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Despite protestations from American gun control activists that “mass shooting” incidents only occur in America these days, it appears that a man armed with a firearm opened fire on a high speed train in Europe earlier today. The attacker injured two people aboard a high speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris before a pair of American military members tackled and subdued the man. Early reports said that the man was armed with an AK-47 rifle, but the Associated Press is saying that a handgun was actually used in the attack. From the AP (photo credit via them):

A gunman opened fire on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, wounding two people before two American passengers subdued him, officials said.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking in Arras in northern France where the suspected was detained, said one of the Americans was hospitalized with serious wounds. Their names were not immediately released.

Philippe Lorthiois, an official with the Alliance police union, said on i-Tele that the two Americans were soldiers. In Washington, the Pentagon said it “can only confirm that one U.S. military member was injured in the incident. The injury is not life-threatening.”

The White House issued a statement saying that President Barack Obama was briefed on the shooting, and said, “While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy.”

Contrary to early reports, Lorthiois said the attacker did not fire his automatic weapon but wounded one man with a handgun and the other with a blade of some kind.

Firearms ownership is heavily regulated in The Netherlands, and their gun control scheme is pretty much the wet dream of every gun control activist in the US. Firearms are only available to those who are members of a shooting club, and even then a background check is required (which includes restrictions for drug use and mental illness). Gun owners may only have five firearms registered to them, annual inspections by the police are mandatory, and the use of a firearm for self defense is pretty much illegal (it is only OK if it is “equal force,” so if you shoot someone running at you with a knife you will be thrown in jail).

This latest incident follows a number of high profile firearms related mass shooting incidents in Europe, most notably the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in January of this year.

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83 COMMENTS

  1. The mags in the photo I saw (mags and a backpack on a train platform, surrounded by cops) were AK mags.

    It’s not unusual for some “users” who want a more compact weapon to remove the AK’s stock, and what is left-over after that modification would appear to be a large pistol.

    • Just since then story has changed from 3 wounded, including the 2 Americans who stopped the attack. Forget accurate reporting, gotta go fast!

      • @Grant: Almost my exact thoughts on this. News People “Let’s get this out and sell more news. Make the headlines emotional. But we don’t have all the facts yet. Too bad, got to sell air time and beat the other guys to the punch. And while your at it, put whatever anti-gun spin on the story that you can dream up. Our politician friends love it when you do that. Not the truth, all the facts not in yet ? That is not the point. Just get the propaganda, whoops I meant news, out NOW. We will add more “facts” tomorrow when we find out more information. If there is a better story tomorrow nobody will remember anyway.”.

  3. So the US military is once again saves France. I would feel better about it if the antes were not going to use this as further evidence that the US military doesn’t need to be armed off duty, or on duty for that matter

  4. I heard the 2 marines recognized the sound of him loading his guns and racking the actions while he was in the restroom. They allegedly ambushed him as he exited. Anyone else hear that?

    • The casualty stats did seem a bit low for a small space and an assumed element of surprise. The ambush aspect makes more sense.

      My thanks to the servicemen. I wonder if the recognized the weapon where the action was being manipulated; if it was an AK, I hear even the action makes a distinctive sound.

        • Very unmistakable. Similar to the recognizable sound of a pump shotgun being cycled. I mean they don’t sound the same, but when you hear it, you know what’s coming next. Click CLACK

        • “This is the AK-47 assault rifle. The preferred weapon your enemies. It makes a distinct sound when fired at you, so remember it.” -Gunny Highway

        • The Service Members who stopped the attack used their basic instincts and common tactical knowledge by first observing someone who was acting suspiciously and then conducting a basic patrolling techniques. Stop, Look, Listen, Smell (SLLS,) and by listening to a sound they were are all too familiar with. The sound ammunition being loaded into a magazine by the attacker in a nearby bathroom. Upon hearing this unmistakable noise, they rose up off of their seats and were able confront the aggressor in a timely manner and before things got any worse.

          The terrorist burst out of the bathroom and immediately assailed two passengers. The Service Members were able to near-immediately subdue the attacker which resulted in no loss of life and the unfortunate display of another loser to the media. If we are to learn anything from this attack it will be to not give this terrorist or what he represents anything but further disdain.

          Read more: http://sofrep.com/42778/american-sms-deter-terror/#ixzz3jZLx3Eet

  5. DĂ©jĂ  vu: from French, literally “already seen”, is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced, has already been experienced in the past, whether it has actually happened or not.

    Hmmm…American soldiers save chronically unprepared Europeans. I must have been drunk when I watched this movie…was it last year?…1917?…1941?…some 1980s Ninja movie?…did Tom Clancy write about this? Please enlighten me!

    All jesting aside, sympathies to the victims, this crap can happen anywhere/anytime…though probably not at an open carry rally…whoops! Is that blaing the victim? God, I hope not!

  6. At first I was appalled that only Americans were hurt saving the French and Norwegians, but then I read that a third person, a French actor, suffered a minor injury while activating the train’s emergency alarm. Thank goodness for his swift, courageous actions. I hope he fully recovers.

  9. When will these idiotic europeans learn gun control does not work and start fighting it like the disease it is? With the muslim population problem they created for themselves they need the ability to defend themselves from these whack jobs more than ever.

    • “When will these idiotic europeans learn gun control does not work and start fighting it like the disease it is?”

      Never, it is not in their nature.

      In America the statist have found out that their Liberty minded countrymen are starting to view statism as a disease that is worth fighting, and that fight is exactly a true American’s nature.

  10. The anti-firearm groups in US don’t care. They believe the reason there was an attack is because a firearm was available. More control would stop this. Laws are still too weak. They are insane.

  11. According to the AP, the shooter is from Morocco. Maybe he is a Zoroastrian or a Zen Buddhist or something.

    • One article called him “a Moroccan Farmer”, as if that explained anything…

      …although I’m good with using the acronym of the above (MFer).

    • Zoroastrian, or a Zen Buddhist?
      Sounds like something you might find in the bottom of your toaster!

      • Are there still people who believe in Zoroaster and follow the Zoroastrianism teachings ? First recorded story of a Deluge if I’m not mistaken . Similar stories as those found in Genesis .
        God bless Americans .

        • Absolutely there are Zoroastrians still around! Mainly in India and Iran.

          As an aside, an awful lot of the Old Testament resembles Zoroastrian teaching, probably picked up during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews… The Samaritans (essentially Jews that weren’t enslaved) do not have those Zoroastrian-leaning beliefs. Supposedly. But there’s no question that the Old Testament sounds a lot like Zorastrianism.

    • Obviously a Lutheran. Never would have happened if he was amember of the Religion of Peace. Probably he was hungry and looking for the Aloha Snackbar.

    • Nah, probably some Catholic anti-abortion fanatic who was mad at Planned Parenthood.

    • He was on a French watch-list after Spanish authorities warned them about his associations with Islamic Terrorists. But he claims that he was just a homeless guy who found an AK in a park and wanted to rob the train to eat. As one of the American Heroes on the train said in an interview afterwards, “it doesn’t take 8 magazines to rob a train.” Brilliant!

  12. But isn’t there a law against a whole bunch of things involved in that?

    How many laws were broken?

    How many of them prevented this from happening?

    Interesting that we even have the phrase “broke the law” since laws are the end-all be-all of making sure a thing doesn’t happen…

  13. “In Washington, the Pentagon said it ‘can only confirm that one U.S. military member was injured in the incident. The injury is not life-threatening.’ ”

    Scraped/bruised knuckles, probably.

    Oorah, Marines!

  14. Reading the comments section on several of the websites reporting on this I see over and over again people saying:

    “I thought the only thing that stopped a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

    I shouldn’t be surprised at all.

    • Sometimes, having a good understanding of gun(s) and how they are used, close proximity, Marine muscle, and the element of surprise is apparently enough.

      Still, it would be hard to argue with the theory that if the defenders would have had access to a pistol and had popped him as he emerged from the bathroom, even LESS people would have been hurt.

      “Aloha Snackba…!” *Bang!* *thump*

      • Now sources are saying it was an Air Force guy (USAF, I assume) and a member of the Oregon Army National Guard, along with a civilian. Both military were big/muscular folks, by one description.

        Well done fly-boy and weekend warrior!

    • Actually the Marines had a gun.

      They took the bad guy’s gun and used that to beat the crap out of him with it.

    • Sometimes I wonder: does it hurt, physically, to be that stupid? Or is there some migraine-inducing cognitive dissonance at play there?

      What they’re actually saying is that every person should have the training, skills, physicality, situational awareness, and bravery of someone in the military – and yet, with the next breath, they denigrate anyone who carries a firearm for personal protection who does so in part out of a recognition of a lack of one or more of those traits (i.e. they call such a person a “wannabe soldier” or “wannabe cop”).

      In reality, these men were in the right place at the right time, with the necessary situational awareness, and acted with extreme heroism – which saved lives that otherwise would certainly have been lost, because only the attacker was armed .

    • Well considering that it says they recognized the sound of the firearms being charged, I’d say it’s a good chance that knowledge came from use of privately owned firearms (I am seeing sources saying It was an Air Force guy so it’s less likely he would have much if at all any experience from fighting terrorists who were doing that in close proximity to him). So you could still argue that this is still an example of a good guy with a gun, as if we did not have privately owned firearms, the service members probably would not have recognized the sound, like apparently all the others around them did not, and been able to act.

  17. 2 heros on that train. Whether active duty or former is little matter. Wonder if barry’s doj will put them on a no fly list.

  18. There is the weapon, and then there is the tool.

    So we have a table full of guns and other stuff on a table. A full auto AK-47 , a Thompson submachine gun, an M-4, an RPG and a hand grenade, a hammer, a base ball bat, a machete and a knife.

    Across the room from the table is a buck naked Marine, a Navy Seal, a soldier from Delta Force, Airborne Ranger and a Green Beret.

    So which are the tools and which are the weapons?

    The problem that the anti-gun people can’t get their head around is why they keep getting the answer wrong.

    And once one knows the answer, gun control laws to stop a mad man or a fundumentalist Muslim, (but I repeat myself) from committing mass murder are obviously, completely, not just ineffective, but delusional and even insane.

    • “Which are the tools and which are the weapons?”

      Oh that’s easy. The guns are the weapons and the guys are the tools. *Rimshot*

      Sorry. As an Airmen, I couldn’t let that joke go.

      All joking aside, well done and Semper-Fi to the guys who beat this isis flunky (assuming that he was a terrorist given he was from Morocco).

  19. “Across the room from the table is a buck naked Marine, a Navy Seal, a soldier from Delta Force, Airborne Ranger and a Green Beret.”

    Any chance the Ranger is also buck naked and a very recent graduate of the ranger course?

    • Lol. Well, you can go ask him yourself. But do keep in mind the question as to which is the weapon and which is the tool. Especially if the Ranger is a Good Old Boy from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachy.

    • “Any chance the Ranger is also buck naked and a very recent graduate of the ranger course?”

      Pervert.

      (Fist-Bump)

      🙂

  21. Wonder just how many “facts” the so called news services can get wrong in this one story the first time around ?

  24. “Early reports said that the man was armed with an AK-47 rifle, but the Associated Press is saying that a handgun was actually used in the attack.”

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5y2INrQgzQw/UO8Ksg8CFDI/AAAAAAAAEWg/6OxEU0JtqWY/s1600/GunGuide.jpg

    “The White House issued a statement saying that President Barack Obama was briefed on the shooting, and said, “While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy.””

    The president also blamed the tragedy on the wide availability of guns in the United States.

  25. If the bad guy got ambushed coming out of the john with his AK, our guys must have made him before he went in. Sucker.

  26. They’re now saying it was an active duty Airman and a inactive National Guardsman with an American civilian.

  28. You can’t shoot someone attacking you with a knife? Wow, the politicians in the Netherlands are complete and total idiots.

  29. According to other passengers on train, they beat the guy until he “passed out”. A heaping helping of whoop-ass got served on the train. American buffet on French transport.

  32. Well, because it was stopped before a lot of people died, it won’t count as a “mass shooting” in some of the stats.

    What he was stopped from doing doesn’t count … because “violence never solves anything.”

  34. Is it me or does it seem easier for a terrorist to acquire an AK-47 assault rifle (I am assuming this rifle had automatic fire capability) in Europe right now than the United States?

  35. In most European countries you are a sacrificial animal!
    Not even “personal protection” is considered to be a legitimate reason for owning or even carrying (!!!) a gun!
    For European politicians it is absolutely ok to sacrifice some people from time to time instead of giving them the chance to defend themselves.
    As regards, I am happy that I no longer live in Europe!

  36. Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a box cutter and slices Spencer a few times. Ever thought about joining us?

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