Letter from an ANGRY Reader (Esquire Magazine, 1981)

the story says, giving up guns "will not automatically give us a society like England's or Holland's" JUst what part of the killing and rape and mugging that happens everyday in London's best neighborhoods do we want ? The population of Denmark is going through some kind of crime wave where Arab men are rping white women who dress in a way that they do not approve.

Let Europe become more like us. That is why the poor left Europe in ever century for 400 years. They wanted out.

I remember reading this a few months ago, but couldn't find it again. Thanks for the post.

I'd pack up and move before I would sit there every night waiting to defend my life against drug/gang intruders. Any thoughts on why this couple bought a house in what sounds like a drug infested ghetto in the first place?

Sadly, this guy's story of crime around him isn't all that much different from mine. His sounds like there was more crime in his neighborhood than I have in mine, though. And I never got to shoot any thugs.

We're moving out of California, to a small town in the Midwest with a low crime rate, so I hope I never get another opportunity.

What finally pushed us out of California was the economy and the fact that my husband couldn't find another tech job after he got laid off, but with the amount of crime that I've seen around where we live, I am not sad to go.

Here's my story. It's long, sorry. I can't fully convey how awful it is to have criminals around you without giving the details.

We bought our house a little over a year ago. We were burglarized first about a month after we moved in. They didn't get much, just a few hundred dollars worth of tools. I thought, "That can happen anywhere."

Then, one morning, I was going to work, and I came out and unlocked my car in the driveway. Then I noticed my husband hadn't taken the trash can out to the curb. I opened the garage and did it. As I was closing the garage door, a man, about 20, came running through my yard yelling something. I live at the bottom of a hill, around a curve, so I couldn't see him until the last second. He jumped in my car. I'm not much of a victim, so I yelled at him to get out of my car. He didn't listen, and I didn't go any closer to him. Seconds after that, four more young men came running through my yard. One had a small shotgun, and the other had a knife.

I shut my garage door, since there were many sharp objects inside, and they were all a lot bigger than I am. I wished my crappy garage door shut from the inside. I would have hidden at that point. But I'd left my purse, with my keys, inside my car. I'd grown up in a "safe" neighborhood. Who would ever think someone would jump in your car with you standing right next to it? I couldn't hide in the garage, and I'd locked the house on the way out.

The guys told me they wanted the first guy. They wanted to break my car windows. I was mad. I told them if they did, they would pay for it. They didn't break them. One tossed me his cell phone and said, "Call the police." I guess he didn't realize that he was one of the bad guys. I started to dial, and the other guy told me not to call, and since he had a knife, I didn't. I guess because I wasn't very threatening looking, they didn't pay much attention to me. I walked to my neighbor's house while they yelled at the guy in my car. Thank God she was there. I called 911. At least the cops came pretty fast. The guys stashed the weapons in the bushes before they got there, though. The cops got the first guy out of my car (which he had driven up and down the block).

They never pressed any charges against anyone. I guess it's not attempted murder if you just chase someone but don't catch them. And it's not auto theft if you don't go more than a block away. One of the guys slashed my tire. I guess that was just an accident. It cost me 80 bucks, but I figure that was nothing compared to how bad it could have been.

My husband's dad got me a gun. A nice one. It was a Ruger 357 Magnum, bought for $50 from a widow who just wanted to give it away. I don't think it had ever been fired. I first shot a revolver when I was 5 or 6, so I was no stranger to guns. I'm a pretty good shot. My husband got a 45. I felt a little better. I wished I could carry it with me.

Our German Shepherd got to be a year old, so my husband put him inside with me each morning when he left for work. I felt better. He'd bark and then I could wake up and shoot someone who broke in.

Other things happened in our neighborhood. A house sat vacant for a long time. Different gangs tagged the same exterior walls over and over again. I was filling up my car at the gas station, and robbers came out, and a plainclothes cop was there, and he arrested them. Good thing he had his gun. We were at the market, and had to stay inside for a long time while a criminal robbed the bank across the parking lot and the cops tried to catch his accomplice in the parking lot.

I did not take the garbage out in the mornings. If my husband forgot, we waited until the next week when the garbage collectors come around again. I looked up and down the street each morning as I came out of my house. I hurried to and from my car, locking the doors after I got in. We got a new garage door with an opener, so I could get into the car while it was still inside. I felt a little better.

One afternoon, I came home from work. After I came in, I noticed the sliding back door was shoved open. A glance in the opposite direction and I saw a door to a downstairs sewing room was open. A door we always kept closed, since cats like to sleep on the most expensive fabric.

My well-trained shepherd was waiting outside for permission to come in. I grabbed the cordless phone on the way out the back door. In a two-story house, burglars can still be upstairs even if you don't see them in the first level. I ran to the corner of our lot and called my husband to ask if he'd come home and left the door open, or if his dad had come over. I called 911 and said there might be burglars in my house. The cops came and checked the place out. They took fingerprints. We were missing computer stuff and a video camera. And two handguns. I never even got to fire mine.

What if I had surprised them? What if I had been like that author that surprised the burglar and then was killed? Having a dog did nothing. I'm just glad they didn't hurt him. Having guns in my house was not enough to protect me, either. I should have been able to have my gun with me. My husband should have been able to have his gun with him. Then they would not have been stolen, and I would not have been terrified when I came home one afternoon to find that some criminals had been rifling through my underwear drawer along with all the rest of my house.

My neighbor's kid saw them, but did not do anything. I don't think he realized they were burglars. They haven't caught them, and I don't expect them to.

We got a burglar alarm. I set it when we're both gone and when my husband is gone, and when we're asleep. I don't forget. I won't forget.

It's not like we could afford to live in a nicer neighborhood. It's what most people would consider lower middle class. Two income families, mostly one family per house. A couple of bad streets nearby. We stretched to make it this far. We both had fairly decent jobs. Criminals are allowed to exist in my neighborhood. Why should my ability to defend my life be restricted?

The state we're now moving to has less restrictive gun laws. Even though we will be able to afford a house in a city with a better crime index, we will still be applying for a permit to carry a concealed handgun. We'll have to buy new handguns. I didn't buy more here because someone could just break in again and steal them. I will probably still get a burglar alarm in the other state. I don't know if I will ever feel safe in a driveway again.

Goodbye California. I will not miss you. You protect criminals' rights but not my right to protect my own life. Maybe if you get your act together and realize that taxpaying citizens are worth defending too, I can live with you again.

This article mentions "Adam Smith" several times. This was before he had a cable TV show and was a mysterious author with a well known nom-de-plume. What it was in reference to was an earlier article in Esquire by Mr. Smith which condemned guns.

Mr. Smith was a personal friend of Mr. Halberstam and the article Smith wrote described the mode of death as the same as this one -- not the same as your sources. Sounds like they were cleaned up afterward. Anyway, Mr. Smith used the same death and the same facts to argue against guns.

...the whackiest liberal values come from people who are wealthy enough to only know the best and calmest conditions. The whacky part is that they try to impose unrealistic rules on the rest of us who must deal with life like the author described it as opposed to a life of the best and calmest conditions.

Yes, many liberals are well-educated, have six-figure incomes, live in very upscale neighborhoods, and rarely travel to places near them that might deflate their idea that "we can all live together in peace if we just try and understand each other..." Liberalism is a mental disorder that is characterized by "magical" thinking and a total disregard for reality even in the face of overwhelming evidence.