What happened in Nice, France is an absolute tragedy. But given the terrible circumstances, we must strike now while the iron is hot. It is time to makes our push for truck control.
Not much is clear only one day after the attack, but we do know this much: the truck is to blame. It is not the fault of the driver, or his ideological motivation, but rather the tool he utilize to create chaos. Besides, such trucks have no real utility in a civilized society; truckers could just as easily transport their goods with multiple smaller trucks that pose significantly less risk to the public’s safety.
How this individual even came to own such a weapon of mass destruction is beyond me, but we cannot let it happen here. If that 20-ton death machine could kill 84 people — including 10 children and adolescents — and injure 202 others on the streets of France, who is to say the same thing cannot happen in New York or Los Angeles?
It is going to be tough to fight against the trucker lobby, but they are mere villains standing in the way of security in a progressive America. We need to ensure that sensible, life-saving reforms are enacted before tragedy strikes again.
Unless you are bought and paid for by the powerful automotive industry, there is no reason why you cannot support the following, sensible changes to our outdated laws.
- Background checks and mandatory waiting periods for anyone who wishes to purchase a vehicle of such magnitude
- Limitations on the amount of gasoline sold to each driver at a given time as well as limits on the size of the gas tanks themselves to limit potential damage
- Clear limitations on the types of attachments sold for trucks that only turn them into killing machines
- The creation of truck-free zones to ensure that terrorists with trucks cannot get to our most vulnerable areas
- Opening up truck manufacturers to civil/criminal liability when one of their weapons is used in a mass killing
These are the changes we need to happen, but more likely than not, the terrible truck-culture of this country will prevent them from coming to fruition. For those who refuse to act on truck reform, the blood is on your hands.