A mass stabbing incident in Amsterdam, in which two U.S. citizens were injured, is a reminder of the importance of a person’s right of self-defense, and to have the proper tools to carry out that defense, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.
Published reports say the unidentified suspect apparently attacked his victims at random. Police in the Netherlands capital city, are trying to establish a motive. Five people were hospitalized, as was the suspect, who was injured when he was stopped by a passerby, Dutch police said.
The two American victims were identified as a 67-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man. The other victims were from Belgium, Poland and Amsterdam.
“Violent attacks like this happen suddenly, no matter where you are, but if they occur here in the United States,” observed CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “there is at least the potential that a legally-armed private citizen might intervene. Armed citizens have stopped mass attacks in the past, and more often than the public has been led to believe. I’ve co-authored several books which discuss such incidents, and more are happening all the time.
“Our Second Amendment enables private citizens to legally carry firearms for personal protection,” he continued, “unlike other countries, where the public is kept unarmed. The most recent data on licensed concealed carry estimates that more than 21 million law-abiding citizens are now legally armed, and that doesn’t include maybe millions more who reside in the 29 states which now enjoy permitless, or ‘constitutional carry’ laws, where no license or permit is required.
“The ability to defend one’s self and/or his or her loved ones is paramount to thwarting violent attacks,” Gottlieb observed, “whether they involve a lunatic with a knife or someone using a gun illegally. We’ve seen many sich incidents where would-be killers have been stopped cold by good people with guns.
“It is appalling how anti-gunners and their allies in state legislatures, and on Capitol Hill, continue efforts to disarm honest citizens in this country,” Gottlieb said. “The idea that leaving good people vulnerable to vicious attack by criminals or crazy people will somehow prevent crime is, at best, delusional. That much was demonstrated in Amsterdam, where they don’t enjoy the same right to carry as we do in the U.S. Let’s make sure nobody is able to take away our right to self-defense, and the tools to guarantee it.”
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Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) is one of the nation’s premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.
