With the holidays, a situation arose where family members asked through an email chain, that I not carry there. So I didn't, but I also didn't attend but did send a response to address the issues. So maybe this will help someone else too. This is my email:
To all,
I also thought I would share a little bit since I have been specifically identified. Just to inform, I carry anywhere I go that I legally can. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't. Just to name a few like Olive Garden, Menards, Mcdonalds, Starbucks, Shopko, Culvers, Elies Family Restaurant, Mobil stations, Copp's, Woodmans, Laredo's, Farm & Fleet, China One, Dry Bean, WalMart, Denny's, Subway, Texas Roadhouse, Burger King, Gander Mountain and Cabela's.
The recent gun legislation has raised a lot of issues and awareness. I personally have been knowledgeable with guns since I was around 10-11. I hunted my first year with a 12ga at 12, in my own little section of the woods in Northern WI. The last couple of years I have spent countless hours researching applicable and related regulations involving possessing a firearm in multiple states. I have made the decision to carry after much careful consideration and research because that's the way I am.
I'm also going to share some factual reasons why. We can argue hypothetical's and what if's forever. But history and facts reveal the truth. Opinions can't really be argued because they exist based in your head. So I always look to logical, realistic, and easy to understand facts. So the greatest fact is...we are not safe anymore. We can try to fool ourselves. But society has become much more dangerous, almost everywhere. Up till the recent school shootings the worst shooting tragedy was at a McDonald's where 22 were killed and 30 something injured. Think of the school shootings. Where did they happen? In Gun Free Zones, not in a police station or at a gun club. But in a Gun Free Zone where maximum damage could be inflicted with minimal self sacrifice. So here is info of what we have to fear:
Police Aim to Crack Down on Violent New Trend, 'Knock Out'
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/2...on-violent-new-trend-knock-out/#ixzz1i3JwiHCG
Home invasion with body armor rising trend,
http://www.rrdailyherald.com/news/i...cle_83c410b8-2cad-11e1-95f8-0019bb2963f4.html
Armed Craiglist Robbery Ohio
http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/Would-Be_Robbery_Victim_Fires_Back_Literally_136369278.html
Attempted murder at BP Gas station Milwaukee
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwau...-who-fired-at-bp-clerk-cv3dk4j-135452923.html
Mother with 2yr old on bus gets assaulted Milwaukee
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/135722843.html
Woman Robbed in Her Driveway with Toddler in Hand Wauwatosa
http://wauwatosa.patch.com/articles/woman-robbed-in-her-driveway-with-toddler-in-hand
Office complex shooting 3 dead 2 wounded California
http://news.yahoo.com/3-dead-2-wounded-california-office-shooting-000614601.html
Santa gunman kills 9 at Xmas Eve party California
http://www.channel3000.com/news/18379666/detail.html
Courthouse shooting Minnesota
http://news.yahoo.com/3-people-shot-wounded-minn-courthouse-attack-004547017.html
Off duty Deputy executes citizen and gets charged after altercation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ecuting-guy-bar-game-darts.html#ixzz1hYt559qq
Mall of America brawl 50 strong
http://news.yahoo.com/50-strong-brawl-turns-melee-mall-america-132316826.html
Roadrage Wauwatosa
http://www.wauwatosanow.com/news/teen-says-road-rage-got-violent-ti3h4v0-135961993.html
Robbery\assault while walking Wauwatosa
http://www.wauwatosanow.com/news/136310373.html
Janesville 4 stabbed outside bar
http://www.channel3000.com/news/30102223/detail.html
Armed Robbery UW Credit Union Drive thru
http://madisoneast.channel3000.com/...investigate-attempted-robbery-bank-drive-thru
Assault on Madison Metro Bus
http://madisonwest.channel3000.com/news/crime/63619-group-girls-attack-mall-employee-metro-bus
Gun flashed at West Towne
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/loc...cle_9a856ffc-3083-11e1-811a-001871e3ce6c.html
Man charged for 2 Madison home invasions
http://www.channel3000.com/news/15067345/detail.html
Sexual assault, home invasion
http://www.channel3000.com/news/14695597/detail.html
Santa gunman kills 9 at Xmas Eve party California
http://www.channel3000.com/news/18379666/detail.html
12/22/2011 - 11:53 PM Case#2011-358912 2200 block S. Thompson Dr. 3 Suspects kicked in door and displayed handgun and robbed residents
Case#2011-353249 Released 12/16/2011 at 9:54 AM by PIO Joel DeSpain Incident Type Robbery Incident Date 12/16/2011 - 7:08 AM Address 2703 W. Beltline Hwy. (Open Pantry)
12/11/2011 - 4:18 AM 2200 block Fish Hatchery Rd. Robbery\assault while standing with dog outside her apartment building
Madison burglary map 2009
http://www.cityofmadison.com/police/documents/Burglary2009.pdf
Now this list I threw together in minutes. It's not at all exhaustive or all inclusive. But it does show a wide variety of things happening. It happens everywhere from walking down the street, or outside your home, in your driveway baby in hand, in gas stations, banks, drive thru's, malls, bars, courthouses, bus stops, buses, on a bike path and yes even sitting at home for a holiday party where 9 people are murdered. As well as all the random home invasions occurring all over our city. These are not fictitious acts that can be argued away these have happened right here in our little country, State, County, city and homes. Maybe others can ignore what goes on around them. But I choose to keep my eyes open and pay attention. I choose to not be victim if possible. I bet every one involved in those crimes says, "I never thought it would happen here".
Many will argue that a gun around is a risk. While there is a shred of truth there I again will rely on the facts.
“Thirteen children are killed a day by gunfire.”
You hear variations of this all the time on television and radio; sometimes fourteen children, sometimes
twelve children. It is a statement that isn’t exactly a lie, but doesn’t mean quite what you think it means, either.
It includes 19 year olds—who aren’t “children.” It includes criminals shot and killed by other criminals, by
the police, or by crime victims. It includes suicides, murders, and a small number of accidents.
The Centers for Disease Control keeps figures through age 14, and for age 15 through 19.1 The honest figure
is, “Less than two children (through age 14) are killed a day by gunfire.” These are still tragedies, but
compared to the other 112 deaths a day in the U.S. of small children (more than seven a day from car accidents
alone), guns are a minor problem.
Think about all the things we do on a weekly basis. We don't want our children around guns cuz they might get hurt. Those same children might fall down stairs, or cut themselves with those knives on the table, or choke on fisher price toys, or fall off a swing on their head, fall off a horse, or get hit by a car crossing a road, snap their neck falling off a snowmobile or ATV, or die in a car accident. While they are possible, do you prohibit your children from anything that has a danger or a possibility of danger. No of course not. In WI 500 people died last year in car accidents. Do you forbid your child to get in a car? Nowhere near that number died from accidental gun shots. So are you really protecting them from the real dangers? Or just the ones that are based on irrational fears and ignorance?
Doctors
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of
Health and Human Services.
Guns
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .0000188
Statistics courtesy of FBI
So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN,
BUT
Almost everyone has at least one doctor. This means you are over 9,000 times more likely to be killed by a doctor as by a gun owner!!!
All of these baseless arguments against guns have been proven wrong in the other states that allow carry. We have been so brainwashed by the government, media and movies into thinking guns=bad and it's simply not true. And the only ones that have them are Police and criminals. When that criminal attacks you, where are those Police??? Not there are they? The are a phone call and minutes away. Sometimes even substantial distances away depending on where you are. What if you can't access your phone, or no signal or the criminal takes it? What protection do you have?
John Stossel did a great informative piece on the whole gun issue and explains his opinions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF-vochlVJU
So what do famous intelligent respectable men have to say about guns?
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." George Washington
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Taking my gun away because I might shoot someone is like cutting my tongue out because I might yell `Fire!' in a crowded theater."
-- Peter Venetoklis
I also have one question to ask, how do you stop the criminal with a gun or weapon that doesn't follow any laws, or respect your life? Many times just the appearance of a gun is enough to deter the crime.
Another major factor to protect yourself is that government (Law Enforcement) is under no duty or obligation to protect us. Courts have ruled repeatedly it's an individual responsibility as clarified in these cases:
DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services (109 S.Ct. 998, 1989; 489 U.S. 189 (1989))
Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Department (901 F.2d 696 9th Cir. 1990
Zinermon v. Burch (110 S.Ct. 975, 984 1990; 494 U.S. 113 (1990)
Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981)
Riss v. New York, 240 N.E.2d 860 (N.Y.1968).
Hartzler v. City of San Jose, 46 Cal. App. 3d 6 (1st Dist. 1975)
Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the leading cases of this type. Two women were upstairs in a townhouse when they heard their roommate, a third woman, being attacked downstairs by intruders. They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way. After about 30 minutes, when their roommate's screams had stopped, they assumed the police had finally arrived. When the two women went downstairs they saw that in fact the police never came, but the intruders were still there. As the Warren court graphically states in the opinion: "For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual demands of their attackers."
The three women sued the District of Columbia for failing to protect them, but D.C.'s highest court exonerated the District and its police, saying that it is a "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen." [4] There are many similar cases with results to the same effect. [5]
In the Warren case the injured parties sued the District of Columbia under its own laws for failing to protect them. Most often such cases are brought in state (or, in the case of Warren, D.C.) courts for violation of state statutes, because federal law pertaining to these matters is even more onerous. But when someone does sue under federal law, it is nearly always for violation of 42 U.S.C. 1983 (often inaccurately referred to as "the civil rights act"). Section 1983 claims are brought against government officials for allegedly violating the injured parties' federal statutory or Constitutional rights.
In Freeman v. Ferguson a police chief directed his officers not to enforce a restraining order against a woman's estranged husband because the man was a friend of the chief's. The man subsequently killed the woman and her daughter. Perhaps such a specific case is an anomaly, but more instances of general abuses aren't at all rare.
California's Government Code, Sections 821, 845, and 846 which states, in part: "Neither a public entity or a public employee [may be sued] for failure to provide adequate police protection or service, failure to prevent the commission of crimes and failure to apprehend criminals."
One of the biggest reasons I have chosen to carry my own protection is my God given right to defend myself by any means necessary. That is a Right that nobody can take away. I choose to survive and defend myself. I don't want a fair fight, I want the highest advantage, most efficient tool I can use. For me it's a firearm. I don't want a bloody potentially life threatening physical altercation with an opponent of unknown skill or training. I want to survive at all reasonable costs. The gun is simply a tool that can be used for defense or ill-intent.
I also want to address the property issue since it came up. I agree and respect everyone's property rights. I have no issues with rules that you set for your house. I just ask that you use some common sense and think when you decide the rules. If I don't approve or disagree, then I may verbally discuss it or just won't visit. So if that's the case please don't be upset or offended it just means we disagree and I don't feel comfortable attending. But if there is a problem, then I feel you have an obligation to address the situation. Preferably in an adult like fashion, and please don't make assumptions like anyone's actions are "to be cool", "because you can" or any of the other childish reasons that frequently arise. All it tends to do is reinforce the ignorance and lack of understanding it portrays. I won't pretend to assume I know why others do things, I will ask. Me personally, I can back mine with concrete reasoning and facts, can you? I carry my own insurance in case I need it. Hoping I never need it like home or car insurance. We can't predict where something will happen, and when we will need it. Ask an officer if they would ever walk into an unknown situation without their own protection.
I'm open to discussing anything with anyone, as I always have been. If we have to agree to disagree, then that's ok too.
