I really don't think this is the time to get hung up on terms like "agenda"
@BadPinkTink.
We all need to take a cold, hard look at what his happening here and how we can protect ourselves. Can't most of us agree on at least that?
I think it is very, very hard to protect yourself against single (or small groups of) armed attackers. Your only hope is intelligence to stop them in advance, and with small groups (or a lone gunman) very, very, very hard to do. It's easy to get weapons in this country (we've had this discussion many times). Easy to arm yourself, and if you are hellbent on killing a bunch of people in a crowded place, you can. It's that simple. Yes, we can hope that someone else is there with a gun to stop them (and knows how to properly use that gun so as not to increase the body count). But, seriously, is there anything else you can do? I don't think so.
I suppose we can do a LOT more screening (ala airport screenings) at places where people gather...concerts, sporting events, malls, etc), but this costs a great deal of money (who's paying?), AND is going to result in us screening out all those "concealed carry people" who are supposedly going to rush in and save us all from the mad gunman. You really could NOT set up an effective system where you let in some people with guns, and screen out other people with guns...again, especially considering the "home grown" terrorist thing.
Many of these lone gunman (in this country anyway) are homegrown OR have been here for a very long time. Should we start rounding up all loners? All people of Middle Eastern descent? All (insert group name here)? Probably not. Should we screen people on a watch list and work on deporting them (within legal means)? Certainly. Homegrown people are a much different problem. You can't "deport" them. They belong here. Revoking US citizenship for someone BORN here is virtually impossible (indeed, they must "renounce" their US citizenship, it cannot be taken away). You can't lock them up, unless and until they ACTUALLY do something illegal. We can't (and never should) lock up people for "evil thoughts" alone (beyond the issue of how you even prove they are having evil thoughts). And, unfortunately (again) most of the time, their first illegal action is lethal, and results in their own death.
So, I just don't know what you CAN do in the short term when you've got people who don't play by conventional rules. Conventional rules say that self-preservation is goal number one...that is, people don't do this type of stuff because the chances of you surviving the attack are virtually nil. Therefore, you don't do it. But, these young men (almost universally young men) don't share that goal. They don't care if they die.
If that is true, we've got to work on that part. We've got to get them to care whether they live or die. Much harder nut to crack, I think.
