Guide

Murderous Weapons and Tools

To assist in this specific component of the TAKEDOWN toolkits, we deploy a notorious SCP technique used to protect targets: the MURDEROUS approach, in order to better identify the characteristics of the weapons, which terrorists seem to value when planning a specific crime, given the general conditions of the attack.

Multipurpose: Most products, including common objects like cars or knifes, can have a dual use.

Undetectable: This is a necessity considering the high security measures in place. This helps explain the popularity of Semtex, a small, lightweight, and largely undetectable explosive. It took only 11 ounces of Semtex packed into a small tape recorder to bring down Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Removable: The weapons must be portable, easy to steal and hide, which means that they must be light enough and small enough to be lifted and carried by one or two people.

Destructive: in relation to the objective selected. Guns in home-grown terrorism are most suited to killing targeted and ‘iconic’ targets therefore their lethality must be evaluated in close relation to the target.[1]

Enjoyable: Terrorists enjoy their weapons and seemingly get a great deal of excitement and pleasure out using them.

Reliable: To be useful a firearm must be reliable in relation to the selected target and how the operation is planned. If they are familiar with a particular weapon (or one like it), they are likely to favour that weapon over another. This means that terrorists will likely shun unconventional or unfamiliar weapons unless their mission cannot be accomplished in any other way.

Obtainable: Availability is perhaps the most important of all weapon characteristics. Do I have it at home or in my workplace? Can it be manufactured in house? Usually connections between organized crime and terrorism are necessary to obtain weapons.

Uncomplicated: Complicated weapons that demand considerable expertise will rarely be used. In fact, when such weapons have been used, the attacks have often failed, precisely because the weapons were used incorrectly.

Safe: unless the perpetrator decided to carry out a suicide attack. Rarely mafia gangs use weapons, which may expose to risks the life of their killers.

[1] The U.S. Department of Defense, Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC): DoD Minimum Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings, UFB 4-010-01. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Defense, 2003 has several parameters to assess the lethality of weapons, which are derived from the counter-insurgency practices. In reality, homegrown terrorism follow different pathways and this clearly explains the difference between terrorism and insurgency.