No, it doesn't, and you know it. So I'm going to have to question the motive behind your arguments here, Mr. White.
My motives are quite simple. And very nefarious
My motives in trying to keep these threads from degenerating into 100+ posts of which 40% of the posts are members trying to one up each other talking about shooting anyone, police or not who breaks into their house. In an earlier thread on this subject a member even posted how he slept with his FAL by his bed so that he had the means at hand to penetrate body armor.
That motive is to keep the more vocal part of the membership from venting their frustrations with the system in a venue where their posts will be here as long as the server is up. Why, you ask should I want to do that?
It's quite simple, I want my grandkids to enjoy my guns long after I'm gone. And for the most part, the online firearms community is it's own worst enemy. You can go through the posts on any large firearms forum and find plenty of evidence that we are just as the antis like to portray us in the cartoons on the editorial page.
We think we are the majority in this country, the great silent majority. But the truth is, we aren't. Sure the statistics show that there are guns in more American households then not. But what the statistics don't show is that in most of those households, the gun is on the top shelf of a closet and it's lucky if the owner could tell you where it was without thinking about it for a minute. It's those people who are going to decide the future of RKBA in this country. The Brady's and the rest of their ilk have been pretty much marginalized. But they are still there.
The online firearms community is going a long way towards marginalizing themselves. What do you think the person who never really thought about guns before thinks when they inherit grandpa's or dad's gun and surfs around the web looking for info thinks when they surf onto a forum and starts reading some of the stuff that is posted here (and it's much worse in a lot of places)?
Do you think the discourse that goes on in this kind of thread wants to make them become one of us, or do you think they might think, "I don't want to be on the range with some of those people, they're crazy." What about supporting
reasonable restrictions when it comes to new gun laws. Do you think they will see how unreasonable they really are after we've showed them we
really are like the fat unshaven guy in BDU pants with the KKK t-shirt that was on the editorial page?
We are in a culture war. The urbanization or our society and the lack of places to shoot and the increase in other interests are all working against us. Why do we want to work against ourselves. A public online forum is not the place to post the same things you say to your buddies at the gun shop on Saturday morning.
We damage our cause every time we do that. People who aren't members of the gun culture read what's posted here. And like it or not, those people, not us, not the Bradys are going to decide the future of RKBA in this country.
The truth about home invasions:
Home invasions of the type our membership are worried about are so rare as they are almost non-existent. People just don't bust into other peoples homes for the purpose of robbery, not without knowing there is something worth paying the high price for. If you are wealthy enough and keep enough valuables in your home that you are at risk of that type of home invasion robbery, then you are likely to be hit by a professional criminal crew and you'll have about the same odds of successfully defending yourself as you would against the SWAT team.
Criminal home invasions fall into these categories:
Criminals ripping off other criminals...usually drugs and/or the cash that goes with them. Don't live that lifestyle and the chances of being a victim of that crime are zero.
Bad blood between the occupants and the home invaders....This is the most common type of home invasion. It occurs when someone feels they have been slighted and that the solution is to bust in and kick the offender's rear end. The bad guys usually are shocked to find out what kind of prison time they are looking at over a stunt like that.
The victim has something of great value in the house that it's worth the risk to break in and take by force. This scenario makes a great screenplay. But in reality it doesn't often happen. In fact, in 22 years working in the a rural county that has one of the highest per capita crime rates in Illinois, I can think of one time that it happened. There was a man who ran a vending machine business. He kept large amounts of cash overnight in home. I don't know why he didn't use the night depository, but anyway one night two people burst through his door while he and his wife were watching TV, he jumped up out of his chair and was slugged for his trouble. He and his wife were tied to chairs with duct tape and the home invaders escaped with a large amount of cash. The crime was never solved. We had a pretty good idea it was a nephew, but we have never developed enough evidence to make a charge.
Here is the reality. If you aren't involved in a criminal lifestyle or having serious family problems with people prone to violence your chances of someone breaking down your door while you are home to do you harm are almost nil. If you don't deal drugs, or allow people who do deal drugs to live with you, the chance of someone claiming to be the police to keep you from shooting them as they break into your house are also practically zero.
Despite the gun culture myths that are perpetuated on the internet, we live in a pretty safe society. Don't hang with people who have of criminal lifestyle or live on the edge of one yourself, or frequent the places those people do and the chances of being the victim of a violent crime drop considerably. Most violent crime is criminal on criminal. Normal everyday people are more likely to be victims of property crime, burglary or theft. In a large percentage of those crimes, they are victims because they refused to accept the fact that there are bad people in the world. So they leave valuable yard equipment outside in the yard overnight, don't lock their homes, garages, sheds and vehicles.
I'm not suggesting that everyone put their home defense gun in the safe every night and lock the it up, what I'm suggesting is that we spend way too much bandwidth discussing gunfights that are nothing but pure fantasy.
Now to get onto the issue of mistaken raids. Art ran the numbers. What other dangerous activity under human control has that low of an error rate? I agree that one is too many. But what is the solution? I sense that a lot of members here would just as soon disband the police and let everyone fend for him or herself. This is a no-win situation. Enforce the law and you're a jackbooted thug subjugating the population. Turn a blind eye to the law and you're a corrupt incompetent. If you want this situation to change, I suggest you change the law. If you think that someone in the government reads these threads and says; "Boys, we better back off, the gun owners are getting riled up." You're wrong. If anything these threads are pointed at as justification for more equipment and training.
If it were up to me I'd legalize drugs, all of them. That would solve the problem as 99% of the search warrants served are part of the failed war on drugs. But it's not up to me and I don't see any groundswell of public support for that idea.
I know it pisses some of you off that I am so direct. That's the way I am, don't take it personal. This isn't a theoretical issue for me like it is for most of you. I have no desire to see anyone die, either an officer or an innocent citizen. That's why I say, fix up your home so you'll have enough warning to call the authorities and find out what's going on. Grab up a gun and it's a police raid, and you will almost surely die. That's not meant to upset anyone, it's just the way it is. And leave the brave talk about rolling out of bed and shooting people at the gun shop. It makes all of us look bad, not like the responsible gun owners we are.
Jeff
There will be no further details along this line. Just make sure that anything you dream up doesn’t involve booby traps! They will hang your butt for this!!