The U.S. government has had 17 years to shore up national security since the events of 9/11, but some say that in many instances, we're no safer today than we were then.
Edward Turzanski at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, says the threat of radical Islam will always exist, unless our government officials call it out for what it is.
“The things that the terrorist believes in has to be addressed in a way the rationale is entirely repudiated, that means a sea change in terms of how the people who are disposed toward terrorism think,” he says.
Dr. Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, says it wasn't until recently the U.S. made serious progress in the fight against terror.
“We've actually seen the number of jihadi attacks and arrests in this country cut in half under this current presidency,” he says.
But the threat of another major attack still looms.
“The probability of another 9/11 anytime soon is no, but at some point in time one of these groups is going to acquire a weapon of mass distruction, and they will set it off against a power in the West,” says Addicott.
Both say recent smaller, isolated attacks like in Toronto are much harder to prevent. That's where the issue of border security and limiting who comes into the country comes into play.
“When we have people who have been turned in by a friend or a relative, or else, we have to find ways to get them out of the general population,” says Turzanski. “The law needs to catch up with the reality of terrorism.”