More deaths in NY if attacker had gun

Police examine a rented truck used by a driver who fatally ran over eight people on a bicycle path on the West Side of Manhattan on Oct 31. [Photo/Agencies]

IN THE WAKE OF Tuesday's terrorist attack in New York, which killed eight people and injured at least 11 others, US President Donald Trump has called for an end to the visa program that the terror suspect used to enter the country. Beijing News commented on Thursday:

Reports said the man, who drove a pickup truck in a Lower Manhattan bike lane mowing down cyclists while yelling "God is great" in Arabic, had been planning the deadly attack for weeks.

The attack does not mean the United States' crossborder terrorism efforts overseas have not been effective. The US-led anti-terrorism wars have basically crippled the ability of international terror groups to launch massive attacks on US soil.

But, as the attack in New York shows, that doesn't mean the US is immune to terrorism. Washington will have to deal with more loosely organized "lone wolf" attacks such as those in Brussels, London and Paris.

Preempting such attacks is not easy, especially when the suspects have weak or no ties to known terror groups.

Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in the Manhattan attack who entered the US from Uzbekistan in 2010, had never been investigated by either the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the New York police intelligence unit.

Keeping new immigrants at bay, as Trump has argued more than once, is not likely to work either because there is no pattern when it comes to these lone wolf attacks. Tightening gun control, however tricky it might be in the US, could make a difference. That the Manhattan suspect did not cause more casualties may have something to do with the fact that he only had an imitation gun.

The recent mass shooting in Las Vegas, for example, left 58 dead and more than 500 injured.