At roughly 7:20 AM local time, an explosion rocked the subway tunnel passage underneath 42nd Street and 8th Ave. According to police, a 27-year-old male named Akayed Ullah exploded an improvised device attached to his chest which injured himself and three others but did not cause any deaths. The incident has been declared an attempted terrorist attack and is being investigated by the New York City Police Department.
While this is “The Truth About Guns” and not “The Truth About Terrorists” (coming soon), some will argue that this incident clearly indicates a need for the national concealed carry reciprocity legislation, a bill for which is currently making its way through Congress.
Karate and other martial arts might be useful for defending against common attackers, but there’s no way to stop a terrorist with a suicide bomb without a firearm without putting yourself within the blast radius of their explosive. Projecting force over distance is what guns do well. It’s possible that a good guy with a gun might make the difference in preventing or reducing the carnage in some future attack whether it’s a knife, car or possibly even a bomb, depending on circumstances.