As I have said, in the area I live you can not stand on a corner of a main drag for ten or 15 minutes without an LEO of some sort driving by. One of the main reasons is that we live in such a close proximity to New Orleans and NOBODY wants that crap coming over here. Louisiana considers your car to be an extension of your house. Because of that you can carry a loaded weapon anywhere in your car as long as you are not a felon. Most of the people I know carry a weapon in their vehicles. I do. One thing I don't do is open carry. It draws too much attention from the LEO's. The cops won't hassle you but they may question you.
BTW, I can be in the French Quarter in 35 to 45 minutes from my house, depending on traffic. It's been very quiet so far this weekend here. Here is what is happening in NOLA.
15 violent crimes in 10 hours in New Orleans on Memorial Day weekend
Where I live we support our LEO's and we arm ourselves. An armed society is a polite society
Thanks for telling us how it is in Louisiana. I can understand how you would perceive this situation differently than others here. I am sorry that others responded with hostility. There really is no need for that.
Unfortunately, we live in a very liberal area. Open carry is basically allowed in Washington State, but very few people actually do it. Around here it freaks people out and is basically asking for difficulty.
We live in an unincorporated part of the county. There are not a lot of deputies available at any one time. Historically, this has been OK, but the population has more than tripled since I was born and doubled in just the last 30 years. This is from people moving into the state from other areas, with more from California than any other state. This has caused a lot of changes, mostly bad. In a lot of places the infrastructure including police protection has not kept pace. This has created an opportunity for criminals who pray on a population that is not used to having to worry about being responsible for their own safety.
Unlike many others here, I did not grow up with guns and never carried until my wife became concerned for her safety. I was gone for 24 hours at a time whenever I went to work and she did not feel safe, especially after the incidents that I mentioned.
Neither of us would ever go out of our way to use our guns to try and prevent crime that was not likely to become life threatening especially if it did not involve us. That is the job of the police. We would consider using them if we found ourselves in a situation where the lives of others were being threatened and we were likely to be able make a difference. We would certainly use them to protect our own or our family’s safety.
A few years ago a psycho started shooting up one of the malls with a semi-auto rifle and several high capacity magazines of cartridges. A good Samaritan with a handgun confronted the guy and told him to drop his weapon. The psycho shot and nearly killed the good Samaritan; he was permanently paralyzed when a rifle bullet severed his spinal column.
My wife and I both agreed that we would never have confronted the psycho with the rifle. If a psycho with a rifle came close enough to us that we could take him out with our handguns we would do it without any warning and preferably from a position of cover.