Nancy Dis(Grace)

[JamisJockey]

Making your house into an unbreachable fortress of virtual security, besides being annoying to live in, only has one real effect on crime. It causes the criminal to go next door to the less fortified house. Is this crime fighting the New American Way? Hope your neighbor keeps raped, robbed and murdered instead of you?

yes. Better them than me. What, do I want to invite the criminal in and hope that I get the drop on him before he ties me up, executes me and my family and steals everything in the house? No, I'd rather force him to move along. And if more people took that stance....why gee, there'd be fewer houses for criminals to rob....duh....

 

[hso]

Any good defensive scheme is layered. The gun is the inner most, and most desperate. Then the bars, lights and locks. Your outer defensive layer are your neighbors, your neighborhood and your community. How many of you can currently say that your outermost defensive layer is strong? ... Go talk to your neighbors.

Sound advice. A gun doesn't make us safe, it's for self defense when all our layers of security/defense have failed.

We have plenty of people that will spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars on multiple firearms without paying a fraction of that for a monitored alarm system or motion sensor lights or fences or professional grade locks or antishatter glass treatments or landscaping that keeps the wolf from the door. Not many of us even know our neighbors on each side and across the street much less everyone in a half mile radius. How many talk to them about looking out for each other and share ideas on how to keep the neighborhood safe?

 

[Outlaws]

That is the most seriously ignorant thing I've seen yet today. Do you seriously believe that only rich folks can know their neighbors and form a cohesive community? What, because some people live in poor neighborhoods their only option is to cower in their homes in fear of the criminals lurking in the streets? Hardly.

Ignorant? Not all neighborhoods are full of these community oriented people you speak of. That is naive to suggest that most communities are proactive. You know how many people showed up to our block watch meeting a couple months back? 6. 6 of us out of about 30 homes (give or take) on this street. If someone wants to break into a neighbors home, I will call the cops, but I won't assume any responsibility from an alarm system sign on the front lawn that might have made them the chosen target rather than me.

 

[ClickClickD'oh]

That is naive to suggest that most communities are proactive.

Actually, I believe my whole premise from the start is that the vast majority of people aren't nearly pro-active enough in regards to their community... and that's part of the problem. The problem isn't that it can't be done, it's that it isn't being done. Not doing anything about it not being done won't help one bit at all either.

So like I said. You can get a lock, a light and a gun, and wait for the criminals to come. They will come in time if that's all you do, because you forgot to build a bailey around your keep.