several officers were injured, this is a prime example of how things could have been so much worse.

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Yet I can’t help but think about what would have happened if the suspected terrorist in question hadn’t tripped their alarm bells. What would have happened then?

And I know good and well that it wouldn’t have been pretty.

Thanks to New York’s carry laws and the fact that the city declared Times Square as a “sensitive area,” no law-abiding citizen would have had a gun on hand to deal with the threat.

Someone might have had a pocket knife or something, but when you’re up against what looks to me like a large kukri, that’s not exactly an even match.

No one was allowed to lawfully carry a firearm, all because average citizens cannot be trusted with them.

“But if guns were allowed, the bad guy would have had a gun!” someone might argue. If they did, they need to book an appointment with their physician to see if they’re brain dead.

Seriously.

If this guy had a gun he could have brought, do you really think the fact that Times Square was a gun-free zone would have dissuaded him? A giant bladed weapon wasn’t allowed either, but he tried to bring that to the celebration. How could anyone think for a moment that the rules against guns there kept him from bringing a gun in the first place?

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But were it not for the good work by the NYPD, what the alleged terrorist might have had was a massive crowd where he could have murdered dozens without anyone having any real ability to stop him. That’s because lawmakers didn’t trust law-abiding citizens to carry a gun in certain places.

Yet now an attempted attack happened at one of those places. It’s likely only a matter of time before someone tries it again, only not when there’s that level of security, and again, the law-abiding citizens will face that threat disarmed.

They shouldn’t have to.

 

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