devilc
Member
WSJ Article here.
" . . . They should also demand reform of the country's draconian gun laws -- a holdover from British times -- that prevent them from defending themselves. That would surely deliver far quicker results than waiting for India's slow-moving political classes to plug the vast lacunae in the country's security apparatus.
After all, what was particularly infuriating about the Mumbai attacks was not just that the Indian government failed to prevent them, even though it had received repeated warnings. Nor was it their tragic death toll; Mumbai, after all, experienced worse in the coordinated series of bombings in 1993 and 2006. Rather, it was that had there been anything resembling meaningful resistance, the attackers never would have been able to stage the kind of spectacle they did. Before they holed up in the Taj and Oberoi Hotels, they seemed to operate with almost complete impunity, freely moving from one target to another.
The same duo that opened fire at Café Leopold -- among the first targets -- managed to escape undetected and join their comrades at the Taj Mahal Hotel -- a few miles away -- before the police could even catch their breath. Likewise, the pair that attacked Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus subsequently hopped over to Cama Hospital, where they killed three top antiterrorism officials, hijacked the officials' van and sped away -- shooting at onlookers the whole time. And while at the Terminus -- named, ironically enough, after a fearless Maratha warrior-king -- the two gunmen marched up and down the station emptying their machine guns into commuters as the police stood by paralyzed, bolt-action rifles and lathis (bamboo sticks) in hand.
The true problem was not a shortage of heroism in those three horrible days. The courageous staff at the two hotels was nothing if not heroic, likely saving as many people as the police watched being killed. At the Taj, one employee even took the bullets for a group of guests he was trying to escort to safety.
But if the hotel staff could take bullets, the question is why couldn't they return them? The reason, as P.R.S. Oberoi, chairman of Oberoi Group, noted, is that none of the hotel's security staff was armed, thanks to the country's strict gun laws that make it virtually impossible to obtain permits. This is also perhaps why the gunmen moved around the city as if they owned it without fearing that anyone would shoot back."
" . . . They should also demand reform of the country's draconian gun laws -- a holdover from British times -- that prevent them from defending themselves. That would surely deliver far quicker results than waiting for India's slow-moving political classes to plug the vast lacunae in the country's security apparatus.
After all, what was particularly infuriating about the Mumbai attacks was not just that the Indian government failed to prevent them, even though it had received repeated warnings. Nor was it their tragic death toll; Mumbai, after all, experienced worse in the coordinated series of bombings in 1993 and 2006. Rather, it was that had there been anything resembling meaningful resistance, the attackers never would have been able to stage the kind of spectacle they did. Before they holed up in the Taj and Oberoi Hotels, they seemed to operate with almost complete impunity, freely moving from one target to another.
The same duo that opened fire at Café Leopold -- among the first targets -- managed to escape undetected and join their comrades at the Taj Mahal Hotel -- a few miles away -- before the police could even catch their breath. Likewise, the pair that attacked Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus subsequently hopped over to Cama Hospital, where they killed three top antiterrorism officials, hijacked the officials' van and sped away -- shooting at onlookers the whole time. And while at the Terminus -- named, ironically enough, after a fearless Maratha warrior-king -- the two gunmen marched up and down the station emptying their machine guns into commuters as the police stood by paralyzed, bolt-action rifles and lathis (bamboo sticks) in hand.
The true problem was not a shortage of heroism in those three horrible days. The courageous staff at the two hotels was nothing if not heroic, likely saving as many people as the police watched being killed. At the Taj, one employee even took the bullets for a group of guests he was trying to escort to safety.
But if the hotel staff could take bullets, the question is why couldn't they return them? The reason, as P.R.S. Oberoi, chairman of Oberoi Group, noted, is that none of the hotel's security staff was armed, thanks to the country's strict gun laws that make it virtually impossible to obtain permits. This is also perhaps why the gunmen moved around the city as if they owned it without fearing that anyone would shoot back."
