Schleed, i agree with you with one exception to what you say. i would extend the protection from just yourself to yourself and your loved ones. but beyond that its just interfering in someone else's business. you dont know who's right and wrong in the situation and so you should not get involved, leave it for the cops to sort it out...
Now, wait right there.
The cops should make a decision on whether to protect ourselves or not?
Where are the cops when the ACTUAL need to protect ourselves arises?
They are never there when you need them most.
Their job is to apprehend those who blatantly defy the law, outright, and bring the perpetrators to a magistrate of some sort for judgment. While this can be useful, it is this very notion that excludes them from being effective in "PREVENTING" crime.
I take it that you have never been a victim of crime?
The ability to protect oneself from an assailant is the same as a basic human right. It should NEVER be questioned.
my point was that one should not get involved in a situation one does not know about. if five people are beating a kid i would say you can draw and get them off if not shoot them. but if two people are fighting, stabbing or shooting at each other just dont get involved because you dont know who started it or why.
Fine, so what if you awaken in the middle of the night to witness an altercation outside your own door?
While you may THINK you are not involved, by default (it is happening WHERE you live, FFS), you ARE involved. (OK, I am conceding that there might be a slight difference in ability between apartment dwellers and land owners - apartment dwellers go hide when the shit happens, but land owners have a tendency to actually protect what they own. I have owned land most of my life, as did many generations before me. I was raised to protect what is dear to me. A fight going on outside my door is something I can not abide. I will set things to order in MY way, THEN allow the police to take over, once they finally get there.)
No one in their right mind can possibly expect for the police, armed with multiple, powerful weapons as ours are or not, to actually "prevent" such a crime.
The police are an ineffective means at times like this. Mostly, they show up after things are already settled and mop up, often drawing wrong conclusions about what has transpired.
It is upon the land owner to take care of himself, in most cases, unless that person places full trust in the forbearance of such criminals as well as the police. In such a simple case, then that person gets, and deserves, what he is prepared to accept.
I do not. I am prepared to make my place a safe place.