Six foreigners have been arrested for suspicion of a terrorist threat aimed at the Army's Fort Dix. And they were planning on using assault weapons, likely bought here in the US, to do it.

Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack the Army's Fort Dix and massacre scores of U.S. soldiers — a plot the FBI says was foiled when the men took a video of themselves firing assault weapons to a store to have the footage put onto a DVD.

The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base.

"Today we dodged a bullet. In fact, when you look at the type of weapons that this group was trying to purchase, we may have dodged a lot of bullets," said FBI agent J.P. Weis.

"We had a group that was forming a platoon to take on an army. They identified their target, they did their reconnaissance. They had maps. And they were in the process of buying weapons. Luckily, we were able to stop that."

The group itself was apparently infiltrated by an informant a while ago, and they were caught while trying to buy weapons (illegally, we assume), from another informant. They also were training at a firing range near Pennsylvania, and were seen in a video shooting assault weapons. The origin of those weapons has not been mentioned yet.

The men trained by playing paintball in the woods in New Jersey and taking target practice at a firing range in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, where they had rented a house, authorities said.

They often watched terrorism training videos, clips featuring Osama bin Laden, a tape containing the last will and testament of some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and tapes of armed attacks on U.S. military personnel, erupting in laughter when one plotter noted that a Marine's arm was blown off in an ambush, authorities said.

...In court documents, prosecutors said the suspects came to the attention of authorities in January 2006 when a Mount Laurel, N.J., shopkeeper alerted the FBI about a "disturbing" video he had been asked to copy onto a DVD.

The video showed 10 young men in their early 20s "shooting assault weapons at a firing range ... while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic 'Allah Akbar' (God is great)," the complaint said. The 10 included six of those arrested, authorities said.

The VPC has released more information on the weapons these men had in their possession and may also have been trying to obtain. In addition, these weapons (and assault weapons in general) are referenced in "terrorist training manuals."

A foreign-made SKS assault rifle specifically approved for import by the Bush Administration was one of the weapons the U.S. government alleges that six men plotting an assault on Fort Dix trained with in the Poconos according to the criminal complaint filed in a federal district court in New Jersey. In addition to the Yugoslavian SKS, the alleged terrorists also trained with a Beretta Storm assault rifle.

Although the federal assault weapons ban has expired, the Bush Administration has the executive authority to ban the import of foreign-made assault weapons like the SKS and Storm. Such an action would not require Congressional approval. Both President Bill Clinton and President George Herbert Walker Bush used their executive powers to stop the import of specific assault rifles. In contrast, the Administration of George W. Bush has specifically authorized the importation of SKS assault rifles made in Albania and the former Yugoslavia.

...VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, "President Bush could with the stroke of a pen tighten the import ban and stop the import of all foreign-made assault rifles--including the SKS and Beretta Storm. How many near misses and tragedies will it take before the Administration takes action?"

The ease with which military-style firearms and firearms training can be obtained in the United States has been touted in terrorist training manuals, including "How Can I Train Myself for Jihad," which states, "...obtain an assault rifle legally, preferably AK-47 or variations, learn how to use it properly and go and practice in the areas allowed for such training."

Why are we still allowing these rifles to be obtained legally in this country? Fortunately, this attack on Fort Dix was stopped before it could be carried out, but are we going to wait for a tragedy to take action? Are we going to wait for an attack on our soil with these weapons before we do something about them?

There is no legitimate civilian use for these weapons, and exactly no reason they should be legal within our borders. They are weapons used by terrorists, and to allow them to remain legal would be equivalent to sitting back and waiting for another terrorist attack.