“An Islamist’s beheading of an Oklahoma woman Thursday and his being stopped by a man with a gun shows that Americans need personal firearms to defend life from Islamist terrorists,” gun rights expert John M. Snyder said here today.
According to news reports, the suspect beheaded Colleen Hufford at a Moore, Oklahoma company, Vaughan Foods. The suspect then attacked another company employee but the company owner, Mark Vaughan, stopped the suspect by shooting and wounding him.
The suspect is a recent convert to Islam.
Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said Vaughn, a reserve deputy sheriff, was “a hero in this situation.” Vaughan was carrying his own concealed firearm and acting as a private citizen at the time. The incident comes on the heels of Islamist beheadings of American journalists and others in the Middle East.
Snyder said that, “Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, has warned citizens repeatedly of the threat from extremist Islamist elements on the domestic scene. He even stated recently that, ‘We always have to be alert to them.’
“Given this situation, Americans should be ready to face these fanatics. You cannot expect police authorities to be first responders in every case. People must assume responsibility for their own security and that of their families. Americans must be able to use personal force to repel personal aggressors. THAT MEANS GUNS!”
Snyder said, “People who promote gun control over the civil right to self-defense of law-abiding citizens are doing a tremendous disservice to the people of our country. That includes politicians, media personalities, clergymen, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and billionaires like Mike Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and George Soros.”
Snyder noted that, “As Esther Tanquintic-Misa reported a few days ago in Politics & Policy, ‘the National Terrorism Center earlier estimated more than 100 Americans left the country to join either ISIS or the al-Nusra Front, which claims ties to Al Qaeda. Now, it is believed 40 of those have returned back home, probably just lurking in the background, awaiting instructions when to strike.’
“Make no mistake about it, our country is in peril. Americans need their guns for protection from this peril. The peril comes from radical Islamists, such as those from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or the Islamic State (IS). These Islamists behead Americans and others, as has been reported widely in recent weeks. Radical Islamists are here. They also can come to the United States through Mexico and other places.”
Francis Taylor, under secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on September 10 that IS personnel have discussed infiltrating the United States through its border with Mexico. He said IS adherents across the globe have spoken about that as a possibility on Twitter and social media exchanges.
Snyder said, “Obama for the most part ignores or downplays these domestic threats. Government does not stop them. Homeland Security says it can’t.”
Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX), House Homeland Security Committee chairman, said the government has only estimates of how many Americans are members of IS. He said there are “potentially thousands and we do not know who they are.”
Snyder said, “As the Oklahoma event indicates, people can stop terror attacks with firearms. That is language radical Islamists can understand. Americans need their guns to defend life and freedom.”
John M. Snyder
GunRightsPolicies.org is a publication of Telum Associates, LLC, owned and managed by John and Ling Snyder. Both are proponents of the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms. They regard the right of self-defense and the ability to own and use firearms in self-defense as integral to the Judaeo-Christian heritage of personal and public morality.