Readers respond to the Ft. Lauderdale attack and Guns: Here are Your Answers

We asked our US readers: Is there a way to ensure terrorists can’t carry out attacks in airports while allowing legal weapons into airports?

Clarion Project asked our American readers the following question:

Is there a way in future to ensure terrorists can’t carry out attacks in airports, while allowing citizens to legally bring weapons into airports?

Here are some of the 80 answers we received.

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My opinion is we can’t over react to every event.  Yes, analyze if we can improve, but not at the expense of freedoms. You can’t make every pubic place risk free.

M

At the end of the day, the non-secure section(s) of an airport are no different than any other public space, such as a mall. I am not sure that protecting people in these public spaces is more important than any other.  Are travelers more important and/or more vulnerable than shoppers at malls or fans at a sporting event?

RP

Terrorists will use something else to kill if guns are banned.  

JM

Since criminals don’t obey laws, the solution is to stop the idea of these areas of the airports from being gun-free zones.

RK

One thing that would help is to allow law-abiding citizens to conceal carry handguns in such places. Had there been one or more such person when this criminal began to act, there would have been hope he would have been stopped! But, when guns are banned, criminals rule!

RK

I’m sorry but gun control is not needed, what is needed is to remove all gun-free zones. Our people can take care of themselves. When flying with checked firearms, the owner should have to pick up that firearm at an authorized location outside of baggage claim. A waiting time maybe warranted to pick up the fire arm.

JP

Good thing this didn’t happen in Dallas/Ft. Worth or anywhere in Texas where everyone in the state can carry a gun or dead would be tripled!!

CB

I’m all for our 2nd Amendment Rights, but there should be other measures put into place such as turning guns and ammo over to security. Security then places them in some secured box in the planes holding compartments. Once the individual gets to his destination, security retrieves the gun and ammo, escorts the individual out of the terminal before turning over the gun ammo. Maybe not 100% fool proof but pretty close.

MW

We are an unprotected population. The police show up after they are called to an event. I spent time in France this summer, and I saw groups of three armed guards everywhere I went. They wore camouflage uniforms and held machine guns in their hands. I felt safer there because of their presence.

CR

Ohio just enacted legal concealed carry in non-secure airport areas.   You can’t make all areas perfectly secure.   Best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

KK

Place officers both uniformed and plain clothes in public non-secure areas. Also, someone picking up a checked weapon should be required to leave the premises immediately under the supervision of an officer. Another solution is that all weapons should not be shipped with ammunition except those for authorized law enforcement personnel. No loaded clips, boxes etc. The airlines would love this — they could charge them more.

CS

I think it would be ok if people pick up the weapons in a secure and more controlled environment.  Maybe need to restrict the ammo.

RH

Aren’t guns brought into airports by travelers supposed to be unloaded?  And, what is the difference between a shooting at an aiport vs. a shooting at a mall? People are injured in both situations. The difference is the location.  

C

All guns and ammunition should be checked, catalogued and stored separately from other luggage. They should then be delivered to a specifically designed, security-controlled area outside the perimeter of the airport for collection by the owners.

AB

Checking guns in for travel isn’t the problem. If someone wants to shoot and terrorize at an airport, or anywhere for that matter, all they have to do is walk in the front doors and begin shooting. Criminals don’t obey regulations and certainly do not read signs prohibiting such activities. Allowing all people to carry concealed weapons in any public area would most likely have stopped such a mass shooting. shortly after the first bullet had been fired.

SF

Ft. Lauderdale baggage area is totally unprotected, totally lax. Anyone can enter from outside. Guards should be posted at all entrances. Luggage should be sealed with tape at trip outset, and the tape only allowed to be removed outside the airport, or under supervision of armed security. If the luggage contains firearms, it should be so labelled.

RA

Why not fear for shopping malls, football games, beaches, all dance halls and music venues, the grocery stores, parades, schools, starbucks and coffee bean, etc. The problem isn’t the location — it’s the people. Profile or lose America and world freedom to the ambitions of the globalist socialists who adamantly refuse to see truth because it conflicts with their ambitions.  The paranoia at airports relates to bringing down planes. But that doesn’t apply here

RX

I’d opt for not allowing weapons to be checked baggage and have people ship them to their destination in advance via Fed Ex or other common carrier.

DV

This is a no-brainer. Citizens with guns do not belong in airports, and if they want to transport firearms they can find a different, more suitable way. We need sensible and better gun control or we will continue to see these attacks.

AS

I suppose you will get many letters saying “take away all guns” and “guns kill people.” Well, Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the country and the most murders. Guns kill people.  Yes, and cars kill people.  And trucks kill people.  So… take away all cars?  Or trucks? We need an entirely new approach. What we have now is not working. 

LT

Law abiding citizens with lawfully owned firearms are guardians of the peace. You have never heard about a mass shooting at a gun show have you? These attacks always happen in “gun-free” ones only. If guns were the problem, the number of shootings in Wyoming would far surpass Chicago — as every vehicle in Wyoming has at least one firearm in it.

KS

This is an easy fix.  When my children were under age and flew alone, I paid $100 or so extra to check them in with an airline escort.  Weapons could be the same way.  Arrange beforehand to take a weapon.  Contact a contractor outside the airport.  Pay the fee and the certified contractor brings the weapon to the correct flight.  On pick up, it would be the same.  Get your weapons outside from the contractor. A little inconvenient but very secure.  Make it so that people enter the physical building after passing security.

GA

Perhaps all guns should be mailed separately.

M

I have a solution to stop any more terrorist attacks like the Ft. Lauderdale terror attack. Do not allow ammo to be checked in or transported while flying. Allow weapons only! No ammo allowed in  airports period.

JH

Banning the ability for passengers to carry firearms in checked luggage will not eliminate airport shootings.  The killer could just as easily have shot up the airport in Anchorage where he lived, or driven south with the loaded gun and shot up any other airport or public place.

B

The answer is simple, allow and especially train folks to carry in those areas. Totally eliminate “gun-free” zones, for they are magnets for those who would do us harm.

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of a young woman running behind a police officer as they seek cover outside the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport after a shooting took place near the baggage claim on January 6, 2017. (Photo: © Joe Raedle/Getty Images)