Are We Really Safe?

Rielly Marcotte

 

Texas experienced its largest mass shooting on Sunday, November 5th.

Twenty-six people were found dead after Devin Kelley walked into the First Baptist Church with an assault rifle in Sutherland Springs.

A week before that, a terrorist killed eight and injured over a dozen in the name of ISIS by driving his truck through a New York City bike path in one of the deadliest acts of terror New York has seen since 9/11.

On the night of October 1st, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers on the Las Vegas Strip, leaving 58 people dead and 546 injured.

It seems as though every week there is a new attack that leaves us shocked and makes us ask the question: Are we really safe?

Terrorist attacks have been a fear to the average American at some point in their lives since 9/11. Many fear the terrorist group ISIS, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, are the ones behind these growing attacks.

ISIS aims to create an Islamic state called a caliphate across Iraq, Syria and more countries. The group is implementing Sharia Law, rooted in eighth century Islam, to establish a society that mirrors the region’s ancient past, according to The Washington Post. This group is known for killing dozens of people at a time, and even holding public executions. They typically tend to use popular social media to carry out their ideas and beliefs.

Since 9/11, many precautions have been taken to ensure safety such as security at airports to try and put an end to terror attacks. But these efforts won’t prevent every attack. Since 9/11, there have been about 10 major terrorist attacks on America, according to The Los Angeles Times, despite the fact that the United States has spent over 1 million dollars trying to defend us against al-Qaeda, ISIS and more threats since then.

However, not all attacks in the U.S. are directly related to ISIS, so being safe in our own country may be harder than we ever thought. Proof of this comes in two of the most recent attacks to happen on US soil: the mass shootings in Las Vegas done by Stephen Paddock, and the Sutherland Springs shooting, carried out by Devin Kelley. Both men were born and raised in America, with Kelley even serving in the Air Force before being court-martialed.

Terror attacks can happen anywhere such as a concert like the Las Vegas Shooting, or at a marathon, like what happened in our own state back in April of 2013.

A common fear many Americans have is if we are safe doing the things we have fun doing such as running marathons or going to a concert. Terrorism has caused a lot of these events, and major events in general, to become an ideal spot for an attack due to the large amounts of people and the fun atmosphere, which gives people attending a false sense of security, and the attacker the perfect location to attack without causing suspicion.

The U.S. is definitely safer from orchestrated attacks such as that that happened on 9/11, and there is no question as to whether homeland security has become stricter, but there are still some serious safety gaps in this country.

The most dangerous safety gaps are the terrorists living in the country as American citizens. When they are born in this country they automatically are given citizenship,  allowing them to buy firearms as they grow older, or not have to worry about how they will get into the country.

Terrorism is an issue that can never be fully stopped , but the efforts to protect us as citizens has increased severely. Due to the efforts to stop terrorism, we are safer than we were 16 years ago.