London Copycat Strikes in Paris

[georgephillip]

No Joke:

"The French armed forces deliberately inflicted pain on individual detainees on a massive scale. The victims were sometimes Algerian combatants, but more often they were civilians suspected of providing rebels with food, lodging, or trying to politically organize the Algerian population. As the war escalated from 1959-1960, Algerian women as well as men were the victims of targeted violence.

"The torturers systematically began by stripping their victim, then would torture the victim using five techniques: beating, hanging the victim by their feet or hands, submerging their head in water, applying electrical shocks to the victim’s body, and rape."

 

[Sallow]

I'm sure that you all mean well, but the widespread notion that a pistol in your possession would render you less vulnerable is naive to say the least. When taken by surprise, you have no time to draw your weapon.

Consider this. You're an armed police officer or serviceman/woman on your own. Someone taps you on the shoulder. You turn around. Upon coming face-to-face your assailant launches into a frenzied knife attack. Your first instinct would be to grab hold of the knife, not reach for the pistol on your hip. You've either died from your injuries or your weakened state leaes you at the mercy of your attacker, who will have disarmed you or fled the scene.

Another myth dispatched..

 

[Swagger]

I'm sure that you all mean well, but the widespread notion that a pistol in your possession would render you less vulnerable is naive to say the least. When taken by surprise, you have no time to draw your weapon.

Consider this. You're an armed police officer or serviceman/woman on your own. Someone taps you on the shoulder. You turn around. Upon coming face-to-face your assailant launches into a frenzied knife attack. Your first instinct would be to grab hold of the knife, not reach for the pistol on your hip. You've either died from your injuries or your weakened state leaes you at the mercy of your attacker, who will have disarmed you or fled the scene.

Another myth dispatched..

I'm not disputing that the attacker(s) would be more at risk if there were people nearby who were in legal possession of a handgun. What I'm trying to draw attention to is the absurd notion that this soldier would be in a position to eliminate the threat with his weapon alone.

His first concern would be defending his body and/or grabbing the knife or assailant's wrist. Furthermore, he would have to cock the weapon in his possession. Ordinary rank-and-file soldiers in France are issued with a FAMAS bullpup when on patrol. They aren't issued sidearms. And his commanding officers wouldn't allow him to walk around in public with his weapon cocked and the safety catch off. So, in the event of being attacked by a knifeman, he'd have to contend with fending off the attacker whilst attempting to switch off the safety catch, ratchet the charging handle and making taking a shot that wouldn't put anyone else at risk. Pay particular attention to the last part: a safe shot.The FAMAS is chambered for the standard NATO round. A 5.56mm round would pass through an attacker who wasn't wearing body armour. And in Paris' business district, it's more than likely that that round would find more flesh after passing through the attacker.