I don't want anyone to think that I am putting down the local Police !
If not for them, every street in every city and townwould be chaos, everyone would need to defend themselves, and lifeaswe know it could not exist.
But having been in Law Enforcement myself, the only time that the police prevent crime, is when one is stopped at a traffic light, where a criminal is stalking a victim, and is scared off by the policepresence. And the officer or officers never know how much crime that they prevented !
But most often, the police have no idea that a crime is committed until they are called, and then they do everything within their power to apprehend the criminal that committed the crime. So, if you depend on the police to protect you 24/7/365, it can't happen ! And if you remember the case where two elderly women were beaten and raped for several hours, and the one sister called the police several times, and the responding officers drove by, a few times, and saw nothing suspicious, so nothing was done to help these women. Well they survived this heinous crime, and sued the city and police department, and the court ruled that the police have no responsibility to the individual citizen ! The moral of the story is, you better be prepared to defend yourself, until the police arrive.
Now the mere announcement of you being armed, will scare off many criminals, as they don't carry very good health care, and hate to be shot ! I know,I deterred a few individuals by just opening my jacket as they approached, others need to see that you are armed before leaving, but I never needed to draw my weapon to deter their actions.
The Police perform a much required service in a society that wishes to be "civilized". Without them armed gangs would roam the streets doing whatever they desire, without much fear of being stopped. Kind of sounds like California ? But without them, it would be much, muchworse !
And while Robertand Gene arecorrect, the ramifications of shooting someone is very serious, both mentally and financially, You must decide if You would rather be Carried by 6, or judged by 12 ! It is a very difficult decision that should be veryseriouslymade !
Bill