In case you're still reading this, Liccw -- I'm really not trying to debate with you. But the way you put in your opinions as common sense bothers me. Only you know what to do to stay safe; I'm just saying that the safety we require is relative.
Garand Illusion: I'm not telling you to cower in your house. Believe it our not there is a middle ground which lies between reckless bravado and cowardice. Its called prudence.
Very true. Everyone knows this. But one man's "prudence" is another man's "cowardice." Although it was before my time, I know of my people too "prudent" to go to Vietnam, so they moved to Canada instead.
I have seen way to many tough guys, gangsters, and pyschos end up dead or in jail with the "I'd rather get beat down once" attitude. Funny, when I was in school and the teacher told us to look around and that in 10 years many of us would be dead or in jail. I laughed. Yet 90% of the "tough guys" twenty years later are dead or in jail.
The one's who went to jail were criminals. I'm not talking to criminals here. As to how the other tough guys died ... those things just happened. I'll bet the majority of them died doing something risky but fun (motorcycle riding) or stupid (driving drunk) or just like random, the same as the non-tough guys.
I am sure that we are mixing signals here, that you don't mean what you are saying the way I am taking it. Don't tell your daughter its OK to go wherever she wants as long as she's armed. That's a very bad idea.
No ... it's not. I want my daughter to have the best possible mix of courage and common sense and "prudence" possible, but I never want her to be a prisoner of fear. Stay out of a few select areas, and this country overall is pretty safe.
I had a friend who decided to take a walk one night to get a snack at the quick-mart in town. While walking through a parking lot (and oh, by the way, he was a Marine at the time--not a sheep by definition) ... Seeing him, a group of black gang bangers mistook him for a hispanic. ... he was stabbed in the back, slashed cross the face, and shot at. ... he has an evil looking scar across his cheek to remember his walk that night. Yes they caught the guys, well, some of them. Not that he cared. He'd rather not be disfigured.
So one night your friend went out and was attacked. I guess he could have stayed home with the doors locked and avoided that, but only ONE night was he attacked. How many hundreds of nights would he have to NOT go out and stay home with the doors locked to avoid that? And then even being at home, he could have been the victim of some "wilding" gang members who took him unawares in his own bed.
I'm not against prudence, but we Americans like to think of our country as "land of the free, home of the brave." We can't be free if we're too afraid to leave our homes after dark, and we damned sure aren't brave.
BG's don't like places with lots of decent people who will actually call the police and witness against them. Lots of decent people are a very bad thing for them. So they avoid those places.
So ... the more decent people out there at any given time, the safer it is for all and the less secure the BG's free.
Over the last 2 centuries, several million young American's have died to create and protect our freedoms. The did unprudent things, like charge ashore at Iwo Jima, or climb out of the trenches in Flander's Field, or even go to Iraq. Unprudent and more dangerous than about any neighborhood in America all.
We owe it to those people and live free. And yes ... you might get unlucky and get hurt. But how much of life will you miss if you base your existence on trying not to get hurt?
So I do have a daughter ... and while she's still very young, I never want her to fear to experience life. I hope she doesn't get hurt ... but if she does, I also know she'll be strong enough to deal with it.