By ADRIANA COHEN
With Islamic State-inspired animals bringing their holy war to our cities -- ramming trucks into pedestrians and bicyclists and slaughtering dozens in a nightclub and elsewhere -- we are reminded of how important it is to protect our right to bear arms, which is enshrined in the Second Amendment.
If it weren't for the hero cop who happened to be at the horrific scene and shot the Islamic extremist killer inflicting mayhem on New York's West Side Highway -- just blocks away from a high school -- more innocents could have been harmed, including children.
We know that law enforcement officers, as courageous as they are, can't be everywhere, which means Americans must be prepared to protect themselves and those around them in the event of another deadly attack. That could be coming -- at any time -- as Islamic radicals have called for soldiers of the caliphate to hit soft targets in the West. This includes knife, car and truck attacks and train derailments, as well as going after schoolchildren playing in parks or at sporting events. The Islamic State group has also called for Christians to be killed in their places of worship and military personnel to be butchered in their homes.
This is not a fictional horror movie.
It's jihadi marching orders published openly in the Islamic State's and al-Qaida's propaganda magazines for all to see.
Given the atrocity we just witnessed in Manhattan -- and following the IS-inspired Ohio State University car/knife attack, Pulse nightclub massacre and San Bernardino shootings, not to mention the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing -- Americans must take radical Islam's vow to destroy us seriously and remain vigilant at all times. We must implement whatever safety measures are necessary to keep our loved ones safe, including protecting our right to bear arms.
Thanks to the Obama administration's de facto open-borders policy -- following decades of failed immigration policies -- that rolled out the welcome mat to Islamic extremists such as Sayfullo Saipov, a product of the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, we have no idea what we're up against. At this point, there could be scores of radicalized lone wolves or sleeper cells lurking under the radar throughout the U.S. and plotting the unthinkable.
What if the Halloween New York terror attack had played out a bit differently? Imagine if the cop had been delayed in arriving to the scene and the terrorist, after crashing into a school bus and mauling pedestrians, had jumped out of his vehicle and attacked civilians with a knife. Not an unlikely scenario, given authorities found a bag full of knives in the radical's truck. In a life-or-death situation like that, do you want the ability to protect yourself and those around you, or do you want to be left defenseless while waiting for help to arrive?
All the more reason Americans must resist vanquishing their Second Amendment rights to gun control elites. Many of these politicians who want to restrict your rights have armed security or live in gated communities.
Enough said.