The holiday season was busy for us, as I'm sure it was for many of you. Our grown children converged on our little home in the 'sticks'. We live in a county that, literally, has more black bears than any other place in the lower forty-eight according to the wildlife department. We have a local deer herd of about 150 mule deer, with the occasional white tail seen now and then. Deer are always accompanied by a few lions, and we've had those in town too. Within the town limits live less than a thousand souls, with about that many clustered around the outskirts. The nearest stoplight is sixteen miles away.
This is good and bad, depending on your references and needs at the time.
The bad part, in terms of readiness for self defense, is that our local law enforcement organization fluxuates between three employees and zero. Right now we are down to one from a year long high of two. The deputy got himself arrested for domestic violence and fired from the force. Now we have one Marshall, with backup being the county Sheriff Department which is in the town to the east of us with stoplights. So, unless a Sheriff's car is nearby - not too likely - it's a good ten to fifteen minute run from there to here. Does not inspire a high level of confidence that law enforcement will be able to respond quickly in the event of an urgent emergency situation.
Hence, the need for self defense.
Being in an essentially rural area of southern Colorado, it is a good bet that the majority of households here house at least one gun. A shotgun or .22 if nothing else. However, there are a number of retirees here from other parts of the world who come from social histories and background that don't use, like and understand guns and the part they play in our society. Not to get into that here; such a discussion would require at least one, if not more, lengthy posts. The point now is that not everyone is able or inclined to be self supporting in terms of defense of life and home. Not too much one can do about that, and the situation gets murkier when discussing self defense outside the home.
I had coffee with a couple of friends the other morning. One grew up in California in the Los Angeles metro area, an area I know fairly well since our son spent a few years in graduate school there. The other friend is a former Marine. We got into a discussion on guns. I learned that both have them, one knows how to use them (guess who) but they have different ideas about that. The California friend has a shotgun and a revolver. He knows the revolver is made by Ruger and has a swappable cylinder so that he can shoot .22 Mags and long rifles. He knows his shotgun is a pump and made by Remington and someone told him to shoot slugs in it for self defense. The former Marine has a .380, but he's not sure who made it, and a Colt .44 mag. Which he likes because it's loud. And effective.
They both agree, in principle, that bad things can happen anywhere, to any one, at any time, but beneath this, I sense they think it won't happen here, or to them. It's a small, friendly town. There are no criminal elements robbing people or selling drugs on the streets. Never mind that we had a murder stabbing last year in town (it was undocumented Mexicans anyway, so not too many people here feel threatned...) and anyone who has sight in both eyes can see the drug deals going down in the town park, and the county and surrounding areas are known for hidden meth labs, and the local gang wannabe's live only fifteen minutes away where the stoplights are.
I asked why they didn't have carry permits. They had no good answers. I told them I did and encouraged them to look into it, especially since we don't seem to be able to maintain an adequate local law enforcement presence. Yeah, they'd have to do that sometime.
Not likely to happen, in my estimation.
I do believe that local bad guys who know about people who live in southern, western, rural areas (and likely other places rural as well) understand that the likelyhood of being opposed by an armed civilian is very high should they decide to threaten someone. But, as we all know, there are other criminal, drug fueled and crazy elements that just don't care about that.
So, over the holidays, as we went about our business and visited other towns and cities nearby, I often wondered, being Colorado, how many of my fellow revelers and shoppers were carrying. Knowning something about the backlog of background checks for firearm purchases and carry permits, I had to guess that the percentage was pretty high. I'm encouraging it to grow. How about you?
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