Copyright John T. Reed 2015

The French police officer who responded to the Charlie Hedbo shooting did not have a gun. Paris cops are not allowed to have guns. Neither are Paris terrorists. But when guns are outlawed…

If it had been in the U.S., not only would the responding cops have had guns, so, probably, would an armed guard at the door and some or all of the people inside who were shot—even if it was in a city that hates guns like Chicago or NYC.

How so? In America, companies that need armed guards, like armored cars, generally have them. Employees who need them, like private detectives or private security guards, generally have them. And citizens can get concealed carry permits if they can show cause. Hannity always wears a gun and he is in NYC. He showed the police the threats. Although Stossel did the same and he was not granted such a permit. Maybe the cops like Hannity more. Maybe Stossel should apply again if he really needs a gun and was not just trying to get turned down to put it on his show.

Cartoonists like those at Charlie Hedbo would have been granted carry permits even in the anti-gun U.S. cities because of the obvious risk and the scandal if they had been denied then got slaughtered like the ones in France did.

And if the cartoonists had guns, and an armed guard, probably few, if any, good guys would have been killed. We had similar incidents at Congress and the White House and the assailants were not successful. All the other discussions of how to stop this are absurd.

I would not be surprised if the French turned their noses up at this suggestion. “We will not be turned into the American Wild West!” Okay. So stick with what you have allowed yourself to be turned into: The Waziristan of Europe. Beirut used to be called the Paris of the Middle East. Now Paris is the Beirut of Europe. But at least it’s not like those feelthy Americans. Please start identifying all the no-go zones that have been taken over by radical Muslims on your tourist maps—so we uncultured American don’t accidentally go skipping into one singing “I love Paris in the Springtime” when what we really mean is “I love Paris in the 1950s.” One would have thought they learned a lesson about letting Jew-haters invade their country in 1940.

The attacks by Muslims in Ottawa, Sydney, and Paris are reminiscent of the Somali pirates—also Muslims. Among other things, the navies of the world were patrolling the Indian Ocean to stop the pirates, in ships that were much bigger than those of the pirates, but also much slower, which was like having a dozen mounted police patrolling the entire continental U.S. looking for robbers.

The Somali pirates were finally stopped when they started putting armed guards on the merchant ships. They have to wait until they are in international waters to get on and must get off just before the ships enter territorial waters because of a bunch of tight-ass rules against merchant ships being armed. But the simple act of arming the target ships ended piracy.

It’s called common sense.

John T. Reed