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I don’t care what your stance on the President, the Middle East or any political event is. The fact of the matter is, there are trained terrorists who are intent on killing as many of our children as they can to further their “holy war.”

Don’t believe me? Read Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America’s Schools.

In 2004, terrorists took over a Russian school for three days. While the authorities attempted to negotiate, the terrorists forced the captive men and boys into slave labor to fortify the school against the inevitable attack. As the hostages completed their work, they would be executed.

Meanwhile, the women and girls were repeatedly raped and then killed.

When the counter-attack on the school began, the terrorists began wildly killing the children. Police and SWAT teams encountered barricades and booby traps, hindering their progress. It was a blood bath.

172 children were murdered.

In all, 338 people were killed, and some 700 were wounded.  The number I always keep coming back to, though, is the 172 children who were murdered.

Don’t think it can happen here? You better think again.

There are terrorists training right now to do even worse in the US of A. There is credible intel that indicates some of them have already made there way into the county (across our southern border, in case anyone in Washington is listening.) They are implementing the lessons they learned during the attack on the Russian school.

Al-Qaeda has publicly stated they will kill 2 million American children.  Operations in Afghanistan have recovered videotapes of terrorists training to overrun schools.  These tapes include the terrorists giving orders in English and killing children.

Here is what an attack may look like in this country:

The terrorists will strike multiple schools at the same time, so law enforcement and military resources are unable to focus on a single event. Terrorists have already begun scouting targets, and will continue to do so right up to the events. Terrorists are seeking the best sites that combine:

• states without citizen CCW permits
• states without a gun/hunting tradition
• jurisdictions that do not issue rifles to their officers
• rural or other geographically isolated areas to slow police response
• schools without SROs

Expect to encounter car bombs, or similar IEDs, in the parking lots or other areas that responders may set up in. We saw the same thing in Atlanta (although a much smaller scale) when Eric Rudolph set up secondary devices to hit public safety officials as they responded to the initial bombs.

Killing School Resource Officers will, of course, be part of the initial goals. In our “gun free zones,” SROs are likely to be the only initial threat to the terrorists.

Negotiating will only give the terrorists more time to fortify their position, and kill more children.

The terrorists have learned their lessons, and are advancing in their plans. What have we learned?

There are a lot of things that departments can do to increase our ability to detect and react to these threats. The sad truth is, few, if any, local governments will adequately prepare for these dangers. We will lose our children, and many good cops will die trying to save them. I believe any of us would willingly give our own lives to protect innocent children. What angers me is that our political leaders refuse to allow us the training and tools to save as many as we can.

So, it falls to each of us to be as ready as we possibly can for such an event. Having a bail out bag and realistic firearms training is exceptionally important. So is having the right mindset to do what must be done if this burden ever falls to us.