I reported the riot at the Wisconsin State Fair. I was naive thinking this was a fluke. Last night I found a website that lists many violent flashmob reports across the country.
Violent Flash Mobs - Violent Flash Mobs

Some of these mobs are 4 or 5 teens, some are hundreds, some are a thousand. It appears that they organize through facebook and twitter and the group suddenly bands together and begins beating people, vandalizing buildings and looting. Some video the event and post it, some show what they looted on the internet. Some areas have flashmobs every weekend and can do nothing to stop it. Even London is experiencing this now.

What can we do? What would you do? I think the only hope citizens have is that enough of the public is armed and willing to use their weapons to stop a large group of attacking teens. Police don't have a chance because the group organizes in secret and attacks in mass and then disappears. In fact one group in Greensboro, NC attacks people in the park every weekend right in front of the police station!!!

As this becomes more popular I worry about attending events in neighboring cities. Do we lock ourselves in our homes and hope we are not attacked or do the good people need to band together somehow and take back the streets? And how do we do that without appearing racist or exclusive and inciting even worse riots, or do we just not worry about that aspect?

A Serbu "Super Shorty" comes to mind.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

Hard to imagine a mob in this area, I doubt they could get over 5 people.

Closest we have to mobs is a group of old duffers having their morning coffee and the local diner. They couldn't move fast enough to be a hazard.

Traffic is bad here though, hard to park a horse trailer so they just stop in the middle of the street to conduct their business.

I love Wyoming.

I avoid "no gun" areas and stores. It would suck being a dad and not getting to take the kids to the fair, but the possible alternatve beats the crying.

It's even worse when Flashmobs break into dance...

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Just point and holler "hey, isn't that Charlie Sheen over there?!!!!!"
They'd all stop what they're doing and run to get an autograph.
Jim

I live in a conservative, quietly-armed rural subdivision that includes the residences of three peace officers. I'm not saying that it couldn't happen here, but it does improve our odds.

We had this same discussion at work today, the first thought I had was"carry extra magazines"

There is case law going back to the 19th century relevant to a mob being considered to represent a deadly force based on weight of numbers, even if they lack arms. Going along with that is any given member of the mob has assumed the risk of being part of that group.

What that translates into is simply that if one has to fire into a hostile/attacking mob - well then too bad/so sad for those in said mob.

I spent some years living in a quasi ghetto area. Many people that were in the habit of carrying an M4 clone, riot gun or some such in the trunk while going about their day to day business.

The underlying idea as to what to do was, and is, simple enough. Try to get your back to a wall and defend the area in front of you.

Good thinking! Larry

Go armed and keep your eyes open.

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VIVERE MILITARE EST

Sounds good but you may not be able to make yourself heard while they are pounding on you!

Years ago, Elmer Keith was being chastised for thinking he was still adequately armed with a revolver, and he said (something like), "After you have killed five men with your Colt single-action, there will almost certainly be time to reload."

It's a gruesome thought, and I would hate to hurt a kid, but any father of an athletic late-teenage boy can tell you, those young fellows do have the potential to do damage. If you're in fear for your life, self-defense is self-defense. We do that here in America - or at least in the U.S.

IWB holster for a S&W 76 ? double magazine pouch for it as well?

Maybe better yet a full size M76 necklace charm

I do not pay attention to such 'rules'. It may in some cases be illegal to do this but it is a chance I willingly take. If you are concealing correctly no one knows anyway and if you do have to use the gun will you really care.

A mob usually has a leader, these clowns sound more like a heard

The current flash mob trend is reminiscent of the numerous wilding episodes in NYC, mid-1980s.

Exactly, nothing new.

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Fidelis Ad Mortem

I have been to state fairs where a person had to pass through a metal detector in order to gain access.

For me, going to a fair is asking for trouble. It is not worth the potential risk.

Well come to the State Fair of Texas, show your concealed license and walk right on in.....no problem...its not in a good area of town so it pays to be well armed.

And you can get pretty much anything you want deep fried and on a stick; Twinkies, Coke, butter, bacon, ice cream, corny dogs...

According to the news this morning, the riots in London have taken a turn...
Street vigilantes are 'taking back the streets'. Groups of men are attacking what appeared on television as groups of black teens.
They even filmed white men throwing rocks at buses that had black teens on board. I don't know if those teens had done something of if it has just turned into a racial war....

Couldn't somone at the police dept. moniter facebook? I'm sure most have people working there who frequent it anyway.

In Greensboro they have a flashmob every weekend in the park. Up to 400 teens run through the streets and park knocking people down and vandalizing buildings and vehicles. This happens EVERY weekend.

The park is right across from the police station.

There isn't much the police can do.

The only way to stop flash mods is to treat them like terrorist. Once several hundred are looking at life in prison it will stop.

a battery of 12 pounders with a canister rounds

Charge them with criminal conspiracy and RICO violations.

What exactly are the laws concerning guns in this area?

To me a mob would be considered a lethal weapon and warrants an equal response. As others have said, go armed and be alert.

I'm not saying criminals in my area are dumb, but they couldn't organize a bake sale, let alone a flash mob.

Don't bet that somebody ELSE couldn't organize them.

We're talking about mob violence, not building a nuclear bomb.

You just need one guy with middling planning skills and a few underlings who can tell time and follow simple instructions.

Look at the history of street gangs in places like Chicago. There are no Einsteins running these operations, just a few people with decent organizational skills and no morals.

And really, a flashmob is just a group of teens that go running through the streets knocking over old people, punching couples and men, and smashing cars, windows and anything not bolted down.
To be completely honest, I can see the attraction they have to this activity. They loot and get new things, they are in a huge group whooping and running and having fun, and they can take out aggression on helpless people with no repercussions.

It is easy to organize, just post it on facebook and if more than 6 show up, you're off to the races.

Stopping it is the hard part.

I saw a non-lethal sticky spray once that tangles a running person... Maybe something like that to catch these thugs....

Chicago, no Einstein,decent organizational skills (political organizer), no morals. It sounds like our President.

They have caught one 16 year old so far, and it took them a week to admit they actually had a problem. Wisconsin will soon have a viable conceaed carry law. As soon as they make up some rules/regulations for it.

Stay away from large crowd areas, go armed and stay aware. Racine has a very nice zoo, for75 years it was free to get into but because of mobs of teens harrasing the animals and other patrons of the zoo it has a $5.00 charge now. Most of these flashmob teens won't spend the money to get in. State fair that day had half price fare to get in so it was easier.


Just like the fireworks event on the 4th of july in Milwaukee a small riot occured the police denied anything happened until confronted with irrefutable evidence. I work in Milwaukee now and don't think that this type of action doesn't cross my mind every day. While I was on vacation there was more gunfire across the street from the prison I work at, my first week there a man was shot 3 times at the gas station across the street.

As the police now say these teens did this for fun, no other reason was needed.

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Stan

It's all "fun" until some of these fun-loving teens get beaten down or killed by someone they assaulted while engaging in their flashmob brand of fun.

A day or so ago, a holdup man here had his gun taken away by his victim who shot him to death. My only criticism is that the victim should have been carrying his own firearm and skipped the wrestling match.

I recall they used to call this type of teen mob/gang activity "wilding" or similar term. Now with the advent/use of technology it's flash mobs.

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MotorCityGun

Time to bring out the .50 BMG's.

The ROKs used to use 106mm RCLs and canister for this kind of thing. It's what they considered a "crowd control device".

Organizer????You mean something like a "Community Organizer" I can think of one such person just off the top of my head....Chicago, community organizer....how quaint.

See post #34

If one of these mobs happened upon where I was, and I defended myself with my legally carried firearm, my #1 worry would be, would I get shot by the police? I'd rather risk that than be beaten and battered by 'people' who have no respect for anything, but it might be easy to be mistaken for one of the many 'bad guys' when there are so many and the adrenalin is pumping. Granted I would try to get my back against a wall with my loved ones behind me for 180 degrees or less of an angle to work with for defense. Or better yet, if possible, to get the **** out of there! But that would mean turning my back on others who might need help, and I might not be able to abide that. Guess I should start wearing a hat that says 'GOOD GUY' in big green letters!

It boggles my mind that people can be so awful.

If that's the case, I posit that you haven't read much history.

Read Heinz Hohne's "Order of the Death's Head", Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archeplago" or John Toland's "The Rising Sun".

"Awfulness" is second nature to mankind.

Most people in my state don't 'get it,' but that's why as a peace-lover, I am a gun owner.

Local newspaper says attempting to fight back will just escalate tensions. They say the best defense against flash mobs is to turn the other cheek to violence , and just walk away.

most "local newspapers" exist in a liberal fantasy land... at least the 1/2 dozen or so that I've read recently.

I have never met anyone less qualified to give advice about dealing with real violence than a couple of members of the media. I have been stunned by their gross inability or refusal to grasp reality...
Luckily, they aren't all that way.

Carry a backup gun, especially if you're using a revolver.

But, I think the Keith's point is obvious: after the bodies hit the floor or ground, the mob will move away from you.

A preview of coming attractions.

Obviously a well thought out liberal response supported by MADD, the NAACP and a variety of liberal think-tanks. It's definitely time to take back our streets, our schools and our nation. We were once a proud country of hard working people who didn't expect or receive handouts and free rides. We worked for what we had, and if you didn't want to work, you got very little. Nowadays we coddle those who leech off society and pamper those who make our streets unsafe.

In the immortal words of the sargent major in the movie We Were Soldiers Once - "Gentlemen Prepare To Defend Yourselves". Pass out the rest of the ammo.