A Pakistani terrorist, Mir Aimal Kasi, attacked CIA personnel outside the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, killing two CIA employees and wounding three in 1993.
“At around 8 a.m. on January 25, 1993, Kasi stopped his Isuzu pickup behind a number of vehicles waiting at a red traffic light on the eastbound side of Route 123, Fairfax County. The vehicles were waiting to make a left turn into the main entrance of CIA headquarters. Kasi emerged from his vehicle with an AK-47 and proceeded to move among the lines of vehicles, firing into them. Within seconds, he had killed Lansing H. Bennett MD, 66, and Frank Darling, 28. Three others were left with gunshot wounds. Darling was shot first and later received additional gunshot wounds to the head after Kasi shot the other victims.”
Kasi stated later that he wanted to kill people that were more important to the government. Kasi escaped and was hiding in Afghanistan from where the FBI lured him with an offer of a business deal and then captured him by going to his hotel room in Dera Ghazi Khan, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. After the U.S. government “rendered” Kasi back to U.S. soil, Kasi was tried and convicted. On November 12, 1997, four US oil executives and their Pakistani taxi driver were shot dead in Karachi, in what was described as a deliberate response to Kasi’s guilty verdict. Kasi was executed by lethal injection in 2002.
In “Sudden Jihad Syndrome“, Daniel Pipes looked at the case of Mohammed Taheri-azar’s attempt to kill students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill by driving a rented Jeep Cherokee into a campus plaza on March 3, 2006. The conclusions about free-lance jihadis who appear out of nowhere and go on a rampage are worth looking at.
Each one of us has to decide how likely it is that we or our loved ones may be confronted by such “mentally disturbed” individuals. And they are disturbed! Nevertheless, the shocking (but politically incorrect) fact is that Mr. Taheri-azar was a fairly normal Iranian-American college student until he started reading the Koran. By his own testimony, the Q’uran transformed his life. He stated he would have obtained a pistol in order to kill as many of his fellow American citizens as possible but stated that it was too difficult to obtain the permit so he used an SUV.
Most of us in the gun-friendly (and relatively peaceful) Evergreen State have no problem obtaining a Concealed Pistol License. Many of us already have a CPL but many do not bother to go about regularly armed because it is often inconvenient and seems unrealistic to expect to be attacked at any time. The fact is that we are living in a time when greater perils confront us than at any other time in history. Consider all the facts and recent history- and do not procrastinate! The law, common sense and most law enforcement officers, including those in Washington’s bastion of liberalism, King County, will be on your side when you are properly trained and carry a weapon responsibly; i.e., safely and all the time.
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