Here in Houston we have a lot of what are euphemistically called "undocumented immigrants," which is a term for people from (mostly) Mexico who sneak across the border and come here to work. Most of them are hard-working decent people who have no future in Mexico for themselves or their families, due to a lot of reasons. They can find work and make money to support their extended families here and back home.
There is a small percentage of these people who seem to account for a lot of the mayhem that goes on in the greater Houston area (leaving out Katrina "evacuees" which is whole 'nuther story). They rob and assault and invade homes (and cars) of people in broad daylight, fast and hard, in 2s and 3s. Its pretty easy work. In our little community, which a separate city within Houston, this happens every couple of weeks, older people or women alone followed home from the store, dinner, etc. There is no defense except what you can do yourself, even though in our community police response time is maybe 2 minutes from when they get the call. But by then, if you manage to call, the perps are gone with your goods and in recent times, having hurt their victims even when the goods have been given up. There have been a few occasions when the victims have been armed and have dealt with the pending or completed assault, usually to the detriment of the perp or enough to scare them off. Many people carry personal defense, as is their right under the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Texas and many other states. As far as I know there has been vanishingly small, if at all, instances of licensed carriers harming another individual through their own offensive action. There have been hundreds of instances of unlicensed carriers (i.e., criminals) hurting/killing people. I went to a lecture a couple of years ago by George Soros to see what the guy was about. A young man from West Texas asked him the question, "Do you believe it is the right of a citizen of the United States to own and carry guns?" Soros asked him why he would need to do that. He said, "Where I come from it takes an hour for the police to show up if there is a problem. I cannot rely on them for protection. I have to do it myself." Soros replied, "Well then it sounds like there is a good reason to have guns and I support that." I think Soros is a very dangerous person (I studied up a lot on him before I went to this lecture) based on his history and experiences and some of the things he said there, but at least I think he had the right idea on that point. --R Hendrik & Fay wrote: > I don't know but don't you folks over there ever wonder why you need to > be armed to the teeth to supposedly defend yourself from bad guys? Is it > a hang over from the wild west, is it a greed thing or just a freak of > nature that there are so many weirdos wanting to harm decent citizens? > > Hendrik > > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
