Architects and designers can't design ways to protect mass terror attacks in America's public spaces, but they should join the fight to eliminate the problem at its cause, argues Aaron Betsky.

When you want to attack a democracy, go for its public spaces. That seems to be the tactic more and more terrorists are using. In the US, it started with the Boston Marathon bombing, but the recent mass shootings in Las Vegas, El Paso, Dayton, and Midland have all taken place at least partially in the open.
What makes these recent attacks even more insidious is that they have involved readily available semi-automatic arms, rather than explosives.
Previously, when they were not inside buildings, mass attacks were on university campuses or other controlled ? or at least theoretically controllable ? areas such as schools. When they took place outside, they involved either the making of bombs, which takes a fair amount of planning, or heavy objects such as trucks. Now you can be the victim of domestic terrorism walking down the street, driving in your car, or in a parking lot. All it takes is somebody is to take out a gun and start shooting hundreds of rounds a minute.
We have to return to the question of whether we can do anything by design
This means that attempts to stop terrorism with elements in or at the fringes of architecture is becoming increasingly useless. In a disturbing book published last year, Handbook of Tyranny, architect Theo Deutinger collected all the methods develop...