Levon Vincent took to his Facebook page after Friday’s horrific terror attacks stating that “People need to arm themselves”.

The ill-judged post – which has since been deleted – was widely criticise online and on his Facebook page for being insensitive and stupid.

“Please, people need to arm themselves. If you don’t like guns, you can get whatever maximum length knife allowable from your government. Everyone should have mace. Because you need to be able to stop those cowardly attacks immediately when the [sic] begin.”

Vincent has since gone onto explain his comments stating that he feels the public need to take upon themselves to arm themselves in the face of such atrocities.

“I really want to stress again to you that if someone comes into a music venue or shopping centre etc, and pulls out an automatic weapon but is outnumbered – please, you MUST attack them. You have to subdue them.”

Clearly, Vincent’s comments were massively mis-judged, and rightly criticised. The thought that we should go out and buy the biggest knives allowed by law, and mace, to keep ourselves safe is not the answer.

Clearly, it’s a cultural thing, in the US (where Vincent is from) many people choose to own guns to protect themselves and their family, but in Europe the thought of carrying knives for self defence isn’t something anyone should ever consider, even in the face of the unimaginable terror that hit Paris on Friday night.