On the personal airplane as a weapon

Yesterday's apparent deliberate attempt by a troubled, frustrated man to crash his personal airplane into an Austin, Tex., office building housing an IRS contingent is a tragedy. My sincerest condolences to anyone affected by it, including the man's family, those in the building at the time, their families and friends, first responders and bystanders.

A tragedy, but on a small scale, and one which would have been much worse if some tool other than a personal airplane had been employed.

Reading his apparent suicide note (link above) didn't create in me either pity or revulsion. Instead, I saw someone who believed himself a front-line solider in what many term an ongoing and escalating class war. Basically, he thought of himself as a hard-working, honest citizen trying to make a living and be successful in what he had been told was an environment encouraging such behavior. There's evidence he was a fervent anti-tax, anti-government crusader who managed to attract the IRS' attention for years.

His "manifesto" (my word) took on many American institutions, expressing what I view as belief in a rigged system, one designed to benefit the elites and suppress those not admitted to the club. He has/had a point.

Now, don't mistake that statement as agreement with either his conclusions or his chosen redress method. Do take it, however, as an understanding of the growing imbalance between those who think they are autonomous and those who actually are. From my perspective, there's a growing number of otherwise sane, productive people out there who see bank bailouts and car manufacturer bailouts and the like, and who are growing increasingly frustrated and angry as their own situations get more and more desperate daily. They blame the elites, and they're not wholly wrong.

In many ways, it's a wonder we haven't seen more episodes like this, not fewer. What portends for the future is anyone's guess.

One punchline is things are getting worse outside the DC Beltway where I used to live. Few inside the Beltway with the power or responsibility to do something about it either realize the challenge or have any intention of addressing it. Welcome to 2010.

Was this incident was an act of terrorism? The answer depends on whether you think it was politically motivated or had a different foundation. Law enforcement officials seem to downplay the idea, while the MSM is trying to hype it. But it seems no one is biting. That could change, since we're less than 24 hours past the incident as I type this.

Ultimately, my point is this guy had what he considered solid motivations for his acts. Looking around him at the tools he had available, he chose his personal airplane. He could have used an AK-47, a 12-gauge shotgun, a minivan, a Ryder truck filled with fertilizer and fuel oil or a claw hammer. He chose his airplane probably because it was the easiest and closest tool available.

As we've seen, however, the personal airplane is a lousy tool for something like this. And it's not the first time such proof has been offered, nor will it be the last. But any forthcoming attempts to restrict such tools will only result in others being used by other angry and frustrated citizens. And such restrictions will only increase their number.

The proper response isn't to restrict the tools. Instead, it should be to consider why this kind of anger and frustration grows. Then, perhaps, a solution might be devised. Such solution should not promote additional, similar acts but, instead, might concentrate on the underlying reasons for them.

Unfortunately, since that would require our elites to give up some of their current and ongoing acquisitions, I don't hold out much hope.

DCr