Glock and load! Glocks rock!
I remember Walter E. Williams advocating this when he sat in for Rush Limbaugh several years ago. It was in reference to a neighborhood infested with drug dealers. He said if the police wouldn’t do anything about it it was up to the men of the neighborhood to band together and chase them off with baseball bats and guns if need be.
They should carry tricked out AR15s too.
And for the 1911 fans, some will prefer a “Colt Community”.
It’s important to promulgate the idea that “police are just a convenience”, that “all honest citizens enforce the law”.
In truth, the police are in effect 24/7 security guards, invariably in too few numbers to perform that role. They also “clean up after” crimes, gathering forensic evidence. And their most affirmative role is persistence in tracking down identified criminals after the fact.
The glaring omission to this is immediate crime prevention, which is the role of the honest citizen. They do this both passively, with locks, gates, etc.; but they must also take an *active* role in their own and neighbor’s security.
The extent of this active role is determined by the level of the perception that the police are restricting criminal activity, and that criminals are removed from society promptly, and kept out of it for a long time. If the police and courts are seen as not being able to do this effectively and on an extended basis, the citizenry step in to take up the slack.
Importantly, the police and the courts are under very strict rules as to how they do this; but the public has far fewer constraints. Virtually any act that is both a felony and has potential to, or has caused serious injury or death can be met with lethal force from the public. And to some extent, so can felonies that pose little or no threat of injury or death.
Granted, this use of injurious or lethal force has its own set of rules. But these rules are less formal, and based more on public consensus, which varies from place to place and even by circumstances of the crime and other factors.
And the public can be very fickle about this.
In truth, courts exist to give an alternative to street justice, to prevent blood feuds, and to insure that punishments are carried out. So they are also part of the equation. If the police are efficient in arresting criminals, but the courts let them go promptly, then the wrath of the citizenry may also be invoked.
Yet all told, the public enforce the laws, if government fails in this role; and many in the public are willing and able to do so.
This is a good example of what the second amendment exists for, among other things.
Police in some cities are relegated to only protecting businesses, because that almighty dollar is much more valuable than an irreplaceable life :( .
At home camera/security equipment is also a good thing. There is a woman in my apt. building who has 15 aggravated robbery charges (felonies) sitting on her right now. She’s out on bail, but she’s looking to “go away” for a long time, and rightfully so.
She broke into people’s houses to steal their valuables to support her drug (meth) and gambling habit. One home had cameras. She’s lucky she wasn’t shot by more than just a camera. It’s sad to know that she spent 6 years in prison once before, for doing the very same thing.
If this woman thought with reasonable certainty that the homes she broke into contained people who protected them with guns, would she still have taken that risk? Somehow I think most of her crimes would have been curtailed. Knowing that she’s lost everything that she worked hard to accomplish wasn’t enough to divert her activities.
Protected homes save more than just your stuff. It saves all of us from the taxes required to pay someone to do our job of protecting our homes and families. Protected homes do keep criminals at bay along with the resulting court/appointed lawyers/maintainance of the jailed...
If there wasn’t much out there to steal, they’d have to work!!
And yet Zimmerman is having to put up with a dead thug’s legacy.
This will be made illegal. Can’t have any more rat voters getting shot (though they are even more useful as voters once they are dead).