U.S. Marines stop terror attack on French train

[Ripsnort]

But lets face it, we got lucky. Had this gunman known what he was doing or had those troops not been there who knows what kind of damage he could have done? I would be even more afraid on American soil where Americans are banned from their 2nd amendment rights on transportation Hubs and Police are under armed.

ISIL is a different kind of threat. They are more action then they are words and they tend to send Loons who are well armed, well trained, with battle experience, and with a plan. In the attacks they have staged even single gunman have a 1 to 1 kill/wound ratio and thats pretty damned good. Most of all when its a single shooter.

This.

We've very fortunate it was a Russian rifle that jammed.

[MiloMorai]

Great post. Some people just want to hijack threads to project their personal opinion, no matter what. It's a character flaw.

Yeah, the story changed quickly, from 3 Marines to 2 AF and other passengers. Guess that's how breaking news works. I posted the first alert I received. Bottom line is Americans stepped up to the plate, took down the bad guy and saved lives. Funniest thing I read was the guy screaming "Give me back my gun!" after he was taken down.

One Air force, one Army (NG) and one Brit civilian.

Russian design but NOT Russian built.

[Ripsnort]

I have shot over 5000 rds with my Russian rifle and it's never jammed. Perhaps someone needs to tell the religious nut bags that they need to actually CLEAN their rifles once in a while? Or perhaps said-host country needs to follow up on nut bags that are on a watch list?

Got lucky this time...

[SysError]

I have shot over 5000 rds with my Russian rifle and it's never jammed. Perhaps someone needs to tell the religious nut bags that they need to actually CLEAN their rifles once in a while?...

I guess that I was thinking along the same sort of lines.

A jammed AK47?

Besides being cheap, easy and quick to make, I always thought that a key attribute of the gun was that it had such large tolerance that even under harsh conditions it was very reliable.

Assuming that this guy did go to somewhere in the middle east for training, you would think (and maybe I am wrong) that some from of basic maintenance was covered.

Also what happened with the hand gun?  Why did he use a knife on Spencer (it was him with the knife cuts right?) and not his hand gun?

I think that it might take a week or so for a complete story to emerge. 

[Ripsnort]

First reports were a box cutter. Not sure if it was a knife?

[Oldman731]

the 3 guys knew they were in danger so they reacted.  sorry to say and it doesnt take anything away, but they reacted to save their own lives.  nothing wrong with that, on the plus side they saved a few more than their own.

Most people who think they're in danger try to hide, or run away.  Charging the threat is unusual and counter-intuitive.  These people were special.

- oldman

[guncrasher]

they were trained to counter the threat.  one of them said along the lines if I remember that he would rather get shot running towards the guy rather than hiding somewhere.



semp

[SysError]

First reports were a box cutter. Not sure if it was a knife?

Just read a different/updated report that says it was a box cutter and not a knife.  Also he did fire off his handgun, he hit at least one person.  It is unclear how many rounds he got off.

He might have hurt more people with the box cutter than the gun, it is unclear to me right now.

Also been reading about a forth man (sometimes referred to as a Brit, sometimes as a French person) who also charged the guy with the 3 Americans.

Just amazing guys.   

[cpxxx]

The Ak didn't jam, Alek Skarlatos in a TV interview described that when he cleared the weapon he found that the primer had been hit but the bullet hadn't fired. So bad ammunition it seems. Lucky for everyone concerned that he hadn't time to clear it before they were on top of him. He also said there was no magazine in the handgun when he checked. If they'd hesitated even a few seconds more this could have a much different ending.

During the Paris supermarket siege the terrorist had two Aks. One of the customers tackled him and got one off him but tragically it too misfired when he tried to shoot him. He was killed by the terrorist with the other Ak. He was a hero too but generally unrecognised.

[Squire]

Or perhaps said-host country needs to follow up on nut bags that are on a watch list?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/24/us-usa-explosions-boston-suspect-idUSBRE93N06720130424

There seems to be nothing more useless than "watch lists".

[artik]

The headline is misleading... It correct report should be based only on facts:

Headline: A 26-year-old Moroccan national was beaten up unconscious by US servicemen and a British man on a Paris-bound train.

Body: An assault rifle was found at scene by a police forensic officer. French police is investigating a possible hate crime.

[danny76]

The headline is misleading... It correct report should be based only on facts:

Headline: A 26-year-old Moroccan national was beaten up unconscious by US servicemen and a British man on a Paris-bound train.

Body: An assault rifle was found at scene by a police forensic officer. French police is investigating a possible hate crime.

That is frightening in its foresight 

[cpxxx]

Well the President of France just presented them all with the Legion d'Honneur. I wonder can US servicemen wear medal ribbons from a foreign country on their uniforms?

[artik]

That is frightening in its foresight 

It is frightening that this is how BBC, CNN and many other popular news agencies in the western world report some events at certain parts of the world at daily basis.

[mbailey]

Well the President of France just presented them all with the Legion d'Honneur. I wonder can US servicemen wear medal ribbons from a foreign country on their uniforms?

I believe so, I think (I've read somewhere )  they have to be approved decorations.  Our military guys here would know better tho,  so I defer to them