Concerns about the safety of our public buildings and their occupants are most strongly motivated today by two issues. First, the tragic explosives attacks on the World Trade Center and the Murrah Federal Building clearly indicate that terrorism is here in America, It is not just alive and well in far away places with strange sounding names. Second, like our public buildings, terrorism is likely to remain here for a long time reflecting the social and political diversity and mental health of this and future generations.
Bombs are easy to make.
They can be easily transported in a clandestine manner. They can be detonated when the bomber is far away with little likelihood of immediate apprehension. Yes, the bomb offers many advantages to the terrorist. Government has a serious and continuing obligation to protect its employees, visitors to public buildings and even people walking or working in the neighborhood when, and if, its facilities become magnets for bomb attacks. Unlike rifles which can be pointed directly at the target, the bomb's destructive force propagates in all directions involving an entire neighborhood of buildings and people.