I live in McAllen and our house sits about 14 miles from Mexico. I still do a lot of business in Mexico on a regular basis. With all of this said the only border town that I have been comfortable in the past year was Mexicali. Of course now they have had an earthquake. I have been through several minor ones there. Actually friends of mine tell me that the damage was not that severe.
Anyhow back to the point, things have deteriorated badly in the Texas valley along the border. If you come across any of the Narcos, you can figure that they are probably better armed than you are going to be. That said, I do carry as I have decided I will not go down without a fight. Obviously while in Mexico I would not be carrying anything unless you want to see the inside of a Mexican jail. Not pretty...... In the past week there have been about 30 killed along the Rio Grand Valley border. While most were involved in the drug business not all were. There were a couple of kids killed over by Falcon Lake caught in the cross fire. The problem is that bullets just fly. If you get caught in the cross fire or are behind the line of fire, you are in real danger. If you are driving a Ford F-250 or a Suburban, you are in real danger as they are the Narcos favorite vehicles. For about 5 or 6 weeks now every night on the local news there is something about killings, kidnapping or theft that has to do with the border drug business. Tell anyone around here that there is not yet spill over into the US and they will know that you are full of it. My mode of operation is to always be fully aware of my surroundings whether in Mexico or the US. In the US, I am always armed either on my person or in my truck. Driving in and out of the valley is also a concern. As long as you are moving it is no problem. If you have car trouble you are SOL between the border and George West. There is plenty of drugs and people movement through this area. I guess there are some in our community that feel guns are not necessary. They probably are not if you never come across a problem. I just do not feel that I am going down without a fight. Rest assured if you come across some of the Naros on this side of the border you are in serious trouble and are in great jeopardy of being killed. They just do not care. Bruce ----- Original Message ----- From: Fritz Holt To: 'Rod Goke' ; 'a...@gluesenkamp.com' ; 'Geary Schindel' ; Texascavers@texascavers.com Cc: 'Don Arburn' Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 10:47 AM Subject: RE: [Texascavers] RE: Mexican Travel Rod, Good perspective. If armed, the key is being responsible and competent in the use of the firearm. Depending on the circumstances, you can't win them all but you may save the life of others as well as your own. I have had a CHL from the beginning but never carry. Living in Houston, I probably should. Deranged perps seem to like groups of potential victims. Geezer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Rod Goke [mailto:rod.g...@earthlink.net] Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 9:58 AM To: Fritz Holt; 'a...@gluesenkamp.com'; 'Geary Schindel'; Texascavers@texascavers.com Cc: 'Don Arburn' Subject: RE: [Texascavers] RE: Mexican Travel In my experience, "old farts" and "geezers" with shooting skills often remain competent as marksmen long after their running abilities have diminished. Running only works when you're faster and more agile than the predators, otherwise it makes you look like tempting prey. Ever try running from a hostile dog? If so, you probably have bite marks to show for it. Even when a predator is confident that he could defeat you in a fight, he may be deterred from attacking by the thought that doing so would cost him more than he would gain. For a predator you cannot confidently outrun, the most effective defense usually is to appear nonaggressive enough to avoid provoking or cornering the predator, but to appear confident and capable of making any attacker pay a high price. Your chances of maintaining that kind of confidence and appearance are better when you have the means and the will to back it up. From all the reports I've read thus far, the Zetas are not motivated by religion or ideology to sacrifice themselves in suicide attacks. Instead, they are ruthless predatory criminals motivated by short term personal gain. They are willing to expose themselves to great risk and to show no mercy towards their victims, but only when they perceive that it's in their interest to do so. The safest, but most limiting, option, of course, is to avoid going anywhere with significant risk (like Andy's suggestion to cave in Canada :) ). In principle, the risk of criminal attack is like the numerous other risk we have to consider when planning caving trips and other activities. Sometimes we cancel or postpone trips when risks are considered excessive. When we do decide to go ahead with trips, we try to consider what can go wrong and to prepare appropriately. Fritz's suggestion about being armed when traveling in certain parts of Texas near the border is something worthy of serious consideration, especially if Geary Schindel's April 6 report is accurate about Zetas crossing the border not just for robbery, but to capture Americans for public torture and killing. Going armed is not something to take lightly, but neither are the alternatives. It's a subject that deserves the same careful consideration we give to other types of potential emergencies that can occur during caving trips. Rod -----Original Message----- From: Fritz Holt Sent: Apr 6, 2010 12:01 PM To: "'a...@gluesenkamp.com'" , 'Geary Schindel' , "Texascavers@texascavers.com" Cc: 'Don Arburn' Subject: RE: [Texascavers] RE: Mexican Travel Well, I have had my three score and ten plus five but want a few more. If I see them coming first, maybe I can hide in the bushes and hope I don't fart until they're gone. That would be a preview of things to come. What is the old deer/elk hunters line? "I thought I heard an old bull snort". F. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Andy Gluesenkamp [mailto:andrew_gluesenk...@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 11:47 AM To: 'Geary Schindel'; Texascavers@texascavers.com; Fritz Holt Cc: 'Don Arburn' Subject: Re: [Texascavers] RE: Mexican Travel Uhm, Fritz? If you encounter Zetas, RUN. They are better armed than all of us combined. Just remember those dove hunters who got hassled last year. They all had guns too but nothing like the gear the bad guys had. This whole Mexican border violence thing makes me wonder: How's the caving in Canada these days? Andy Andrew G. Gluesenkamp, Ph.D. 700 Billie Brooks Drive Driftwood, Texas 78619 (512) 799-1095 a...@gluesenkamp.com --- On Tue, 4/6/10, Fritz Holt <fh...@townandcountryins.com> wrote: From: Fritz Holt <fh...@townandcountryins.com> Subject: [Texascavers] RE: Mexican Travel To: "'Geary Schindel'" <gschin...@edwardsaquifer.org>, "Texascavers@texascavers.com" <Texascavers@texascavers.com> Cc: "'Don Arburn'" <donarb...@mac.com> Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 11:33 AM Thanks, Geary. I'm sure a few hard core cavers will still travel to "safe" caving areas in Mexico but if I were into the great caves in Mexico , I would not be one of them. I trust that responsible cavers and citizens visiting Deep and Punkin are allowed to be armed during their visit, "just in case". The border patrol check point is located on my good friend's 8,000 acre deer lease where I dove hunt each year and is eleven miles WSW of Carta Valley. I will be armed come September 1st. Geezer who wants to remain one.
