I disagree. I work in security at a metro hospital. In addition I have been a scanner hobbiest since I was 12 years old. My dad was a cop. I work with cops here in the crap part of town. I was even an unpaid, POST certified (armed) auxillary LEO for a short time. I worked as a correction officer for about 7 years too. I see the dregs of humanity nightly on shift. I hear the calls which go out EVERY night over the police radios. Fights. Robberies. Shootings. Stabbings. Rapes. Add in the stuff like suspicious cars cruising a neighborhood which could be someone looking to break in somewhere. Add in the reports of someone in someones backyard or outside thir bedroom window. Add in the "My ex girl/boy friend is smashing out the windows of my car and/or slashing my tires" calls. Add in the group of young men standing on the corner with loud music playing in the middle of the night calls. And on and on.
Carrying a gun is not the answer to much of this for most people.
All these things add to the mentality pervading modern society, mostly fuelled by the proponents of "law and order". The mentality that offloading our personal responsibilities to an external entity are appropriate, and/or right. The dismal belief that whilst one gets their belongings damaged, their faces beat in, their children murdered, or their wife raped, that one should;
A) Possess the time and physical possibility at all times to dig for their cell-phone
and
B) Lower their entitlement to life so far as to literally put a 8 or 16 minute (Whatever your average response time is in your locality) hold on doing anything about what is actually occurring, that is,
if the police even come at all.
Calling a cop during times of duress is like ordering a pizza. Convenient if you don't mind the wait. Do you mind the wait?
You don't tell the little old lady or man who lives by him/herself to rock out with thier glock out and go investigate the noise or movement they noticed in the back yard by the shed at 2am. YOU CALL THE COPS.
No
you call the cops. I certainly do grab my firearm, make sure the wife and children are situated, and investigate personally any possible follishness occuring on my property, endangering the life of my family, and the integrity of my life belongings. I will do this today. I will do this when I'm 90. Its ok. The wifes Mossberg will have the final say should anything happen to me.
You don't tell the girl who broke up with her abusive boyfriend to go out and subdue him when he shows up at her apartment and starts smashing up her car. YOU CALL THE COPS.
If said girl was aptly armed, she could
easily solve this situation herself, and likely in a non-violent manner. When "ex-boyfriends" and other abusive types learn that their preying on the weak will not be tolerated, only
then will society change. Not because some dork with a badge showed up after the boyfriend already left to do nothing but file a report so you can report it to your insurance. While this girl submits her claim to the insurance company and prays to god the freshly filed restraining order be abided by, maybe she can say a prayer for the next girl this dirtbag abuses. Its cool though, because the police filed a report for you. Right?
You don't tell the handicaped woman who can barely get from her bed to the bathroom and back without falling to take on a guy trying to kick in her door to get what's left of her disability check. YOU CALL THE COPS.
Problem completely solved by the presence of a pistol on her hip, and on her person at any and all times. Hell, I gave a dude with no freaking legs a ride to his house after the city bus left him stranded at the local convenience store. He told me, "Sir thanks for the ride, but I am capable of defending myself if need be. I just thought you should know!" I smiled and laughed at the coincidence that I had literally opted to leave the RIA 1911 in its holster back at the house. This was supposed to be a quick smoke run. I of course let him know that this didn't bother me in the slightest, and asked him what he was carrying. Turns out he has a preference for Lugers, and his was a beautiful black matte finish one at that..
So if I had decided to turn into Charles Manson that night, and start serial killing old disabled men, I have no doubt his "equalizer" would have left particulates and matter all over my windshield.
I am also thinking maybe you are unaware that a large percentage of handicapped people do in fact carry? Lot's to be learned there.
You don't chase down the suspected drunk driver who cut you off in traffic and is swerving all over the road then drag him out of his vehicle and cuff him to the bed of your pickup. YOU CALL THE COPS.
This I agree on.
Only because the event has already transpired. Furthermore LEO has a operable communications advantage allowing for creation of some form of roadblock or other safety net for this individuals actions.
Do I wish we lived in a world where people were responsible and took care of stuff themselves? Sure but those days are gone if they ever really existed.
So you forego any idea that maybe a societal change needs to be evoked in the people? That perhaps,
responsibility, as a "diminishing" factor as you allude to, should be responded to by allowing government to take control of those "not responsible".
What a tangled web we weave...
We have people who are trapped bad situations.
Like cops? They are people too.
There are those who prey on those people.
Like cops? They are people too.
There are those who can't help but screw up.
Like cops? They are people too.
They have anger management issues.
Like cops? They are people too.
They have mental problems.
Like cops? They are people too.
They are addicted to drugs or alcohol.
Like cops? They are people too.
They are part of the entitlement culture which has been raised to think that the world owes them everything.
Whose parents may just be cops? (Among the other thousands of occupational specialities breeding this
"entitlement" and "
Irresponsibility"?)
I'm tying assigned to the ER security desk for 2 hours tonight. Right now, looking at the tracking board for our ER beds I see we have 5 patients listed as Psych holds. We have an entire psych ward on our 5th and 4th floors of our hospital full of people who were, at one time out on the streets and are now here. Within just a couple of blocks of our hospital are homeless shelters, rehab centers, halfway houses and more low income and section 8 housing than you can shake a stick at.
I can't help but wonder how your assessment of the quantity of mental ill transients has any bearing whatsoever on the ability to individually defend ones self, home, and family?
Are you saying that since there is an enormity of mentally ill transients in a given locale, that one should be
less prepared to defend ones self?
Please clarify whatever point, if you can, that you were trying to make by saying there is an abundance of mentally ill people. Thanks.
We need cops out there keeping the crap under some sort of control. Don't beleive me? Go to a website like Radio Reference and tune into the streaming audio of your local big city police agency. They run straight from one call to another most of the time. It's insane.
"Control" is primarily an illusion when it comes to law enforcement. The dynamics of which are so staggeringly broad and diverse, that the chaotic nature of "right and wrong" cannot
ever be contained by any law enforcement agency, of any number,
ever.
One thing can remain a constant however. The right of every individual to defend their life.
Criminals as they are now know a few common things:
#1.) Most people are not armed due to;
a. Extensive efforts to demonize the greatest tool ever devised for equitable self defense.
b. Legislation complicating, or flat out denying the ownership of said tool. Even in the face of our Constitution recognizing a reality known so long ago by the veteran escapees of tyrannical dictatorship.
#2.) The police take
time to respond. This creates the window the criminal/s needs. They can only wish and hope that #1 has successfully corrupted this targets mentality, and thanks to senseless, non-factual, dramatized, inappropriate campaigning, there is a numerically acceptable chance that they will face unarmed opposition.
The answer is constant patroling to keep an eye out on the hethens who roam the roads. The citizens aren't going to do it on their own.
That's right. Convince those "citizens" that they can't or shouldn't do it "on their own". Making a neighborhood safe one responsible firearm owning adult at a time is a whole lot more senseless than calling the badge wearing tooth fairy to come to your rescue while some druggie kicks your door in, knocks you around your living room and kitchen, steals your belongings, and shames you for life, all in half the time of the average police response.
Sorry. I live in the real word and know what's happening around me.
Honestly, it doesn't sound like it.
I hang out with people who don't live in a fantasy world where we can get rid of the po-po and all police our own neighborhoods. It just ain't gonna happen.
There are certain people who present a hilarious conundrum. They are like living paradox's. The living, breathing testaments to self fulfilling prophecy. Let me know when you understand the implication of the preceding comment..