If it comes down to that, all may be lost in Boston, but all will NOT be lost in Houston. The founders must be rolling over in their graves at such a defeatist attitude in the place where it all started for this great nation. If you depend on the government to save you, you will be as disappointed as the whining NOLA crowd or the French citizens are this morning.
What I'm saying is that if we in America have to resort to shooting looters at our front door, then all is lost. I'm not talking about the temporary situation in Louisiana where a few scumbags were taking advantage of a natural disaster. Yeah, in that case, sitting on your front porch with a shotgun would be an excellent deterrent to some punk wanting to steal your TV and beer. At least until the police arrive on the scene.
What I'm referring to here is a state of civil unrest like that which exists currently in France. The first line of defense in a civilized country is our police force. The police exist not to write us speeding tickets and get cats out of trees (though they resort to that when they have nothing else to do). The police exist to protect life and property.
I am fairly confident that what has happened in France cannot happen here. This is because the United States, at least up to this time, has not been hesitant to use it's internal police force to immediately clamp down on mobs. I believe we have mob control down to a science. Witness the potential for violence at various political conventions, sporting events, etc., and how quickly the police gain control when events threaten to get out of hand.
This is not to say that we live in a police state. Rather we live in a state where the police serve us, the public. In order for us to enjoy our constitutional freedoms, we must maintain an adequate police force that will protect us and our property. Without that, civil order will very quickly break down. Witness what happened this summer with the hurricanes. With the police indisposed or unavailable, mob rule very quickly takes over.
Now the mobs in the hurricane ravaged areas of the U.S. were not organized. They were simply taking temporary advantage of the situation. When the police came on the scene, they very quickly crawled back under the rocks that they came from.
Should civil order ever break down in the USA, it will not be enough to stand on your front porch with a shotgun. In fact, all you will probably do is incite the mob and make it personal with them. That was my original point.
Not that we wouldn't take drastic action if we were ever backed into a corner like that. I'd be out on my front porch shooting too if it ever came to that. But it would very likely be the last thing I do. But then again, Americans, unlike the French, are not afraid to go down fighting. We prefer freedom to slavery and that is what still separates us from countries like France.
Exactly. Many who relied on government taking responsibility for much of their lives were completely lost when government dropped the ball.