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Forum: General Talk
08-25-2012, 05:06 PM
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Served them right. The little punks weren't there to read books for the old guy. Hitting an old man with a baseball bat, how brave. He'd have been in his right to have shot them dead. I'm glad he didn't but I don't have any sympathy for those three. Not at all.
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Forum: General Talk
08-02-2012, 02:15 PM
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People have been killing each other since time began. A lack of a certain kind of weapon never stopped anyone who really wanted to go there. Yes, the history of the USA has been violent, but look to the history of your own countries and you'll find a lot of violence there too. Even in ancient times long before guns some people were seemingly intent upon slaughter and they accomplished it just fine without gun powder. Heck, the Greeks and Romans had chemical weapons and used them along with their swords. Just banning guns won't make senseless killing go away. Napoleon didn't have machine guns but he nearly conquered the world. Sometimes all it takes is one maniac in the right place at the right time intent upon killing. It almost doesn't matter what weapon is used. It's the mindset that leads to mass destruction.
We live in a bloody, brutal world. Always have, always will. Human beings can be angels or beasts. We're a mixture of both. It's in our natures. That dark side is in us all and if we're honest we admit that. People are still capable of things like love, friendship, charity, kindness, but they're also capable of things like rape, beating other people up in a senseless rage, killing large numbers of people "just because it feels good" to go there. Sometimes it's completely senseless. There is seemingly no logic to it. The other day a woman killed a man just because he wouldn't share his darn beer. Another man killed all his kids to get back at his wife who wanted a divorce. Another woman killed her kids and then attempted to kill herself because she was feeling suicidal. Yesterday two women went on a shop lifting rampage, and when they were caught they retaliated by crashing through the store windows, running over the store manager who is now in critical condition, and then, get this, they then took off, went down the road and tried to rob a phone store of all it's dummy phones, broken glass et all from their murder attempt still on the car. Were all these people insane? Probably not. But I just can't understand any of it.
What I do know is I feel more vulnerable than I have ever felt in my life and I don't like it. It's not just paranoia. Every week there are several reports of violent crimes in my area. That's a fact. The cops aren't going to be there to protect me if a band of thugs bursts into my house. I may not have time to dial 911 and wait. I'm not going to just stand there and let someone do something like that to me or someone I care about. They're coming at people with all kinds of weapons with intent to harm. I'm not going to end up a statistic if can help it. I'm not advocating whole sale knee jerk vigilantism or lynch mobs but if the inmates are armed and violent, and intent upon taking the asylum I can't just sit there and allow them to succeed now can I?
Being passive just isn't likely going to save my life. Or that of my roommate or my nieces or any of the rest of my family if something like this goes down. Yeah, if someone burst into my house waving a gun in my face I'd take that shot. If I had time to grab a weapon I'd use it. You bet I would. What's the alternative? Getting terrorized, beaten, raped, maybe even killed? Not if I can help it. No way, no how.
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Forum: General Talk
07-25-2012, 07:57 PM
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We went to the local outdoor mall where the AMC is the day after the shooting. I needed some stuff at Micheals and my aunt and her BFF wanted to go to the Target there and to lunch after. So I took them. I noticed a security truck there and people loading equipment into the theater so I asked the clerk at Micheal's what was up. She said they were putting metal detectors and wands in. As well as barring any costumes going to the movies here now means potentially getting frisked apparently. Not that I don't understand why they want to go there, I do, already there have been two wanna be copycats of James Holmes, fortunately both were caught before they actually hurt anyone, but it really makes me sad to see that. The one downtown has had all that for a while now, because there have been gang incidents, but ours didn't till now. The junior high schools I went to, same deal and we're supposed to be living in such a "safe" town. This is just pathetic that we have to live like this.
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Forum: General Talk
07-25-2012, 08:39 AM
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Most chain convenience stores like 7-11 don't allow clerks to pack guns. This week two men walked into one here, and they severely beat and robbed the clerk behind the counter. This one is only the latest in a long list of similar violent robberies over the past year or two. They kicked and hurt him even when he was laying on the ground. They laughed as they left. The man survived fortunately, but he's in bad shape. The video is just heartbreaking.
Now contrast that with another similar hold up that also occurred a week ago where the clerk behind the counter wasn't working for 7-11, where he was armed and where all he had to do was pull out his firearm and show it and the would be robbers took off. This kind of thing is happening every day here. Cab drivers, convenience store clerks, pizza delivery drivers and such they're under siege and most of them are carrying now and it's not just because they like to show off and have guns. No offense, but wake up and smell the coffee. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself if you'd want to do their job sans protection. I wouldn't. Not now.
I spent 3 months here temping at a gas station convenience store holding a job for a good friend of mine who wanted to take a major vacation with her parents when I was like 17. Her boss said she could go but he'd only hold her job if she could find someone to fill in so I worked the 11-7 shift, walked to work, worked all night, and never once felt threatened. Yeah, they locked me in after midnight and I had a bullet proof glass counter to work through, but I never felt in any danger whatsoever.
20 plus years later you couldn't pay me enough to get me to take a job like that. Actually there are very few midnight shift jobs here anymore. Most stores here barely stay open till 8-9 PM and that includes the gas stations and such. The local 7-11's do, Walmart does, but not much else, and they've been talking about not doing that anymore. The 7-11's and Walmart are talking about closing at midnight. Some 7-11's already are. There's one or two gas stations that still have an attendant behind bullet proof glass, but you have to look very hard to find that. Truckers and other night workers, cops et all, they used to love this area because they could gas up and get food all night. Lately? They're finding that a lot harder around here.
But that's all it took. A mere couple of decades to make this place a place where you can't work at night, or walk out of your house at night, where you have to think twice about going to the movies, or the mall after sunset. Where you can't hardly find a place to gas up or order a pizza delivered after 9PM or at all in certain parts of town. Where a cab won't come and get you if you call after 7PM. Where you can't walk a beach at night or even sit outside on the stairs outside your apt to listen to the water lapping against the sea wall and be safe.
Is your town like this? Mine is and I'll bet a lot of other towns across America can say the same. Do you really, really wonder why so many people are packing now? Why they are "that" afraid. Why they feel they need to be armed just to be able to go to work, the mall, the beach, et all?" I don't. I partly grew up in this place, lived here for nearly a decade and I never saw anything like this. Even when I came back as an adult a couple of times, spent a year or so here it wasn't this bad. But the past 5 years I look at the place and I don't even recognize it anymore as the town I spent half my childhood in. It's 5X more populated. There's gangs, drugs, muggings, rapes, car jackings, home invasions, and people otherwise getting robbed or worse every single day and the police statistics page is a total joke. I mean come on, the people here aren't blind. They have seen the changes here, for the worse, and they're not buying it anymore that crime is supposedly down.
Yeah, people here do tend to support being able to buy guns, but then again, they have good reasons for doing so. Maybe you're lucky. Maybe you do get to live in the equivalent of Mayberry. We actually used to, albeit a Mayberry with tropical drinks, snowbirds, annoying tourists, and heat that can sweat all the makeup right off your face in under a minute flat. Used to be that those tourists that came here worried about very little except getting sunburn and a bit of sand in the car. Now? They'd better be in by dark and make sure they lock that hotel room up tight even in the "nice" part of town unless they want to get mugged. I think that's why the crime stats don't really match what's on the news actually. The police dept and the mayor's office they're too busy protecting all those all important tourist and snowbird dollars to care much about speaking the truth. Goodness forbid that people might actually look at the crime stats, realize this town is practically under siege and decide to spent their time and dollars elsewhere.
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Forum: General Talk
07-20-2012, 01:44 PM
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I believe I already answered your question quite clearly and gave you a reason why. But I will repeat myself again. I would rather no one fires, of course. I don't want to be in that situation at all, but if someone is going to I'd definitely rather it was the guy behind me who has a permit, who likely knows how to use his gun than some strung out kid who stole a gun, who doesn't likely know how to use it, and who is actually standing there waving it around like an idiot, cussing at people, threatening violence and maybe about to use it on people. Either one of them could accidentally kill me, true, but I'm betting there's a lot more chance of it with the kid than with the man with the permit. At least he has some idea of what he's doing with a pistol.
You have to realize I'm speaking from the position of someone who's seen the "Be quiet, give your money up, and don't do anything." approach fail several times of late. Several people in my town are dead because they were violently robbed, they didn't do anything to fight back, were not carrying, and one man is now undeniably alive because he did arm up. I'm sorry but the pacifist approach is getting people killed more often here than the opposite. People who never wanted guns are putting guns behind the counters and using bullet proof glass for a reason. They know that they can't just comply and hope for the best anymore. That it won't likely keep them from getting hurt or killed.
At this point the gun, the glass, that is the only practical answer for them. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. The robbers they don't necessarily just leave you alone because you're cooperative anymore. Sometimes they wound or kill you for kicks it seems. Are you willing to risk that? I'm sorry, but I'm not, not anymore.
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Forum: General Talk
07-20-2012, 07:42 AM
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You really think I'd just stand there? I'd be diving under a table at the very least. :P FYI, I've been robbed at work once. I was a teenager. Some guy walked into our store, stuck a gun in my face and told me to give him the money out of the cash register. I was so flustered I told him I couldn't remember the code. Then I ducked under the counter and ran to the back, slammed the door to the back shut, and locked it. He unplugged the register and took it with him. This was in a major mall, and btw, I quit immediately after though I'd been there for a year. I was scared to death. Now I look back and I wonder if he would have shot me if I hadn't run that way. Probably not back then, but now? I'd probably be dead, I'd guess. But now if I had a store here? Bullet proof glass and a pistol behind the counter or I wouldn't do it. Freaking Harlem was safer than this place!
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Forum: General Talk
07-20-2012, 07:22 AM
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Actually, I'd trust that person probably more than I'd trust the kid, particularly if it was a cop. A kid waving a stolen gun around is dangerous as shiz. Likely if someone behind me is carrying and actually has a gun permit they might actually know how to use their pistol. Can't say that of the freaked out kid holding on me, now can I? I don't want either of them to shoot, of course not, but I'd take the guy behind me over the kid who likely doesn't even know how to use the gun he's stolen any day.
Where I live this is happening all too often. People have died recently in my town because punks like these are robbing them. It happens all the time. They just shoot with no regard for whether the person is giving their money up or not. They don't care if you're being obliging. They come in and beat you or even kill you regardless. The old way of being passive and letting them have whatever they want? It's just not been working. I don't know why they do it. Whether it's the influence of drugs or some kind of gang thing that they have to kill people now to make it into the gang, but what I do know is standing there giving it up didn't save the people who died here from being killed. These people are not just statistics. They're real people and they are arming themselves because they feel they MUST.
These punks they pistol whip people, rape old ladies and little girls, even kill, and I'm supposed to care that they are "just kids" and if they get killed? Sorry, but no, I don't think I can do that. Not anymore. There's a reason I feel the way I do now. I've watched people I know get killed in incidents like this. All my life I was anti-gun except for hunting and even then I didn't want to participate. Not anymore. All this violence? I hit my limit a while back and it totally reversed my opinion on that. Sad, but true. I honestly never thought I'd be a gun owner. But I just might be one day soon. Goodness knows I hope I will never have to go there but I'd definitely rather it was them and not me. Not someone I love.
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Forum: General Talk
07-19-2012, 06:43 PM
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There have been 3 hold ups here very recently where the person walking in the door to do the deed fired upon someone or beat someone who was willing to give up their money. One guy lived. They beat him with a pistol but he survived, but the other two incidents resulted in the deaths of both store owners. All 3 men were unarmed at the time. This is why my local family stores are now using bullet proof glass behind the registers and why the people behind the counter are carrying. Robberies like this are becoming increasingly violent. If they come into where you are brandishing weapons with the ability to exert lethal force that is in my book is a legitimate reason for an armed response. In this case the one guy was carrying and no one knew that the gun wasn't viable. As far as anyone knew they were there, he was waving a pistol around, threatening people, maybe looking ready to kill someone. I think a cop standing there likely would have taken the shot. With the kid with the gun out of the way the guy with the bat would be easily subdued. It makes sense.
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Forum: General Talk
07-18-2012, 09:20 PM
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Not here it's not. I'm sorry but my neighborhood has basically come under siege in the course of a few years. This used to be a sleepy town full of old folks and not much else. Even the bad side of town was the next best thing to Mayberry. I used to live there, btw, grew up right next to what passes for "the ghetto" here. That's a predominantly AA area, and always had a rep, mostly undeserved. My BFF as a kid lived there and we never had any problems. I could be out at 2AM walking around with her and never be bothered. I would not try that now where I used to live exactly. The "ghetto" is now my old neighborhood and it's violent, very violent. I'm talking drive by shootings, drug wars et all, every day almost. When I was a kid there you'd see the occasional 7-11 or liquor store robbery on that side of town, some poor street hooker would unfortunately get raped, or a car would be vandalized, but not much else. Now, the local businesses and normal people are being violently robbed at a rate no one with half a brain can see as normal. That side of town, and this side.
We used to have maybe 5 murders a year, in a bad year. Most of those were drug related. Now there's one or two every WEEK. Same with muggings, robberies, rapes and the like, and they want us to believe the crime rate is going down? A body washed up literally in the backyard of the place where we used to live last week. Not for the first time in the past few years since we lived there. We had a bayou there too. When I came back here in 2000 from NYC I used to sit out at night all the time, watch the wildlife. Almost 3 years I lived there. Never worried about my safety at all. The only thing I saw at night was a dolphin or the odd raccoon, a few mosquitoes on the wall. A body floating up to the seawall? That's not exactly reassuring. I missed that place but I'm real glad my parents moved now. So far no bodies in our bayou here but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
The terms "car jacking" and "home invasion" they were something you only saw on the national news. It almost never happened here. Now it happens all the time. I'm not in Canada so I can't speak for them, but where I live crime has exploded and the police are denying that with every breath they can muster. The newspaper is far more honest than the local crime stats page. I hear about something locally and 90% of the time it never even makes that page. They barely update it except for the local car thefts. Makes me really wonder where all those crime reports go because they surely are not there on that page for the public to see.
I never felt I needed protection just to go to the local library or to Walmart. Now I don't step out the house unless I am armed and no, it's not just my imagination, sorry. I don't have a gun yet, but I'm thinking about it. My roommate that just moved out took his with him. That it's gone is making me feel a bit too vulnerable. We had a home invasion not 8 blocks from here the other day and I'm just not sure my park's idea of security would actually stop that if it happened here. They have security guards at night, armed ones, and a gate but the wall that separates us from the rest of this crazy town is pretty darned low.
My parents still have one and I do know how to shoot now. My brothers finally taught me. I'm thinking of asking my Dad to get me one. He's offered. I wouldn't go there if I didn't really feel we needed it. I don't like guns except on the target range. I don't hunt at all like my brothers. The only reason I don't have one is because the roommate had one and knew how to use it. We all do but with his around I didn't feel I needed one of my own, particularly since there's a working crossbow and a cheap long bow also in the house, locked up. Those are mine. I used to shoot archery targets for fun before I got into shooting people and things with cameras. I don't even have arrows for the long bow, but I have bolts for the crossbow.
The crossbow that's my weapon of choice actually. I like my stick, my knives, my cross bow and I also have a whip though I haven't quite mastered that. Indiana Jones, I'm not, laugh. Never thought I'd want to ad a gun to that arsenal but I'm thinking I probably will. It's like any weapon though. You hope you'll never have to use it but it's just a tool. I just as easily wound or kill an intruder with my crossbow, but it takes too long to reload compared to a gun. If there is more than one invader I'd be screwed. At least with a gun I'd have several chances to stop someone before they did something to us.
Where I come from it's very much a practical thing.
The news story I saw on this guy didn't report that anyone had actually been wounded. If he did chase them out the door and actually wound them then that's rather bad and I would not totally support that. He had them on the run. That was enough. But those "kids" they are to blame for the whole situation. You walk into someplace with intent to rob, brandish a bat and a gun at people you might just expect to get shot at yourself. I just bet they try to sue him too. What a crazy world we live in these days, sigh...
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Forum: General Talk
07-18-2012, 12:06 PM
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Sorry I don't care what the wiki says or the cops. It's not just the news. I've seen more robberies where I live in the past 3 years than you'd ever believe. I lost track a long time ago but it's just getting to be too crazy. I'm not talking break ins. I'm talking violent robberies, muggings. Every little mom and pop convenience shop here is installing bullet proof glass and getting guns behind the counter because they have been robbed most of them now. My local drug store has been robbed lately. A real estate agent a few blocks over got robbed. The stores where I do most of my grocery shopping have had several such incidents in the past couple of years. The fast food places get robbed every week it seems and there have been three home invasions within 12 blocks of me just in the past two weeks and FYI, I live on the GOOD side of town. I'm so glad we have a gate and security guards now it's not even funny. Probably wouldn't help really, but just that they're there makes me feel better and I never thought I'd relish living under armed guard. Heck, I felt safer living in Spanish Harlem or North Philly than I do here.
In that same two weeks also several rapes, car jackings, a couple of murders, et all. It's gone from being a place where I used to hit Walmart or the Denny's at 2AM with my friends and feel perfectly safe to being a place where I can't really go out at all at night. Can't even go to a midnight show these days. We practically need freakin BATMAN patrolling because the cops sure aren't into doing their job or they just don't have enough people to. Statistics my arse. The number of cameras and alarms being sold in this area tells a far better tale. This is practically the boonies compared to some places, so I know it's got to be really bad elsewhere. It's drugs I think. People just wanting oxy and the like, but also gangs. They're here and they're a lot more populated than they used to be. The whole town is actually. Population has tripled here the past 5 years probably. It's not "God's Waiting Room" anymore. It's a southern fried mini version of Detroit...
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Forum: General Talk
07-18-2012, 11:47 AM
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Oh please. Did you not read the article? The one kid was openly threatening people with a baseball bat. The other had a pistol and was doing the same. They were both telling people not to move and making their intent to rob and maybe more perfectly clear. They were not there to sell pens. :P Unless you're blind as a bat and can't hear besides that kind of a threat would be hard to miss. Heck I am sans glasses and I could still see that. Guy probably has better eyes and reflexes at 71 than I do if he can still aim and shoot a gun under that kind of pressure.
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Forum: General Talk
07-18-2012, 11:31 AM
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Florida Man, 71, Shoots Alleged Robbers At Internet Cafe by KEVIN DOLAK | GMA
Two teens were shot and injured by a 71-year-old central Florida man who refused to stand by while the young men allegedly tried to rob an Internet cafe. Samuel Williams was sitting in the Palms Internet Cafe in Ocala, FL on Friday night when two men, later identified as Davis G. Dawkins, 19, and Duwayne Henderson, also 19, allegedly stormed in brandishing a handgun and a baseball bat. "Don't none of you [expletives] move," one of the teens reportedly yelled at the café patrons.
In a surveillance video released by the police department, Williams, who is seated at a computer in the corner of the café, is seen standing up and pulling out a .380-caliber handgun shortly after the two men are apparently seen storming into the café and swinging a bat at something off screen. (MK: A person maybe?) Williams is apparently seen firing two shots at Henderson, who quickly heads for the front door. The 71-year-old then begins to fire at both of the young men, who appear to panic and hurriedly fall over as they flee the scene.
(MK: Do note, he apparently wasn't shooting to kill or they'd both likely be dead. Shooting at that close a range it's unlikely he just missed.)
Both Dawkins and Henderson were arrested hours later. They have been charged with attempted armed robbery with a firearm and felony criminal mischief. Officials said it is unlikely that Williams will be charged with a crime for attacking the teens because the shooting seemed justifiable. "Based on what I have seen and what I know at this time, I don't anticipate filing any charges," Bill Gladson of the State Attorney's Office told Ocala.com.
Williams has a concealed weapons permit for his handgun, according to the Sheriff's Office.Gladson, who said that he has reviewed the security footage, added that he is still awaiting a final report from the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Dawkins was released from jail Sunday, having posted an $11,000 bond. Henderson remained in Marion County Jail, having failed to post a $31,000 bond.
Now, I ask you is this SO wrong? Or would you rather have seen this title to this piece?
Two Robbers Beat, Shoot and Kill Several At Internet Cafe Then Flee The Scene
This is how bad it's getting in suburbia folks. You can't even go check your email without risking being mugged or worse? Those two punks were there to rob and potentially beat or kill people. The one swung the bat at something, likely to make a point that he was prepared to be violent if he didn't get what he wanted. The other one was carrying a pistol and I doubt it would have troubled him to use it. That 71 year old guy just may have saved several lives because he was a registered gun owner, there when this went down, and remained calm enough to use it. He's a freakin hero in my book.
I'm wondering how they got the gun. If they stole it from their parents or what. They're both pretty young and getting one legally at 19 isn't all that easy unless you're with a gang. This might have been some kind of gang ritual thing I suppose. They didn't exactly sound like they knew what they were doing either of them.
But I'm definitely applauding the old man. He definitely saved the day and maybe some lives. He deserves it I think. I used to dislike guns, didn't agree with the men in my family on that score really, but you know what? Not anymore. All the violence of late it's has really changed my mind on that score. Robberies, home invasions, incidents like this are getting to be an every day event. The nuts and the criminals have taken over the asylum and I think that the cops are just too understaffed to stop them.
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