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St. Cloud State University
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Lessons from the sniper
By Mike Lauterbach
Published:
Thursday, October 17, 2002
Mike Lauterbach -- Staff Column
In Full Metal Jacket, drill sergeant Hartman uses Charles Whitman, an ex-Marine, as an example of what one dedicated Marine can do. Whitman shot and killed 12 people and injured dozens more from a Texas University tower.
But Whitman was a trained marksman who hit moving targets at 500 yards and better. The D.C. area sniper is hitting mostly stationary targets at a range of around 100 yards.
This isn't some kind of black ops trained assassin we're talking about here. He may be ex-military or ex-police, but chances are he's just some guy who's maybe read "The Most Dangerous Game" a few too many times and has learned to shoot a rifle as well as the better half of Minnesotan hunters.
The only thing that makes him remarkable is his ability to avoid traffic jams and the neurons that tell him to use kids for target practice.
So what gives? Why can Joe Anybody kill nine people and get away with it?
If 9-11 didn't bring the message home, this sniper should. America is vulnerable. The U.S. has too many freedoms, too much space, and too porous borders to ever really be secure.
If another bin Laden sent 10 trained guys to this country to do what this sniper is doing, we'd be in trouble. If he sent 100, all hell would break loose. And, somewhere, maybe whomever is running al-Qaida now is watching CNN and feeling an idea form in the back his mind.
And as soon as people realize this (or if this sniper turns out to be a terrorist and not just a psycho), the old refrain will begin again. Bush will ask for more sweeping reductions on civil liberties (although of course he'll still oppose all gun control). Then Ashcroft will warn that al-Qaida is poised and waiting to destroy America at any moment and throw a few dozen Muslim exchange students in jail for a few months, then deport them without a hearing.
But if Americans let politicians lead us around by our fear, the terrorists win. The things that make us vulnerable � the freedom, the space, the porous borders and the diversity that comes from them � are also what make America great. Take away the vulnerabilities, especially freedom, and the greatness goes away as well.�
That's not to say nothing should be done to increase our security. In the case of the sniper, a bill that would have made bullets traceable to their buyers or at least the stores they were bought in (blocked by Bush) might have helped to catch him by now. On a larger scale, the U.S. needs a foreign policy that at least attempts to avoid antagonizing the Muslim world.
Today in D.C., people are afraid to take their kids to school, afraid to get gas, afraid to go shopping. It's hard to blame them.
But when the sniper is caught and the questioning begins, Americans must find a better way to prevent future attacks than a reduction of liberties.
