The San Bernardino Terrorist Attack and the Case for the Second Amendment

Another pall on truth and reason fell upon California on December 2nd, 2015 as terrorist, be they foreign or domestic upset the order of the American way. Yes, terrorists as despite their origin their actions are not simply the slanted opinions of a mass shooting or shooter. This act as many other similar acts committed in recent times which have been portrayed in the mainstream media simply as a localized criminal incidents is, and have been, acts of terrorism against the American people.

A county employee and a woman believed to be in a relationship with him; Syed Rizwan Farook, 28 and Tashfeen Malik, 27 of San Bernardino, California left the six month old daughter of Farook with his mother citing a doctor’s appointment. With lies and irresponsibility at their backsides, the terrorist couple targeted citizens with developmental disabilities and those supporting them at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Their combined act of cowardice took the lives of fourteen and wounded seventeen others.

Currently neither a message nor mode to the medium by which they communicated these atrocious acts against American citizens has yet to be disclosed by investigators. Local officials were quick to downplay terrorism but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has stated that the act was “possibly” terror related. Again, we watch idly as investigators and the mainstream media play politics that fear offending in lieu of reporting on the facts based upon the national climate. Despite the pop-culture onset which fears calling a terrorist what they are, again be they foreign or domestic, the fact remains and as defined in U.S. Code. An act of terrorism was committed in California, on 02 December 2015.

Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officers responded to the threat. On the scene these first responders were presented with the immoral aftermath of the terrorist attack. The dead and wounded littered the scene; however officials were able to identity two improvised explosive devises left by the terrorist which were summarily destroyed.  The terrorists, after reigning horror upon the innocent civilians at the Inland Regional Center, fled the scene in a black SUV. Law enforcement officials later located the pair in their vehicle in the Redland area. The police made an attempt to get the terrorists to exit the vehicle and surrender but the encounter than turned into a pursuit. Malik operated the vehicle as Farook fired a weapon and threw an improvised explosive device at pursing law enforcement officials.

Then the SUV was halted by California law enforcement officials whom were able to fix, then block the terrorists attempted escape. Once stopped, the pair fought back by immediately opening fire on law enforcement officials. Their actions resulted in a short lived exchange of fire which culminated in their deaths. On the scene a person of interest seen running from the SUV, whose involvement or identity has yet to be identified was detained.

As we await the official cause and reason for this heinous terrorist act on America, as well as the hopeful detention of any others connected with this attack, we are again unfortunately subjected to a Western epidemic of mainstream media prognosis which disguises reality and shifts personal responsibility away from the actions and choices of the individual and instead blames the actions of an individual upon tools and society. In short, it is now overwhelmingly acceptable for the carpenter to blame the hammer for the construction of a poorly built house.

On the societal point we are also being unrealistically challenged by the sheltered. Those who believe that the installation of a signpost on the corner will keep everybody safe in lieu of initiatives to assign personal as well as organizational accountability and responsibility.  The fact of the matter remains that our current condition is not positional and that those who commit acts of terror must be branded as the terrorists that they are. The instigator of terrorist activities must be countered; not clouded or celebrated. There are no such things as heroes or martyrs who commit acts of terror. “One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist,” is a fallacy on the fact that terrorist targets innocent civilians.

We the American people need to lose our “it can’t happen here” attitude. Because it just happened here again, and it has been happening here. Through the politically slanted ambitions of investigators and the mainstream media we give these terrorists every name but what they really are.  Then we blame guns, “assault style clothing,” the tools they use and not the people or whom they represent, or we blame society when in fact the acts of individuals who made conscious decisions to inflict harm upon others is to blame.

This is the advent of a new dark age where we blindly adhere to a sense of collective accountability and the blame of objects in the guise of media and politics; such as the stumbling peasants who were subjected to bibles chained to the pulpit of the dark ages. We are now expected to take the forced interpretation via the rants of the modernized firebrand preacher, the political and the media pundit and their twisted logic as the only lens through which to view these events.

The loudest voice in the room wins, as in those bringing fear and superstition versus reason and understanding. These loud voices who represent us, are by default handing a victory to the loudest voices of those who oppose us by removing all accountability and blame from the offenders and their networks.

The overarching implications are nonetheless inches form our face, as behind closed doors we are again and again attacked by domestic terrorist while tools and society are vented as excuses and those who demand actions against the group or networks is somehow considered heretical.

Realistically it is the user of a tool, not the tool itself which is guilty. Throughout our recent history of domestic terror attacks we assign blame to all but rational responsibility. The false blame on objects and invisible social constructs, like children blaming a stuffed animal of an invisible friend, yet for decades domestic terrorist attacks have typically included improvised explosive devices. IED construction is not something learned in shop class nor has anyone bought an IED at the gun store.

Moreover the accepted creation of false conclusions is compounded with the lack of backbone to challenge the motivations of these terrorists. As Americans, we continue to lack an obligation and the duty to pursue those who mean us harm beyond the tools in their hand. We are too terrified to offend the feelings of anyone or anything to stop the murder of our neighbors.