OPINION:
This year’s inauguration should be indoors, not outdoors as usual. Sniper Viacheslav Kovalskyi is known for killing a Russian officer at a distance of 2.36 miles. He’s not alone; there are many snipers like him.
While President-elect Donald Trump and others are on the inauguration platform, they cannot be protected from a sniper 2 miles away. What if several shooters take out our nation’s leaders (the president, vice president, speaker of the House, etc.)?
The Secret Service is not capable of securing that distance. It couldn’t even secure the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally site, where an assassination attempt was made from a distance of fewer than 200 yards.
What’s more, small, hobbyist-type drones can be legally purchased on the internet. It doesn’t take much skill to mount a small bomb or chemicals onto small drones. DroneShield, a global leader in drone technology, says drones are common among terrorist groups due to the fact that they’re cheap, easy to acquire and highly portable.
Experts have increasingly warned that it’s only a matter of time before an organization or a lone wolf uses drones to conduct an attack. Next to watch is the use of drone swarms, which involves large numbers of drones attacking a target simultaneously from several directions.
A terrorist group could have drone operators positioned in a circle around Washington, ready to attack. If they direct these drones to the inauguration stage, how can our military or anyone else stop them? Some of these drones can be flown up to 10 miles and accurately controlled from that distance.
Move the inauguration indoors.
JOSEPH F. REBAR
Shamokin, Pennsylvania
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