San Francisco just declared the NRA to be a terrorist organisation, thereby instantly creating millions of terrorists - many of whom joined the organization not for poltical reasons but because you have to in order to shoot at certain ranges or to participate in safety classes or shooting sports.
Sure, but he's also saying that paying any ransom should always be illegal. To completely overexaggorate - if after hitting the first tower of World Trade Centre the terrorists said "pay us $100M or we'll hit the other building" then the logical solution is to make sure they get that $100M immediately. They have already demonstrated the ability to hit one building and kill hundreds of people by doing so - whatever price they name for preventing the second attack should be paid. Of course, we need to apply good sense to this - whole paying ransom to save human lives is a good idea, we can have a discussion about paying ransom to save computer systems. I can see an argument being made that if it isn't paid, the city's welfare system stops working and the people in most need do not get the support they require - so resolving the situation quicker by paying the ransom can be the moral thing to do.
> then the logical solution is to make sure they get that $100M immediately.
What? No, that's not the logical solution. Have you considered the consequences of paying that money beyond the immediate deaths? You've suddenly put a real price on terrorist attacks - as in, if I decide to go through with a terrorist attack after 9/11, I know that I can extort the country for anywhere up to $100m. Hell, everybody with a grudge against the US suddenly has massive financial incentive to carry out attacks against the US. How many more people will die because you've decided that it's okay to pay terrorists?
They don't just disappear- the money is probably going to be marked, the people will be eventually traced and dealt with. Money is very traceable.
There are plenty of people with a grudge against the US, some of them quite rich. US foreign policy made sure of that. Extra 100 million would make no real difference. The thing stopping them is distance to US and threat of deadly force.
