84 Confirmed dead after another apparent terrorism attack in Nice, France,

Speed limits don't stop people speeding, so might as well get rid of them and let people drive as fast as they want without challenge right?

It's an interesting hypothesis actually. The people who speed ignore safe limits anyway, the people who don't, don't. Would removing speed limits actually be a bad thing? It's fairly well documented that removal of traffic lights and road markings makes people drive more cautiously.
 
Speed limits don't stop people speeding, so might as well get rid of them and let people drive as fast as they want without challenge right?

Not really a comparable analogy, as the speeding laws are there to deter the average person from speeding, but as pointed out it doesn't stop someone who wants to speed.

The point being made was to bring back border controls to curb the illegal weapons coming into the country. So if it doesn't actually do that, what's the point? As the average person isn't wanting to bring in weapons, only the ones who will do it regardless.

So you are bringing in something that affects everyone else without addressing the problem, it seems irrelevant to me.
 
Well if the availabilty of illegal items is just the same with or without border controls then yes, it's pretty irrelevant - it doesn't matter how much more difficult it is for the smuggler if the end availability is the same.

The availability isn't the same though. It's considerably harder to get hold of illegal firearms in the UK than it is in France because we have a hard border between us. Before the disaster that is Schengen to bring an AK-47 to France from Ukraine you'd have to cross at least four different borders, each one an opportunity to find the rifle, now they only have to cross one.
 
I'm not sure border controls would be the right way to go but there is an important point here:

Border controls aren't just for stopping people from coming into / leaving the country.

They can also be used to track the movements of an individual so when something like this happens, where a wider network of people involved is more than likely, they can start to put the pieces of the jigsaw together.
 
The pattern of the perpetrator having a history of criminal activity before carrying out one of these attacks seems to have been the case in all the recent attacks in Europe.

Looks to me like the disillusioned of a certain community are simply looking for a way out. Maybe in a more secular setting they would just commit suicide but in their fantasy world martyrdom is the honourable way.

Religion is a dangerous crutch when it's users get disillusioned with life.

This, really.

In USA, some go shoot up a school, in Europe we get people killing their whole family or occasionally something like crashing their passenger plane, and for some, mainly of islamic heritage, they take inspiration from ISIS and their propaganda machine.
 
The availability isn't the same though. It's considerably harder to get hold of illegal firearms in the UK than it is in France because we have a hard border between us. Before the disaster that is Schengen to bring an AK-47 to France from Ukraine you'd have to cross at least four different borders, each one an opportunity to find the rifle, now they only have to cross one.

35 kilometres of sea is a nice natural border for us but it's not really practical for mainland Europe :rolleyes:
 
These things are becoming business as usual, it's clear to me that the current tactics aren't working.

It's interesting to see the media leading with the body count, Islamic state, footage of the terrorist, footage of people in body bags, people screaming and crying - and now the forensic analysis of endless news corporations sifting through everything and reporting it as breaking news, for the next couple of weeks, thus sustaining ISIS propaganda for months to come - until the next attack.

I don't know, but it seems to me that the media are to Islamic state, what the lymph nodes are to cancer - a means of spreading.

It would be very interesting to see the effects of a hardcore media blackout - imposed on all news agencies, and social media relating to any incidents involving Islamic terrorism - because I'd be amazed if it didn't make a good dent in the problem.
 
Do you think someone smuggling weapons into Europe is going to turn up at a checkpoint and hand over their passport? They'll simply cross somewhere in the middle of nowhere at night, same as smugglers have been doing since borders were invented.

Border controls are not the solution, they're just a slogan for feeble-minded flag-waving idiots. As has always been the case, terrorism isn't beaten with wars and walls.

This


Deflecting the blame of these attacks on lack of border controls does no good, especially because it seems to go hand in hand with demonising foreigners. It just seems to create more issues by inefficiently distributing resources and whip up hate against foreigners.
 
The availability isn't the same though. It's considerably harder to get hold of illegal firearms in the UK than it is in France because we have a hard border between us.

I don't disagree with that, but it is the hard border of a sea that makes it more difficult, not the checkpoint of customs.

even then, I know of the fishermen from Boston who used to sail across to Amsterdam...

Before the disaster that is Schengen to bring an AK-47 to France from Ukraine you'd have to cross at least four different borders, each one an opportunity to find the rifle, now they only have to cross one.

But those borders are easily breached by circumventing the checkpoints.

I said in my post it makes it more difficult yes, but it doesn't stop it and if the people wanting an AK-47 got one before and get one now, then what's the difference - apart from the inconvenience to everyone else.

If you can prove that yes, it does actually stop the people who want an AK-47 from getting one, then sure I'll come round to your way of thinking.

Edit : Oh and to Hitman_Leon - I didn't think that was a personal attack from Scorza, He knows I was for a fully Federal Europe and no borders, so I wasn't insulted....but thanks for trying to protect my honour ;)
 
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Certainly a terrible and horrific attack in Europe but compared to the loss of life in Syria/Iraq etc. I'm sure the radicals would claim this is just a drop in the ocean.

I'm not sure how you can defend yourself against an ideology that seems to be a cross from something from medieval times and a horror film!!

I'm certain it would help if large parts of the Middle East weren't torn to shreds in the wake of Western intervention but I sure the problem would still exist in some form or another.

What I am sure about is there is no "simple" solution, it's all just a horrible mess but a mess that we will have to deal with. How is the million dollar question.

No amount of security is going to stop a "nutter in a lorry".

HEADRAT
 
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I'm not sure border controls would be the right way to go but there is an important point here:

Border controls aren't just for stopping people from coming into / leaving the country.

They can also be used to track the movements of an individual so when something like this happens, where a wider network of people involved is more than likely, they can start to put the pieces of the jigsaw together.

You put border controls in place, and these people just go around them. Not an efficient use of resources, Not a big deal to people committed to executing these atrocities, massive pain the backside for everyone else.
 
Attributing these attacks to our invasion of Iraq is bizarre. Islamic extremism existed long before our invasion of Iraq and targeted the West long before we sent boots into the Middle East. In fact the founders of ISIS were active before our invasion of Iraq.

If you want to attribute the growth of ISIS to any recent historic events, it ought to be the Arab Spring. This is what displaced existing power structure in Syria, Libya and so forth. Had Saddam been in power when the Arab Spring occurred, there is every chance he'd just have been another dictator entrenched in a bloody civil war with ISIS or similar organisation.
 
You put border controls in place, and these people just go around them. Not an efficient use of resources, Not a big deal to people committed to executing these atrocities, massive pain the backside for everyone else.

Moat around every country, crossing points, and sharks with lasers in the water so the crossing points are the only way to safely enter... seems simple.
 
Attributing these attacks to our invasion of Iraq is bizarre. Islamic extremism existed long before our invasion of Iraq and targeted the West long before we sent boots into the Middle East. In fact the founders of ISIS were active before our invasion of Iraq.

If you want to attribute the growth of ISIS to any recent historic events, it ought to be the Arab Spring. This is what displaced existing power structure in Syria, Libya and so forth. Had Saddam been in power when the Arab Spring occurred, there is every chance he'd just have been another dictator entrenched in a bloody civil war with ISIS or similar organisation.

The Arab Spring that was not-so-covertly sponsored by the West.

You can debate the rights and wrongs of the Iraq invasion but the fact remains that turning the Middle East into a mess for decades and breeding a generation of people that have grown up in a violent warzone with Western troops and warplanes killing their kin has created the perfect storm for radicalisation.
 
Time to bring out the pigs for war effort with good media coverage. If it get's into the mindset of any idiot thinking of trying an attack its got to be worth it.
 
How long until the UK is attacked again? I'm amazed that nothing has happened recently, is this down to the work being done to stop people before they can carry out these acts or is France just more of a target for this sort of thing?
 
The Arab Spring that was not-so-covertly sponsored by the West.

You can debate the rights and wrongs of the Iraq invasion but the fact remains that turning the Middle East into a mess for decades and breeding a generation of people that have grown up in a violent warzone with Western troops and warplanes killing their kin has created the perfect storm for radicalisation.

Yea, I don't really understand how soft the Western world thought they could be. We went to war, we kill them, they kill us, its war. It wasn't shocking when the Germans bombed us and its not shocking that Islamic fundamentalists bomb us.
 
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