Last month, a rejected Uzbeki asylum seeker with ties to ISIS hijacked a truck in Stockholm and drove it into a crowd along a major street in the city, killing five and injuring many others.
What should be done to stop such terrorist attacks? An editorial in the major Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has an idea: ban cars from the city. Yes, really.
It’s not just terrorism that such a ban would thwart. It would also promote “gender equality” and help save the planet. No, I’m not making this up.
The idea of reducing the number of cars in Swedish cities was backed last month by Sweden’s environment minister, who argued that driving is a gender equality issue as well as a matter of shrinking the nation’s carbon emissions.
“Cars are driven largely by men so by giving a lot of space to cars; we’re giving a lot of space to men — at the expense of women,” Karolina Skog explained.
Sweden already had strict gun control laws. (It also has a number of “no-go zones,” enclaves where the large number of Muslim immigrants it’s admitted enforce Sharia law, and those who don’t abide by that, including police, had better not enter.) Yet terrorist attacks continue, some using vehicles. To those who thought gun control would stop mass shootings (it hasn’t), the obvious answer to car/truck attacks is to ban motor vehicles.
Those of us living in the real world just shake our heads in disbelief.
But don’t forget, to American leftists, Sweden is the shining example of what we should strive to be. And the war against cars (via zoning, reallocation of gas taxes to mass transit, promotion of high-density dwellings, conversion of car lanes to bike lanes, “traffic calming,” etc.) is certainly proceeding apace in Denver and cities across the country. So don’t be surprised if “fight terrorism, ban cars” campaigns crop up here about 15 minutes after the next lone wolf truck attack. And if proponents couple that with the claim that cars are symbols of patriarchy, hoo boy, that’ll bring out lots of protesters.
They can have my 2014 Subaru Forester when they pry the 6-speed stick out of my cold dead hand.
[Actually they can have it in exchange for a pristine 1992 Range Rover. Or (dreaming) a new Mazda Miata. Or (really dreaming) an immaculate 1964 Jag XKE roadster. Or (really, really dreaming) a factory-restored Ferrari Daytona. Or …]