Even though I wasn't a "Coastie" I still like their motto, Semper Paratus, or "Always Ready," and believe it applies herein this discussion.
For the most part, and while too many people are caught up in unexpected, hazardous and threatening circumstances beyond their control, most civilians living in the U.S. won't have a need to fire a weapon in anger . . . or defense.
Having twice been on the right side of the law when the wrong side was pressing the issue, I know that it takes between 25 and 35 minutes for a law enforcement officer - having actuated lights, siren and going petal-to-metal to actually be present at my abode. Most people think response times are far less. No, make that "The vast majority" think such.
Matters can get pretty dicey, as was the case in one instance when my neighbors, all of whom were either at work or school, had their house invaded by some slick thieves who used a 2x4x8 to render worthless in milliseconds an adequately dead-bolted and locked front-entry metal door, then opened and closed the garage allowing a van to be parked inside without much notice. (Such subterfuge would never, ever work in my garage because I have little trails running through it, the maze of which only I understand.)
So, while the out-of-sight crooks stocked their van with my neat-nick neighbors' possessions, I was on two, sometimes three telephone lines with law enforcement, the neighbors and others. (Yes, I once had that many land lines).
Now, while I would've liked to have been more involved, the fact was I had two kids under three at the time. I won't go into the possible extrapolations of possible following circumstances, but the reader probably can do so without much effort.
However, had they only partially filled their van and thought "This is a nice, quiet area, why not also get next door?" it would've then been a terrible damn day for them. I already was aware of what they were doing and I would've been guns a-blazing had they likewise cracked my door.
As it was, they thought the better of tempting fate and DROVE AWAY after 31 minutes. Yes, t-h-i-r-t-y o-n-e minutes.
Based on my description of the two crooks and their van, my neighbor's father actually saw the van, with license number (recorded before they even went in the garage; my office faces my neighbor's garage), caught the eye of a deputy sheriff and the two pulled a mid-I-95 entrance-ramp-stop with guns drawn. By the way: the crooks were already 12-miles distant from the house they'd robbed.
By the way, again: Four deputy sheriffs from TWO jurisdictions started arriving four minutes after the crooks departed the house they robbed. No, folks, law enforcement, as good and decent and hardworking as they may be, cannot use teleportation just yet.
According to US Bureau of Justice statistics, 1-in-8 U.S. residents aged 16 and older requested police assistance for all matters, with 85-percent of those expressing police response as adequate or better than adequate. (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/rpa11.txt)
Now, given the above, especially again noting the two kids under age three, it seems quite obvious to me that I need to self-protect despite poll numbers from which extrapolated by yours truly is a reasonable expectation that 85-percent of the population feels good about law enforcement responses to crises. That's a low-end "B" from my school days. A lot of people would think that a "B" is darn good and hardly a thing needs to be bettered.
Of course, there is that matter of the "other" 15 percent - again extrapolating - which roughly equals about 45,000,000 people who are SOoL when needing a quick police presence.
Nevertheless, and upon considerable reflection: I mostly carry "Because I can." And I am darn glad we have that Right, as guaranteed by the State of Florida's Constitution.
