Deadly attack on office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo

[Shamash]

96. Foolish me

And here I was thinking that something like this would be impossible in a country where civilian ownership of such weapons was illegal. Who would have thought that people conspiring to commit murder would be so depraved as to violate the law? Besides, France is not a "gun culture", so the premise of your subject line does not even apply.

Seriously, I think this event was exceptional enough that it is outside the bounds of normal control measures, much like legal restrictions on explosives did not stop the Unabomber or the first World Trade Center attack, nor did restrictions on what you can take onto an airplane stop the 9/11 hijackers, nor did chemical weapons laws stop Aum Shinrikyo from releasing nerve gas in a Tokyo subway. Crazy, dedicated people with an intent to kill generally find a way to do so. Whether or not a "good guy with a gun" could have done anything about the "bad guy with a gun" is exactly as valid a question to ask as whether or not the police (aka "good guys with guns&quot could have done anything about it.