Every time someone starts trying to claim that a person behind the wheel of a car is unarmed, I can't help but to roll my eyes. The reason is, obviously, that vehicles are deadly weapons. More people are killed with vehicles every year, even if unintentionally in nearly all cases, than with firearms. They're deadly weapons.
And, in case someone doesn't believe me, they have a short memory. They clearly have forgotten the vehicle-based terrorist attack in Nice, France, that killed dozens.
And now we've got a new one that started out with a vehicle, and then escalated from there.
A man suspected of driving a van into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride festival then going on a knife rampage in an Islamist terror attack has been shot dead by police, German officials have said.
Police confirmed on Sunday evening that the chief suspect had been shot dead, reportedly during an operation at an allotment garden complex in the capital’s Spandau district.
One woman was killed on Saturday evening and 29 others were injured after a man drove a rented minivan into a crowd of pedestrians, then attacked people with what appeared to be a machete. The attack took place in the Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate at about 10pm local time on Saturday, close to one of Europe’s biggest LGBTQ+ celebrations.
The attack forced organisers to cut short one of Europe’s largest Pride events and came as Germany remained on edge after a series of deadly vehicle and knife attacks.
The German interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, named the chief suspect as 21-year-old Abdul Ballout. “We are dealing here with a suspected perpetrator, who had previously drawn attention to himself through a high volume of criminal offences, radicalisation and affiliation with the Islamist scene,” he told a press conference near the site of the attack. He said Ballout had a criminal conviction and had been sentenced as a juvenile to a year and 10 months in prison, but that the sentence had been suspended.
German media reported that Ballout, a German national with Lebanese roots, was a supporter of Islamic State and last year travelled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join the group. He was then convicted in Germany of “preparing a serious act of subversive violence”, the news outlets Bild and Der Spiegel reported.
Ballout has been shot and killed by police, thankfully.
However, in the most European move yet, it seems that Ballout hadn't really faced all that much punishment for his attempt to join ISIS.
He identified the suspect as a German citizen of Lebanese background known to police after committing crimes in the past. Abdul B. had previously been sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison in Berlin, he said, which was commuted to parole.
There are also reports floating around that Ballout was required to undergo some kind of "de-radicalization" program, but that clearly never happened. I haven't found verification of that, but if so, that's the most suicidal empathy thing I've ever heard, considering the dude who tried to join ISIS got 10 months in prison, only to have it commuted.
Whatever you think about LGBT individuals, the truth is that people shouldn't have to fear terrorism. They should be in a position to defend themselves from terrorists. That means their gun rights should be respected.
"If he'd had a gun, it would have been worse!"
Maybe...if he'd had one. He didn't, but neither did anyone else there, and since the fears of homophobia are shouted from the rooftops throughout the world, it seems possible that at least someone in the crowd would have been inclined to carry one if they could. They couldn't and they didn't.
Meanwhile, while the actual death toll of this one is thankfully low, that's not always the case. Three people were killed in a 2024 mass stabbing in Germany, for example. Eight other people were injured in that attack as well. Let's compare that to what happened last night in Seattle, for a moment. Three people were killed and only five injured.
These attacks can be just as deadly, folks. Don't pretend otherwise.
But good guys with guns reduce the body count. It's happened almost everywhere that a good guy with a gun has been on the site when the shooting happened.
Germany needs to revisit its gun control laws.
