Someone turning themselves in doesn't count as law enforcement "catching" them, IMO. If his dad hadn't owned up to his parenting failure, the kid would be on the lam still. A podcaster and a 23 year old gardener aren't exactly the A-team.
It's impossible to KNOW if something would have ABSOLUTELY had a specific effect. However we can infer that an action makes a situation be a greater or lesser threat. Those actions to fire the SAC and everyone else who failed the Presidential Purity Test absolutely did NOT reduce risk, or make things more difficult for someone seeking to do harm. I would argue that in fact made things easier for "bad guys" to do bad things.
Plus, ya know, the President explicitly saying that he's alright with the "right violence" really gives a blank check and a rhetorical nod to anyone else thinking of doing something evil and violent. With a couple of slapdicks in charge of law enforcement and counterterrorism