The events of the past week have been very disturbing. Starting Monday with the Boston Marathon bombings and culminating on Friday with the arrest of the second bomber I have witnessed things I have never seen before, and never thought I would see. Yesterday the entire City of Boston and many of its suburbs were in a locked down state. The powers that be gave it a fancy term called “shelter in place”. This made it feel less like you were a prisoner in your own home but instead were being sheltered in your own home. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it was a bad idea. It was probably the only way the authorities could ensure fewer casualties at the hand of that madman. But the point is, they authorities invoked the shelter in place rule because they could otherwise not protect the citizenry. Which brings us to the point of this article.
The government, at any level, cannot protect you. The federal government right on down to the lowest level of local government cannot protect you. The National Guard cannot protect you, the Police cannot protect you. If you are sliding along in this life under the mistaken impression that all is well in the world and you are safe because there is a cop on the beat, think again. It just is not true. If you are a victim of a crime in progress and you call the police, you might get lucky. The police officer might be right around the corner, arrive in time to take action and cart the bad guy off to jail or the morgue. You might get lucky, and luck is the key word here. Do you want to depend on luck to provide the protection you seek. Do not fool your self. The authorities cannot protect you in any kind of regular and consistent fashion. The best they have to offer is a guarantee they will clean up the mess afterwards. They will arrive on scene, they will cart the bodies away, they will string crime scene tape, take reports, and do it all very efficiently. . . . .and then they will leave. You might have been protected while they were on scene, but the protection departs when they depart.
The responsibility to protect is the responsibility of the individual. It is up to you to ensure you are always aware of your surroundings, are always aware of who is around you. You need to train your self to be observant and to be cautious. It is up to you to harden your property to make penetration of your home more difficult, and it up to you to train and be prepared to take any and all necessary actions to protect your self if the intruder does penetrate your defenses. This is my number one reason why gun control is a bad thing. If you are called upon to use deadly force to protect your self then it really doesn’t matter what the degree of the deadly force is. If you chose to arm your self with a handgun, or a shot-gun, or an assault weapon and if you need to use deadly force, it doesn’t matter what your weapon of choice is. If you kill someone, they are dead. Plan and simple. We need not worry that we might make them too dead because we used an assault rifle instead of a hand gun. Dead is dead.We cannot depend on government to protect us, so I cannot see how it is a good idea to give up our weapons to the same government that cannot protect us. We are not protected.
Be aware! Be alert! Be safe!
Those are my thoughts, what are yours?
7 thoughts on “We Are Not Protected!”
I’m torn on this one.I completely agree that we all need to be more observant and make sure we are very aware of our surroundings. However when I have seen the breakdown of gun deaths the hightest number are suicides then young black men killing each other and then the rest of us. I would never feel comftorable owning a gun ( I might shoot my eye out) and I do not support Stand your Ground laws either. I read recently that murder rates have gone down in all states except those that have Stand YOur Ground Laws. Sometimes you absolutely have to defend yourself but if I can walk away from someone I would do that first hopefully saving my life and possibly the other parties life. Nothing is worth more than a human life in my opinion so I am not going to try to end someone’s life over a possession or an affront to me! I think if there were fewer guns l lot of lives would be saved. We will never figure out a way to keep guns out of the hands of the criminal evil element but why not make the suicide or the death ovet a pair of gymshoes a little less able to happen!
You’re right, Tom! The police can only do so much, and people need to take responsibility for their own safety, too!
It’s a new world we live in now. These kinds of occurences will become more prevalent. However;, we must not change the American way of life, to do so is bowing to thier wishes. Already too much of our American Ways have been eroded by too much regulation, so they have already won to a degree. The odds of being in these kinds of situations is far less then the chance you take every time you get in your car to drive to the store.
Completely agree
awesome post. I agree. It could be a gun, baseball bat, frying pan. Anything can be used as a deadly weapon. If you feel in danger, use whatever means are at hand.
This strikes me as inconsistent with your complaint concerning city hall’s inability to properly fund the police department. I’m sure they could accomplish what you say they do with a smaller budget.
I don’t see the inconsistency. Police Departments have always advertised they “Protect and Serve”. I think they serve. The number of officers available to serve will increase or decrease the level of service but it will not increase or decrease the level of protection. It may increase or decrease the ability to bring a perpetrator to justice, but it will not protect your from that perpetrator.