ISIS likely prefers guns to knives and vehicles

Trump’s swipe after London attack brings up a debate that has little to do with the data

When President Trump took a swipe at gun control advocates following last week’s deadly vanand-knife attack in London, he appeared to be trying to make the point that terrorists will find other means if they don’t have access to guns.

“Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!” Trump offered on Twitter.

Lost in Trump’s criticism is the fact that on U.S. soil, firearms are most frequently used in mass killings and have played a major role in some of the deadliest foreign-inspired terror attacks in recent years.

From 2006 to 2016, there were at least 247 mass killings in the United States in which a gun was the primary weapon used in the crime, according to USA TODAY’s database on mass killings in the United States. A mass killing is typically defined as a single incident in which four or more victims are killed.

On average, 5.24 people were killed in each of those mass killing incidents in which a gun was used — the deadliest being the June 2016 terror attack on an Orlando nightclub by a single gunman who investigators say had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The incident in Orlando left 49 dead and scores wounded. In fact, there have been at least 20 mass killings using guns over the last decade in which at least eight people have been fatally shot.

Those deadly attacks included the December 2015 attack on a San Bernardino, Calif.-holiday party by a radicalized Muslim cou- ple that left 14 dead and the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, by an Army officer who had been communicating with an Al Qaeda operative that left 13 dead and dozens more wounded.

There were 28 mass casualty incidents during the same period in which the primary method of killing was stabbing, according to USA TODAY’s database. An average of 4.45 people were killed in those incidents — with the deadliest incidents, on three different occasions, leaving six people dead.

To be certain, the Islamic State has encouraged radicalized members in the West to use whatever means they may have to carry out attacks on Western soil that require little technical expertise, such as the truck-and-knife attack near London Bridge on Saturday.

The Islamic State has been tied to or claimed responsibility for four other such attacks, the deadliest being in Nice, France, when a truck driver ran over dozens of people, killing 86, on the city’s promenade during Bastille Day celebrations last July.

But there also signs that the Islamic State has pushed its sympathizers in the United States to consider guns for carrying out attacks.

In the most recent issue of its propaganda magazine, the Islamic State encouraged recruits in the United States to take advantage of the socalled gun show loophole that allows people in the U.S. to buy firearms with minimal vetting.

“The acquisition of firearms can be very simple depending on one’s geographical location,” according to the recruitment article. “In most U.S. states, anything from a single-shot shotgun all the way up to a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle can be purchased at showrooms or through online sales — by way of private dealers — with no background checks, and without requiring either an ID or a gun license.”