Actually, the reason that the terrorists in Spain didn’t kill more people is that they were prevented from renting larger trucks because they didn’t have the right documentation. They had over 100 propane tanks at the house south of Barcelona, and planned to load up three big trucks and blow up one in front of the Sagrada Familia, one on the Rambla (after driving down the center mall and getting to La Boqueria), and one in the docks/beach area, a big tourist destination.
As it was, they had to settle for vans instead, and then the house south of Barcelona where the explosives were being prepared had a workplace accident and their explosives were destroyed so they couldn’t even detonate the gas tanks or themselves, which was the original plan. They did what damage they could with the vans, but even that would have been worse with big trucks.
So controls on rental vehicles is not a bad idea. That said, controls on jihadis would be even better. Actually, make that controls on Muslims - one of the would be bombers, who was killed when the house south of Barcelona “blew up,” was the imam of the mosque in Ripoll, where the terrorists came from. And everybody said they were so integrated and normal...
Those are all excellent points.
And everybody said they were so integrated and normal...
Until the day they simply weren’t.