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Hours after last night’s terror rampage in London during which seven people were killed and 48 wounded, 21 critically, UK authorities had already arrested a dozen individuals in the aftermath of the attack.

Per the Daily Mail, Police have arrested 12 people including four women during a dawn raid at a block of flats in Barking where one of the London Bridge terrorists reportedly lived.

One witness said a suspect who tried to flee was shot while others reported hearing gunfire and explosions as police swooped on the east London address at 7am on Sunday.

Several men were pictured laying face down in the road handcuffed, while others were later led from the flat alongside four women.

But the sobering fact of the matter is these 12 people represent a microscopic percentage of the potential terror threat already within the United Kingdom. Authorities in the UK have a monumental task ahead to identify and stop the next crop of would-be assassins.

According to The Sun, British security services have comes across nearly 23,000 people during their counter-terrorism investigations with authorities now working to find out who was behind last night’s attack in London.

Last month the security services said these tens of thousands of people were subjects of interest as it emerged that UK authorities were holding 500 probes into 3,000 individuals.

In addition, authorities believe that 400 ISIS-trained fighters have returned to Britain from Iraq and Syria and could pose a similar threat to that of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi.

Of course, political correctness has made this task more difficult. Sweeping powers - which restricted suspects’ movement, use of phones and computers – were scrapped in 2012 amidst pressure from civil liberties groups.

In 2015, police made 282 terror-related arrests, but that number dropped eight percent to 260 in 2016. Similarly, the use of powers for questioning people entering or leaving the country dropped 30 percent, from 27,800 inquiries in 2015 to 19,355 in 2016.

And what has the result been? Three terror attacks so far in 2017.

Of course this isn’t a problem confined to the UK. Weeks ago U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said the terror threat is worse than most people realize, saying they would “never leave the house” if they knew the truth.

“It’s everywhere. It’s constant. It’s nonstop… it can happen here almost anytime.”

Which is not very comforting. You know, you’d think there’s an obvious remedy. If bad guys are trying to come into our country, how ‘bout we stop letting more in? But according to liberals, that kind of “reason” will have you labeled a “piece of sh*t.”

[This article was written by Michele Hickford, author of the brutally honest and bitingly funny Do I Need To Slap You?]