franklin wrote:Barry's comment on finding a safe area to live reminded me of my situation. I live on the outskirts of a conservative college town where murders are few and far between. I consider it as safe an area as I am likely to find without severely relocating. Over the past 8 days, within 10 miles of my casa, we have seen:
1) One shotgun killing thru the door for stiffing a drug dealer on some grass
2) One high school senior with no record walking into a retire professor's garage and killing him and knifing his wheelchair-bound wife
3) One 21 yr old college student shooting into several apartments and vehicles before killing himself for some unknown reason
4) One 20 yr old shot by his best friend in the back with a .22 in an argument over girls. He also is dead
There are a lot of guns around which I don't have a problem with but.....I want one to be handy in case I need it.
So you chose unwisely obviously. You *thought* it was safe, obviously it isn't. Or perhaps it was and now is not.
Some stats on where I live over the last 20 years: (Note I moved a couple times, so this is combined data as I've always lived in similar "safe" locations):
Zero shotgun anythings. Not even one audible gun shot.
Zero high school kids killing someone
Zero college students killing someone
Zero people shooting their best friend
NOTE: All of the above have happened numerous times 10 miles from where I live. I know they happen, but they don't happen here. I know they *could* but 20 years is a lot of evidence that they don't happen often at least.
There are safe places people. Completely safe against zombies or the guy that gunned down several in Norway? No. But safe minus that or other things that happen very rarely.
That said: Owning a gun is a good idea. I'm never going to discuss my personal thoughts here, other than I believe it's a good idea. But not because that makes someone "safe", it doesn't.
Location, location, location. 3 top keys in real estate and also in safety.