The attack on the dance floor of a California nightclub last week that left 13 dead, the 11 worshipers killed by a gunman Oct. 27 at a Pittsburgh synagogue and the Oct. 26 pipe bomb suspect’s arrest for targeting prominent Democrats raise questions about what can be learned from other countries that are used to dealing with radical domestic terror and violence, reports USA Today. In Israel, it’s hard to enter a supermarket or a bus station without passing through a metal detector. Britain responded to years of politically motivated bombing campaigns by Northern Ireland’s paramilitaries by installing closed-circuit television cameras on every street corner. Today, the country has a CCTV camera for every 11 people.
Armed guards, police security patrols, safe rooms and sophisticated surveillance systems are now routine measures deployed by Jewish synagogues, schools and restaurants in France after a wave of anti-Semitic attacks that began decades ago. Hungarian synagogues are linked by a centralized, rapid “early warning system” that alerts Jewish prayer houses in the rest of the eastern European nation of an attack. Japan removed trash cans from subway stations and local parks after a Sarin gas attack by one of its citizens killed 13 people and sickened thousands. Australia enacted sweeping gun control measures after a man killed 35 people with a semi-automatic weapon in a popular tourist area in 1996. It also banned rapid-fire guns and offered to buy prohibited firearms. Research suggests it’s worked. Ophir Revach, CEO of a security center attached to the European Jewish Congress, said it would take more than a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars before U.S. houses of worship — synagogues, mosques, churches — and private firms, including nightclubs, would be able to match the security arrangements in Europe.