How does a camo-bedecked dood waltz up to the President of the Czech Republic – who’s dedicating a new bridge – and manage to get close enough to stick a pistol in his side and pull the trigger? That’s what plenty of churlish Czechs are probably asking today after an unidentified man did just that…with an airsoft gun. “‘I was standing next to the president when a man applied a pistol to his side and squeezed the trigger several times. I could hear a few clicks. In the first moment I did not know at all what was happening,’ Chrastava Mayor Michael Canov told CTK.” The real question is why, instead of being slid into a police cruiser, EMTs weren’t scooping up a desanguinating pile of protoplasm. As a boston.com article dryly put it, “It is not clear why the president’s bodyguards did not intervene in time.” No, no it’s not.
No, *no* it’s not. ??
Fixed. Thanks.
This guy is going to prison, but I’ll also guarantee that a few presidential body guards are going to be looking for new jobs. Does the Czech Republic have Walmart stores?
As far as europe goes the czech’s have the best gun laws. Permits are basically shall issue with a few hoops to jump through. And since cz is the local big boy of guns most people get autos that choose to have a pistol. And according to all the info I can glean with my limited computer fu skills most of the czech’s don’t feel the need to carry because they have a relatively safe country.
Once again we see an armed society is a polite society. And maybe because of this lack of violence in general the bodygaurds were asleep at the switch.
Note to all security details around VIP’s. People wearing surplus store cammies should light up your radar. Followed closely by people in dark glasses and black trench coats.
You might want to check those examples of people that should light up their radar. Most shooters in these cases are dressed down to NOT gain unwanted attention.
Yes, we have quite good gun laws in CZ but not many people carry. There are only 10 GDUs per year, approximately. Considering that there is 700k registered firearms and at least another 700k unregistered, mostly German from WW2, that is not a bad number!
Not sure our guards would have liquidated him either. Recent assassination attempts ended with the bad guy being trampled and tackled. Is there a Czech edition of Jack Ruby?
While not terribly current with Czech political intrigue, things are done differently in Eastern Europe. Especially in former Warsaw pact Nations that are “problematic” members of the EU, with a President who doesn’t always shut up when he probably should.
This may have just been a very public reminder by some party that they can ‘reach out and touch’ Mr. Klaus anytime they want. That falls in line with the actions of the bodyguards as well. Doing business in, or anywhere near the former USSR this is standard operational procedure. Kidnappings and assassinations are just part of the landscape.
Or this is just a cretin with an airsoft and the guards were all high on crokodil.
You don’t kill assassins, they can’t speak if dead. (that’s why I still believe Bin Laden is alive)
No handcuffs? That’s…a little, odd.
The report I saw said it was a loaded airsoft pistol. So either a political dissident or a mentally disturbed individual.
I think the CZ prez needs to pardon this guy and thank him.
He has clearly shown the world that he is vulnerable and his security is worthless.
If you got within 100 yards of any US Commander In Chief with anything relatively gun-like… or even mildly suspicious, you’re within a fraction of a second at any any given notice from having your grey matter forcefully removed from your dome.
Please learn how things are “done” in former Soviet satellite states before applying Western values to an Eastern European scenario.
Being a Czech myself I have to say that one of the reason the guy managed to pull this off is because we *don’t* do things this way around here. I know, we are a former USSR satellite, but assassinations of politicians are *not* common here. In fact, we haven’t had a single case of a nation-wide renowned politician getting assassinated around here in say the last twenty years.
What we do have here is mostly angry drunks and/or loonies who use fists, baseball bats or eggs. We had some guys wave knifes (and one actually used it, almost twenty years ago) but no fatalities or lasting damage.
So the bodyguards probably got complacent, thinking they’re there simply because a president has to have bodyguards but they stopped expecting that something might actually happen.
Oh, and I should add one more incident. Two years ago, two teenagers thought it a good idea to watch the same president using a scope. They had one, mounted on an air rifle. You know, the kind kind of rifle you use to perforate paper at 10 meters but one a nervous sniper might mistake for a real one. So they got onto a rooftop, took the scope off the gun, one of them watched the prez and the other one, becoming bored, began to aim it in random directions. Talk about stupidity. But they lived and this incident might have helped make the bodyguards hesitate during the latest incident. Especially once they noticed the gun was a plastic toy, because you don’t perforate a guy (and who knows how many bystanders) for acting like a rude idiot.
But yes, the bodyguards will probably have to find new jobs, and deservedly so.
The bodyguards completely failed, the one that was supposed to be guarding the president on the right side was very far ahead and did not see anything. Some civillian shoved the “assassin” away and he then walked away. After that, he was interviewed by at least one TV and only several minutes after that was he arrested (but AFAIK was let out of jail after that). From what is known, he is a communist party sympathiser and, based on his facebok rants, did not pay any attention at school.
For 16V: This is most certainly NOT the standard operating procedure in Czech republic, these things are not “normal” parts of business deals and most certainly not part of our political climate. As for the problematic new members, Czech republic is one of the more responsible, not only from the new ones but also from the older members of the EU. Your information is grossly outdated and misrepresented. Maybe a few countries to the east, your assertions would be correct.
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