Police in New Orleans are calling the New Year’s Day truck ramming that killed 14 people and injured more than 30 a deliberate act of terror. According to the Associated Press, the FBI is investigating the case as a potential terrorist act, though a definitive motive has not yet been revealed. The attacker, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran, reportedly drove a rented pickup truck at high speed into a dense crowd on Bourbon Street before engaging in a short firefight with police before being fatally shot.

This latest tragedy is part of a grim trend that security experts call “vehicle as a weapon” attacks. Over the past two decades, vehicles have increasingly been used to inflict mass casualties, with motives ranging from extremist ideologies to mental health crises or personal vendettas. The growing history of such incidents has spurred cities worldwide to rethink urban design, erecting concrete barriers around public spaces and incorporating anti-vehicle obstacles into new infrastructure projects.

The New Orleans attack preceded by mere hours another vehicular tragedy in Las Vegas. There, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel, killing the driver who had filled his vehicle with fireworks and gas canisters, and injuring seven bystanders. While the Las Vegas case involved explosives packed inside a vehicle that was parked in a strategic location to inflict mass casualties, the FBI has yet to classify it as terrorism. Regardless, the devastating outcome underscores the broader risk posed by vehicles when misused.

The rising frequency of these attacks raises pressing questions about public safety and policy responses, and with anti-gun politicians so quick to want to outlaw firearms and decry every time a gun is used to commit a violent act as evidence why they should be banned or access severely limited, you have to wonder if they will follow that same line of thinking with vehicles. After all, a person in a speeding car or truck can create a lot of death and mayhem before they are stopped. And the number of such attacks have been increasing. In fact, following a similar such attack at a German market just before Christmas, authorities in the U.S. were warned to be vigiliant of possible vehicle ramming attacks on our soil during the remaining holiday season as well.

While firearms are often the focus of debates on violent crime, vehicle-based attacks highlight that the tools of terror extend far beyond guns. Should policymakers consider tighter regulations on vehicle rentals, advanced surveillance systems or even drastic measures such as banning certain types of vehicles from high-traffic areas? If you’re going to make such arguments against firearms, then logic follows they will likely make the same such arguments against cars. Throw in the buzz words of “reduced car emissions” courtesy of fewer cars being allowed to be owned to aid the “climate crisis” and leftists will be outracing each other to cancel vehicles as part of our culture. Oh wait, no they won’t, because most of them drive cars and only hate “other” people’s cars; not theirs or the ones they ride in to bars, Chipotle and music festivals.

While obviously a ban on vehicles is as insane of an idea as arguing for a ban on firearms, the danger cars can pose when a person intent on evil is behind the wheel is a very real concern indeed.

According to the Associated Press, the trend of vehicle attacks is forcing planners and policymakers to actually grapple with this new reality. Public events, festivals and even everyday trips through busy city centers are increasingly punctuated by security barriers and a heightened sense of vigilance. The acts of terrorists and criminals in reality inflict deadly consequences on a statistically small percentage of our society, but at their broader level of impact, they are a pain in the ass to everyone in our society as we must alter our lives to accommodate and prepare for the dangers they pose.

Following is a list compiled by the Associated Press of notable vehicle-based attacks in recent years:

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 1, 2025 — At least 15 people are killed and dozens are injured after a U.S. citizen from Texas who had converted to Islam rams his truck into a crowd of pedestrians in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter district at 3:15 a.m. on New Year’s Day. The FBI identifies the suspect as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar. He is killed in a firefight with police. The FBI says several possible explosive devices were recovered and that a flag associated with the Islamic State group was found in the truck. 

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 are injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. Police arrest a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who has renounced Islam and supports the far-right AfD party.

ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rams his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35, in the country’s deadliest attack in years. Authorities say the suspect is upset about his divorce. He pleads guilty to endangering public safety by dangerous means and is sentenced to death.

LONDON, Ontario, June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family are killed when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls it “a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.” White nationalist Nathaniel Veltman is sentenced to life in prison.

TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drives a rental van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge St., the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian tells police he belongs to an online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men. He is sentenced to life in prison.

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2017 — Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan, drives a pickup truck onto a popular New York City bike path, killing eight people. He is convicted of federal terrorism charges and sentenced to 10 life sentences plus 260 years in prison.

BARCELONA, Aug. 17, 2017 — A man rams a van into people on the Spanish city’s crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring others. The Islamic State group claims responsibility. Several members of the same cell carry out a similar attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils, killing one person. 

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017 — During a “Unite the Right” rally in which counter-protestors incited violence and attacks on those in attendance, the violence spun out of control and white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people. Fields is serving a life sentence for murder and hate crimes.

LONDON, June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drives a van into worshippers outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, killing one man and injuring 15 people. Osborne is sentenced to life in prison.

LONDON, June 3, 2017 — Three Islamic State group-inspired extremists drive a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people are killed and the attackers are shot dead by police. 

LONDON, March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood, who had converted to Islam and had a violent past, rams an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, then fatally stabs a policeman guarding the Houses of Parliament. Masood is shot dead. 

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan. 20, 2017 – Six people are killed and more than 30 injured when a car hits lunchtime crowds at a pedestrian mall in Australia’s second-largest city. James Gargasoulas is found to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis and is sentenced to life in prison.

BERLIN, Dec. 19, 2016 — Anis Amri, a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia, plows a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker is killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

NICE, France, July 14, 2016 — Tunisian-born French resident Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, an Islamic State sympathizer, drives a rented truck for more than a mile (almost 2 kilometers) along a packed seaside promenade in the French Riviera resort on the Bastille Day holiday, killing 86 people in the deadliest attack of its kind. He is killed by police, but eight other people are sentenced to prison for helping orchestrate the attack.

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36 COMMENTS

  1. So in other words evil people will find a way around the laws of man.

    In the end it will always be the democrats who will propose taking your liberty away. In exchange for more welfare. And more legal and “free” pot to make you feel better.

    • It may be dems who try to take rights and freedoms away, but it’s almost always helped out by mushysquishy repubs and ESPECIALLY by libertarians who never fight hard enough for our rights.

  2. Yes ban moronic EVs – Ideal attack vehicle. Compared to normal ICE powered the EVs have excessive acceleration and are overweight. So can maneuver past obstacles then very quickly accelerate to warp/ramming speed and then having substantially more mass/energy to deliver to the target.

    Or don’t violate the 3Ss (Stupid people, in stupid places, doing stupid things). Don’t be in urban cesspools, at 0300, “partying”. Situational awareness and risk reduction.

    • Not only what you’ve mentioned but, as opposed to ICE’d vehicles, electric powered vehicles are much more quiet when accelerating thereby providing less notice of their approach (other than the sound of tires on pavement). Ban them.

    • “The truth about laws: They do not prevent; they punish.”

      Really? Just look at all the school shootings that don’t happen because there are signs warning people to not bring guns onto school grounds. How many prevented? Each and every school shooting that didn’t happen. The exact number of shootings prevented is impossible to know, because no one reports they didn’t shoot up a school, backed by the exceedingly low number of school shootings that do happen.

      “Signs Save Lives”

  4. There is no legitimate need for the general public to have access to “fully electric” trucks, especially those menacing stainless steel “bullet resistant” cyber trucks that spontaneously explode once loaded with a large amount of commercial fireworks and alcohol racing fuel cans. 😬

  5. Ban vehicles!
    Sue the vehicle manufacturers!
    Criminal background checks for drivers!

    Common sense vehicle control, now!

    • That’s the long term plan to restrict mobility. Look at UK which has an accelerating rate of EV sales mandated until no ICE cars can be sold. Last year it was 18%. This year it is 22%. By 2030 it is to be 100%. Any ICE sales over the quota is a £15000 fine, PER VEHICLE.

      EVs are also very expensive to buy, retail charging is very expensive (if the chargers actually work), and insurance is prohibitive (in the UK it is said to be about £10000 per year). Insurers will make the premiums on younger drivers so expensive they can’t afford to drive them anyway, if they allow young drivers to drive an EV in the first place.

      And because the Chinese are selling their EVs at prices that undercut traditional makers (thanks to massive government subsidies), the entire vehicle manufacturing industry is being handed to China on a platter.

  6. Don’t expect the gun grabbers to admit that there’s any danger of mass murder that isn’t a gun control problem. Everytown is already exploiting the New Orleans tragedy in their fundraising emails.

    “We can’t grow numb to the fact that holidays in America are too often marred by gun violence. Here is just a snapshot of the last few days:

    At least 15 people were killed and another 35 were injured in an act of armed extremism after a man drove a pickup truck into crowds in the French Quarter of New Orleans, which ended in a shootout with the police where the suspect was killed and two officers were injured.”

  7. The best part about the NOLA event is how utterly flabbergasted the police and city officials are that the driver would GO AROUND the barrier. Either they’re far dumber than anyone could have thought or they’re desperately trying to focus attention away from their own failures in the most juvenile way possible.

    How could somebody be so reckless as to drive upon the sidewalk on their way to plow through a crowd of people?

    • Akbar knew he would have free reign. From the city that had a week to get out of a major hurricane & flooding and didn’t.Who can forget the signs on top of buildings pleading ” help us”. BTW we rented a box truck from U Haul recently. EZ to do. Non electric🙄

        • Vehicle Violence…Since most useful idiots and Gun Control zealots own vehicles they won’t be throwing tantrums trying to ban vehicles.

          h ttps://youtube.com/watch?v=7A3zBe1zWRg&feature=shared

      • yep, I rented a truck and loaded it full of boxes of books (as many as 10 boxes you would move with?) and heavy furniture. Though in my case I was emptying out a storage bin because it was stupid expensive.

    • DEI officers. Hired for the color of their skin, rather than brains or competence. That spokescritter for this event from the FBI is a perfect example.

  8. Vehicle ramming attacks have been happening for a long time, for example:

    1973 Olga Hepnarová case, Czechoslovakian woman using a truck to go on a rampage; 8 dead, 12 injured.

    1983 Douglas Crabbe drove a 25-tonne Mack truck into the crowded bar of a motel at the base of Uluru on 18 August 1983. Five people were killed, and sixteen were seriously injured.

    1999 Shimonoseki Station massacre (ramming and stabbing)

    2006 UNC SUV attack, 22 year old Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar intentionally hit people with an SUV (no deaths, 9 injured)

    2008 Jerusalem front-end loader attack (3 killed, 30 injured)

    2008 Jerusalem BMW attack (19 injured)

    2009 attack on the Dutch royal family (ramming people, attempt to attack the Dutch royals including the reigning monarch; 8 killed)

    2014 Isla Vista killings (vehicle ramming, stabbing, and shooting attack)

    2014 Dijon attack, France (ramming people)

    2014 Nantes attack, France (ramming people)

    2014 Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu ramming attack, Quebec,Canada. (1 killed, 1 severely injured)

    2014 October 2014 Jerusalem vehicular attack (one child, one adult killed,7 injured)

    2014 November 2014 Jerusalem vehicular attack (3 dead, 13 wounded)

    2014 Jerusalem tractor attack (1 killed, 7 injured)

    2015 Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack, France (ramming people, stabbing and bombings; 1 killed, 2 injured)

    2015 Weifang attack (ramming people). 5 dead, 21 injured.

    2015 Shuozhou attack (ramming people)

    2016 Nice truck attack, France (86 killed, ramming people and gunfire).

    January 2017 Melbourne car attack, Australia, (6 killed, 28 injured, 1 stabbed before).

    2017 Stockholm truck attack, Sweden (5 killed, 15 injured seriously).

    June 2017 Champs-Élysées car ramming attack, Paris, France (ramming a police car; 1 attacker killed)

    2017 Levallois-Perret attack, Levallois-Perret, France (ramming soldiers; none killed)

    2017 Barcelona attacks, Barcelona, Spain (ramming, stabbing and bombings; 16 killed 152 injured)

    2017 Charlottesville attack, during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States (ramming people; 1 killed, 35 injured)

    2017 Edmonton attack, Canada

    2017 New York City truck attack, 8 killed and 13 injured.

    2018 Toronto van attack (ramming people; 11 killed and 15 injured)

    2020 Paris car attack, a 29-year-old French-Moroccan driver who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State rammed his car into two police motorcyclists in a Paris suburb.

    2021 Waukesha, Wisconsin Christmas parade attack, 39-year-old Darrell Brooks drove into a Christmas parade (6 killed and 62 injured).

    2023 Ramot Junction attack (3 killed, 4 injured)

    2024 Zhuhai car attack, a 62-year-old man drove into a crowd outside sports center (35 killed and 43 injured).

    2024 Changde car attack, a 39-year-old man drove into a crowd outside a primary school when students were going to school in the morning (30 injured including 18 students)

    2024 Magdeburg car attack, a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian citizen who came to Germany in 2006 drove into a crowd at the Magdeburg Christmas market (at least 5 killed, 200+ injured)

    2025 New Orleans truck attack, a man drove a vehicle into a crowd on New Year’s Day at around 3 am (15 killed, 35 injured)

    (The above is a very short and very incomplete list and there are more, and more that are not as sensational or notable because they were not ‘successful’ or were stopped before the actual attack could be carried out. Plus there are also more than those but they are difficult to quantify as ‘attacks’ because they include drunk and drug impaired driving, or the drivers had and claimed underlying conditions such as dementia, narcolepsy, or epilepsy, or sudden unintended acceleration so they are mostly classed as ‘accidental mass-casualty vehicular ramming’ or ‘accident’, sometimes as ‘vehicular homicide, because the ‘intent’ (i.e. motive) of attack, due to the claimed ‘impairment’, could not be proven so a ‘motive’ could not be determined to qualify them as ‘attacks’. Then there are those that are classed as traffic accidents and hit and runs, but were actually ‘targeted’ and intentional ‘hitting/ramming’ – and sometimes you see these listed or reported on as ‘vehicular homicide’ if a death resulted but mostly they are classed as traffic accidents and hit and runs.

    Sometimes there are vehicle ramming attacks but because no ‘political ideology’ was immediately shown, even though there was, its not listed as a (vehicle ramming type) ‘attack’…for example:

    • In September 2020, a woman rammed a vehicle into a gathering of protestors
    and counter-protestors on a six-lane highway in Yorba Linda, California, injuring
    two. The attack may have been motivated by political ideology.

    • In July 2020, a woman drove a car through a police barricade on a Seattle,
    Washington freeway and into a group of protesters, killing one and injuring
    another. The attack may have been motivated by political ideology.

    • In February 2020, a man drove a van through a tent, targeting a group of
    political campaign volunteers in Jacksonville, Florida. There were no injuries,
    and the attack may have been motivated by political ideology.

    Overall, vehicle ramming ‘attacks’ are a lot more common than people realize. You just mostly don’t get to hear about them in the news or the media doesn’t make a big deal out of them for some reason. A vehicle-ramming attack is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, multiple people, or another vehicle – but for it to be classed as an ‘attack’ the ‘motive’ has to be determined and for most the motive is not determined even though the act was intentional and targeted so the media mostly doesn’t bother to report on them and the public doesn’t hear about them. These types of attacks have been happening since 1935.)

    • In reference to my above post:

      A vehicle-ramming attack is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, multiple people, or another vehicle.

      Across the United States daily, in terms of a vehicle as a weapon, there are ~170 such ‘vehicle ramming attacks’. They are 100 times more common, annually, than any criminal activity with a firearm (including mass/school shooting) and are second to criminal knife attacks. You just never hear about them in the media because although targeted and intentional they simply were not sensational enough or there was no motive angle to play up or its shown in police reports as ‘traffic accidents’ or ‘hit and run type of offenses’ which also happen as a ‘common type’ of thing so the media doesn’t bother to look closer so no reporting (note: I’m not tying to imply all ‘traffic accidents’ or ‘hit and run type of offenses’ are these types of attacks).

      • From my perspective all of those 2T tanks around me are either passively or actively trying to kill me at all times. Can I shoot the active ones in self defense?
        2020 Triumph Bonneville T100 Black.

  9. Here’s Who Biden’s FBI Decided To Persecute Rather Than Hunt Down Real Terrorists.

    h ttps://thefederalist.com/2025/01/02/heres-who-bidens-fbi-decided-to-persecute-rather-than-hunt-down-real-terrorists/

  10. Yes, the Progressive left wants to ban cars and driving. Their reasoning is that by banning/taxing/fining/tolling people to stop driving that will address climate emissions. They want everyone to use transit, walk or bicycle. This is drapped in terminology like “mode choice”, when in reality they want to force you to stop having the independent freedom to drive.

    This along with the movement to eliminate parking and parking access as well as drive throughs, drive ins and big box stores are intended to reformat how cities are built and how people live, work and eat. These issues aren’t just about the right to bear arms but rather society as a whole.

    • The more radical environmentalists believe that to eliminate carbon emissions you have to eliminate people.

      • ‘de-population’ is actually in a U.N. plan. decreasing medical care for anyone over 50, limiting births, centralizing people in population ‘centers’ (i.e. large cities) with a max number allowed and those outside those centers don’t get health care or access to resources, ‘managed deaths for poor and indigent’, etc…

        its a mao-centric mar- xist socia- list plan….its what North Korea did to decrease their population so it would be more ‘manageable’ and ‘controllable’

        • Yep, its called the great reset and is being pushed hard by the WEF. They also want to eliminate private ownership and replace it with subscriptions.

  12. “According to the Associated Press, the trend of vehicle attacks is forcing planners and policymakers to actually grapple with this new reality.”

    I volunteer at my cities Christmas parade. After the Waukesha Christmas parade attack the city made big changes. There is now a one block buffer all the way around the parade route where intersections are blocked by city owned garbage and dump trucks. Narrower alleyways are blocked by two trucks and other city vehicles. Police at every intersection and a drone is also used. Parade planning takes months and a detailed incident response plan is utilized.
    Is it enough? Sadly nothing is ever ‘enough’ but it seems that a city of 100,000 people has a better plan than New Orleans did.

  13. Don’t nobody need no cars, busses, trucks, long as a person can walk. For those who cain’t walk, there’s wheelchairs (except the powered kind are too dangerous to pedestrians). Get rid of all powered vehicles, and about 45,000 lives would be saved every year.

    • “In my opinion, mandatory collision avoidance systems will happen.”

      Apply the devices (mandatory) to individuals, and you may be onto something.

  15. Been saying this for years. Per the government, vehicles kill more people than guns, and it’s not even close. Cigarettes and alcohol kill more in 1 year than all the people killed by guns in the last 25, 35 years easy. Yet not one word on banning any of those. Almost like Democrats don’t actually care about saving lives like they claim

  17. This is an op.

    All of it. Politicians for decades have had a fetish to get rid of vehicular traffic in cities. They can’t do it by legislating them away.

    But they CAN do it if they can convince people to VOLUNTARILY get out of their cars and into mass-transit.

    But mass-transit is not safe. Planes lose doors and engines, ships crash into bridges, busses are unreliable and cramped, and trains derail and hit/get hit by fire trucks.

    And every mass-transit “solution” is used by people who shouldn’t really be out in public anyway, ranging from those who’ll clip their toenails, put their bare feet on your armrest, outright have a bonafide mental meltdown in the same metal tube in which YOU are riding, and that’s if they haven’t already thrown your sweet Aunt Betty off the platform and onto the tracks below.

    And your friendly Uber or Lyft driver isn’t allowed to carry so he can protect himself and you as his passenger.

    Nobody with a minimum level of common sense should be trying to ride mass-transit right now. Those who do ride it have been convinced that there is no other way for them to travel.

    But this all falls at the feet of the politicians, who just want YOU out of YOUR CAR. Like I say above, they can’t force you to ride Mass Transit. But they CAN make it a real hassle for you to get around town by making it illegal for you to drive (or park) downtown, or anywhere else you might want to go.

    “You will own nothing. And you will like it.”

    • There are even astroturf anti car movements with high class names such as F###cars. Even car manufacturers are trying to push their customers away from private car ownerships with subscriptions and leases and preventing non dealer repairs. Since the 80s you don’t fully own your car, even if its bought outright in cash because you don’t own the computer software that makes it run, you only have a end user agreement like on your PC.

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