September 11, 2001, was a terrible day, no doubt, for the people of the Washington, DC, metro area. While New York took a much worse hit than we did, it was still terrifying to live here that day and in the weeks and months to follow. We suspiciously eyed every airliner that passed overhead to make sure it was following a proper flight path. We kept a careful eye on our surroundings. Soon after, as the anthrax attacks started happening (some of which, again, in our region) we started checking every envelope for suspicious white powder.
But the terror of living in this area in September-December 2001 paled in comparison to the terror of living in this area in October 2002 under the siege of the ‘beltway sniper attacks‘.
It’s hard to explain why two guys with a rifle would be more frightening than radical Islamists with hijacked airliners. It doesn’t seem logical. I think it’s because, on some level, you expect to be at increased risk in an aircraft. You expect to be at increased risk in a high-profile federal building like the Pentagon, White House, or Capitol. You don’t, however, expect to die of a gunshot wound while you’re mowing your lawn, pumping gas, or leaving a restaurant. These are inherently ‘safe’ activities, but in October 2002 John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo made them horribly frightening.
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