By Robin G. Jordan
The Boston Marathon bombing came as a shock and a surprise
to many Americans. Yet such bombings are almost everyday occurrence outside of
North America—in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere in the world. People
are with a horrifying regularity killed and maimed.
The Boston Marathon bombers took advantage of the fact that
at a sports event like the marathon few people were going to take much notice
of a backpack, small duffel bag, or sports bag left on the ground. Both participants and spectators bring knapsacks and other bags to marathons. They may leave them unattended.
With the large crowds, their attention focused upon the marathon runners and
not their own safety, the marathon was the perfect event to detonate one or
more explosive devices. Even a small explosion could be expected to produce
substantial carnage. The use of metal canisters filled with ball bearings and
nails maximized the deaths and injuries such an explosion would cause in a tightly-packed
crowd of people, the kind of crowd typically found at concerts, parades,
political rallies, revivals, sports events, and similar gatherings.
I have collected a number of articles that describe the kind
of explosive device that is believed to have been used in the Boston Marathon
bombing. Links to these articles follow this article. I urge the readers of
Anglicans Ablaze to read these articles and learn more about this kind of
explosive device and its devastating effects. While it is not possible to
completely eliminate such attacks, we can take steps to make such attacks more
difficult to carry out and to minimize the casualties when they do occur.
One of these steps is a community that is well-informed
about this particular danger and what community members can do individually and
collectively to protect the safety of the community. To this end churches,
civic groups, and other community organizations can invite representatives of
law enforcement agencies trained in the identification and disposal of
explosive devices to speak to their members and the public.
A step that community organizations can take is to develop
and implement plans to protect the safety of their members and the public. Every
church, large and small, should have such plans.
Another step that we all can take is to not leave our own
safety and the safety of others to someone else. We all need to take
responsibility for the safety of our community.
In addition to developing and implementing safety plans,
churches, civic groups, and other community organizations need to decide how
they are going to respond in the event of a bomb exploding at a building the
organization uses or elsewhere in the community. Here again, every church needs
to have a clear idea of what it is going to do.
Boston Marathon bombs had simple but harmful design, early clues indicate
A history of pressure cooker bombs
Pressure cooker bombs used in past by militants
Boston attack underscores growing threat of IEDs in America
IEDs No Longer a Foreign Concept for Americans
Experts have long warned about IEDs in U.S.
The physics of terror: What happens when a bomb goes off: DiManno
Homeland Security warned about pressure cooker bombs
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