JOHN LINDER: “I will agree with the argument that the Founders could not have envisioned airliners being used as missiles against…”

“I will agree with the argument that the Founders could not have envisioned airliners being used as missiles against skyscrapers, or even the U.S. Capitol. I do not, however, subscribe to the theory that the Founders were unable to envision in their minds a terrorist attack with the ability to take the lives of Members of Congress en masse. On November 5, 1605, 13 co-conspirators placed 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar beneath the British House of Lords with the intent of destroying the entire British parliament and killing King James I, who was charged with convening the legislative body on that day. Only through an anonymous letter and the quick action of a few members of Parliament was a British soldier named Guy Fawkes arrested minutes before he was to light a fuse that was designed to spur a revolution in England. My point is that the Founders were cognizant that a terrorist attack on the government resulting in the deaths of scores of Members of Congress could occur.”