I have to agree with the article to a degree. The solutions being proposed to problems, real and imaginary, serve to distance the citizens from the government even more. Using the national guard to provide some law enforcement functions, calling for a large group of federal air marshalls, new abilities given to law enforcement(that, admittedly, couldn't have affected what happened). Our schools *are* an obvious target. It's happened in Israel. Are we really so arrogant to assume it can't happen here? Of course we are, we need to be proven wrong before we open our eyes. When that happens, do the national guard get posted there also? Nobody has talked about it yet, but taxes will have to be raised to pay for all these people. Many of these functions could be filled by everyday citizens in the long run. There are a lot of people who claim to be patriots or unorganized militia members. Why not give them an opportunity to put their time where their mouth is? Many extremist groups have a government vs the people attitude. What's being done supports that. Giving them an opportunity to put in some time to help their community would not only include all us little people in the country's affairs, it would be a challenge to put up or shut up for all these armchair commandos. Not everyone would be a good choice for every job, but anyone who's willing to volunteer has to be useful for something. If we have domestic groups who are fighting the government, as well as a large segment of society who lives in fear of their own government, we are at a disadvantage. Lets be realistic, are we, as individuals, more likely to be targeted by terrorists or the ATF? The board's general disdain for the ATF doesn't come from us being a bunch of dangerous criminals who are just waiting to be brought to justice. It comes from their track record of abuses and irrational positions on laws of questionable constitutionality. How can we expect to be united against a common enemy if we, as gun owners, need to be highly skeptical of our government and especially any law enforcement agency asking questions?