On another gun thread, Patrick raised a very good question when he asked "where are the attackers?" The attackers are primarily located in urban population centers known as "the hood." Violent crime is most closely associated to African-American, urban youth, culture. If you are an African-American male, you are 9 times more likely to be murdered.
To try to gain some perspective on the incidence of crime, I tried to collect statistics on where I live and where you live. I thought I'd blow you away with how many criminals live in my county. But, Patrick's county has a fair share of aggravated assaulters and burglars. However, nearby Atlanta puts my county to shame because it has a much more serious 'hood.
According to the real estate site, Trulia.com, the violent crime rate for Atlanta is 1.84%, for Georgia 0.87%, for California 0.57%, for Cobb county GA 0.45%, and for Kern County, CA, 0.62%. I think Cobb didn't make murder rates available, but that we are actually closer to and slightly lower than the GA average. Two African-American home invaders robbers shot five Hispanics in a trailer park on Saturday, but apparently everyone lived.
The property crime rate for Atlanta is 7.72%, for Georgia 6.58%, for California is 3.51%, for Cobb county GA 4.55%, and for Kern County, CA, 4.75%. We have more shoplifters and you have more burglars. Congrats!
I feel that carrying a firearm is a last resort as any actual use of a firearm would necessitate my involvement with lawyers. With all due respect to the barristers among us, lawyers are much more expensive than thieves. Our alternative to carrying a firearm is avoiding riff-raff Americans. [Sometimes our curiousity gets the better of us and we drive down town to get donuts at Krispy Kreme or burgers at the Varsity and see all the riff-raff.
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You can reduce your potential exposure to crime by avoiding urban centers, by avoiding populations prone to crime involvement, and by lowering your profile. We don't display wealth. We don't drive flashy cars. We don't wear jewelry. We generally do not use ATMs outside of secure corporate facilities. We do not go into a physical bank branch in person. We buy our gas in the suburbs rather than the city. My wife does not apply for retail jobs with small businesses. We live in a gated community where the gate always works and where every potential hiding place is illuminated by powerful streetlights. We minimize shopping after dark. We shop down the street from a police station where the grocery store employs off-duty police officers. If we see evidence of the rap culture bling, boom cars, bulky clothes, and jailin' pants...or...if we see lots of illegal aliens, we leave the area. We have seen people attacked and we know plenty of people who have had things stolen. I think that the high incidence of property crime leads to a sense of violation and a desire for protection. We try to minimize our risk without moving so far away that we have a two hour commute. The VA Tech massacre deeply saddens me, but it is equivalent to about a month of murder and traffic mayhem in the ATL. That also saddens me.
Instead of gun control, I'd like to see strong people controls in place to intensively target the criminal underclass and the eliminate illegal intruders from our society. There is no reason for me to give up my freedoms when we know where the crime is, we know who is generally doing the crime, and when we refuse to target the problems with firm but effective social programs, and steadfast enforcement of our existing laws.
