How Safe Are We?

[LostintheOzone]

When you consider that security is now very high around gov't facilities, airports, dams, power plants etc, the likelihood that any more "violence in the workplace" or "non-terrorist" related mass murder by extremists will likely be shootings in schools, office buildings and anywhere people congregate in your hometown. Those are now the soft targets.

I'm surprised that we haven't had more localized terrorist incidents in this country. Some former FBI agents also think there are some very big holes in DOJ policy. That's not good.

I don't ever feel safe. That's why I carry a gun.

 

[cobra357]

I'm not as much worried about terrorist as just plain out thugs! Look up the story of the two women shot in Polk County, Fl. Thugs robbed a pawn shop, then high speed pursuit, burst into a home and murdered the occupants!!

BTW if you haven't seen Sheriff Grady Judd's response it is classic.
To paraphrase "You point a gun at an officer and I GUARANTEE you will be shot!"

 

[spad124]

As I drive into large populated areas I see people that speak different languages but cannot speak English. I see billboards that I cannot read or understand. I buy items that have assembly instructions that I can't read and have to look hard to find words in English. The employees in the drive thru of fast food restaurants have a hard time getting your order straight because they cannot understand or speak fluent English. The USA is being destroyed within because the immigrants and illegals are not coming here to be Americans. They are coming here and bringing their own culture and language with them.

REMEMBER:

THE US CONSTITUTION IS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH !!!


We can overcome and survive a Terrorist Attack in the USA but we cannot overcome the flood of uncontrolled masses coming across our borders.

Dwight

When my grandparents came to the US from Poland about 100 years ago they didn't speak English. Even though they lived here for about 50-60 years before they died here, they never spoke English very well. Their neighborhood had a lot of Polish language signs and I still try to keep some of the old holiday traditions. But, like the people you comment on working in the fast food restaurants, they worked and made a living that was better than they could have made in Poland at that time. And some of their children, my uncles, fought across France, Germany, and Italy. My older cousins fought in SE Asia. My children's generation fought in Iraq and Pakistan.

The point is that many of today's non-English speakers come here to work and make a better life for their kids. I'm less worried about about my safety around those who come here and work hard in crappy jobs than I am about natural born Americans who riot and burn their own communities.

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

When you encounter someone dressed in a certain outfit, your awareness level rises.

Not a good thing.

Au contraire. It is a very good thing.

Unfortunate, of course, that it is now a concern. Or maybe that's what you meant in the first place.

 

[cmort666]

When you encounter someone dressed in a certain outfit, your awareness level rises.

Not a good thing.

Not necessarily.

Back in Chicago in the '70s, I was sitting on the bus in the station at 79th and Western, waiting to go home from high school.

I saw somebody get on and sit down. Under his jacket, he was wearing a Sam Brown belt and a brown shirt. He was carrying an album of Nazi marches. I think it was MORE than proper for my "awareness level" to rise.

Nobody else (headed east) said a word. Stupid bus driver noticed him and asked him if he knew he was headed EAST. His physical reaction was really strange. It was like Edgar Winter (or Dracula) turning pale. You wouldn't think that'd be possible. He veritably FLEW off the bus. I don't think his feet touched the steps on the way out...

Given the demonstrated history of violence by neo-Nazis, should I have been LESS concerned with his intentions then as I would by somebody wearing an ISIS t-shirt now?

 

[cmort666]

Guns are a much easier target but as they keep chipping away at our 2nd Amendment rights, they in effect are making the country less safe.

This has NEVER been about "safety".

It's about ideology divorced from reality, and POWER.

Disarmers and appeasers look at Mao and the "Great Leap Forward" and envy his utter detachment from the real world, and disregard for actual human consequences.

 

[vt_shooter]

We will never all be physically safe. I see it as a numbers game - there are 325 million of us, and unless you frequent locations prone to violence, the odds are pretty slim that anything nefarious will happen to any of us as individuals. But it can happen, and like someone pointed out, we're responsible for our own safety. What scares me are the numbers of people who are willing to trade away as many freedoms as they think necessary, from everyone, in a lame fairytale-like attempt to make us *all* safe, which of course can never happen. Those people scare me more than terrorists, and we'll never be safe from them because there are too many of them.

 

[mrrick]

I have been working in the muddle east for 30+ years where there is always a good chance of violence against us. Constant vigilance is reiterated by both the employer, and the American/British Consulate with their warden systems. (One can not rely on the local government to give a reliable assessment as they tend to cover up all bad news).

Situational/tactical awareness just becomes second nature.

When all is said and done though, it's the luck of the draw, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Avoiding crowds etc. was a constant theme.

On the plus side there is rarely any violent crime and one feels safe walking anywhere, anytime. After all they cut hands and heads off for crime. Sentences are carried out by the next Friday, and there is no plea bargaining. It seems to be a good deterrent.

Here is the list of trouble spots to avoid:

Alerts and Warnings

 

[cmort666]

We will never all be physically safe. I see it as a numbers game - there are 325 million of us, and unless you frequent locations prone to violence, the odds are pretty slim that anything nefarious will happen to any of us as individuals.

While generally true, there are caveats to this.

You can start at a relatively "safe" location, end up at a relatively "safe" destination, but be in considerable danger in between.

For example, you could start out in some RELATIVELY "safe" Chicago neighborhood, yet spend some portion of that trip on an elevated train platform, some of which are VERY dangerous, then end up at a RELATIVELY "safe" destination".

• Start Point - "safe"
• En Route - DANGEROUS
• Destination - "safe"

Of course NO place is REALLY "safe".

I'll bet that most women don't expect to get shot in a Lane-Bryant clothing store. Eight women in Tinley Park, IL did.

I'll bet that doctor in Connecticut didn't expect to be beaten half to death... and his wife and daughters raped and burned to death, in his own home in a well to do suburb.

 

[X Ring Ranch]

When my grandparents came to the US from Poland about 100 years ago they didn't speak English. Even though they lived here for about 50-60 years before they died here, they never spoke English very well. Their neighborhood had a lot of Polish language signs and I still try to keep some of the old holiday traditions. But, like the people you comment on working in the fast food restaurants, they worked and made a living that was better than they could have made in Poland at that time. And some of their children, my uncles, fought across France, Germany, and Italy. My older cousins fought in SE Asia. My children's generation fought in Iraq and Pakistan.

The point is that many of today's non-English speakers come here to work and make a better life for their kids. I'm less worried about about my safety around those who come here and work hard in crappy jobs than I am about natural born Americans who riot and burn their own communities.

You missed the point.

I am a US Citizen along with all my blood relatives who fought in every major war this country has ever been involved in. They were US Citizens and spoke English. I am a Honorably discharged veteran who spent most of my time in foreign countries. I spend 13 months remote in Pakistan (All Muslim country).

Your relatives who served in the US Military spoke ENGLISH NOT POLISH.

Your relatives became citizens or they would have not been in the US Military (until just recently.)

The 95% of all immigrants/illegal who come to this USA today come for FREE STUFF !

Yours came originally to make a better life for themselves and their family.

What is going on today is not what happened 100 years ago. And you can't compare the two.

I have taken the test and I am a "Realist". I observe what is going on around me and listen. Besides being old (I was born before WW2) I see this country being destroyed not by terrorists but by Political Correctness, Politicians and Lawyers.

Question?

Since I raise cattle, and have noticed that beef prices have gone from $1200 to $1500 for a pair (Cow and calf) two years ago. Now they are bringing $3500 to $4500 a pair.

How are you going to feed all these immigrants (legal and illegal) in the next few years?. Never mind. Don't worry about that until they come and try to take your food.

 

[oldguyshoot]

...My concern is that some will use as an excuse to curb civil liberties, advance the surveillance state, e.g., push a "statist" solution as opposed to allowing individuals to decide for themselves.

You mean like everything post-9/11?

I think that any random mass-casualty terrorist attack will be a reverse-Sandy Hook scenario whereby firearm conceal-carry restrictions will be reduced if not eliminated altogether - first state-by-state, then if attacks continue, it will happen on a federal level - maybe even by executive order if our next President is a Republican.

Fear of people with extremist ideology with guns > fear of the lone mentally ill or craven individual.

 

[johngalt]

Are we safe? Mathematically, yes. The US will likely experience another terrorist. But the chance of you, I, or any other particular individual being a victim is tiny. I have a better chance of being robbed, getting in a car accident, or being hit by lightning. I don't run around in a panic over those, and I refuse to do so over terrorist attacks. I refuse to cower in fear under the thumb of a police state "for my own safety".

Our biggest problem is from evil people in leadership positions, who hate the principle of self governed free people, taking advantage of the situation and spreading tyranny through fear. "Never let a crises go to waste".

 

[Triathloncoach]

Tim McVie, Connecticut school shooting, Virginia Tech. Extremely high murder rates based on demographics.

We have plenty of home grown threats.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

Safe is a relative term. And I safer here than if I were in Yemen, absolutely. Am I safer here that if I were in Los Angeles, probably, am I safer here than Paris, I believe so, am I safer here than in Switzerland? I do not know, but I have the tools and at least some of the skills to respond in any event.

Can I be blasted off the Earth by a missile launched ten minutes ago on the other side of the Earth? Yes. Can I drop dead from a heart attack at any second. Yes. Can a U.S. Military jet crash on top of me at any time. Yep. Can a meteor tipped by a speck of dust outside the solar system 3,000 years ago smash into my skull as I right this? Yep.

We learn to live with threats and move on. When the threat becomes probable or close enough we respond to the extent that we can when it is time to.

 

[venomballistics]

Are we safe .... nope.
never have been, and never will be.
The real question is who or what is the leading threat, and can we deal with it?

 

[X Ring Ranch]

I have been working in the muddle east for 30+ years where there is always a good chance of violence against us. Constant vigilance is reiterated by both the employer, and the American/British Consulate with their warden systems. (One can not rely on the local government to give a reliable assessment as they tend to cover up all bad news).

Situational/tactical awareness just becomes second nature.

When all is said and done though, it's the luck of the draw, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Avoiding crowds etc. was a constant theme.

On the plus side there is rarely any violent crime and one feels safe walking anywhere, anytime. After all they cut hands and heads off for crime. Sentences are carried out by the next Friday, and there is no plea bargaining. It seems to be a good deterrent.

Here is the list of trouble spots to avoid:

Alerts and Warnings

I don't plan on going back overseas again so here is a list for where we live.

Top 30 Highest Murder Rate Cities in the U.S. %s - NeighborhoodScout

 

[spad124]

You missed the point.

I am a US Citizen along with all my blood relatives who fought in every major war this country has ever been involved in. They were US Citizens and spoke English. I am a Honorably discharged veteran who spent most of my time in foreign countries. I spend 13 months remote in Pakistan (All Muslim country).

Your relatives who served in the US Military spoke ENGLISH NOT POLISH.

Your relatives became citizens or they would have not been in the US Military (until just recently.)

The 95% of all immigrants/illegal who come to this USA today come for FREE STUFF !

Yours came originally to make a better life for themselves and their family.

What is going on today is not what happened 100 years ago. And you can't compare the two.

I have taken the test and I am a "Realist". I observe what is going on around me and listen. Besides being old (I was born before WW2) I see this country being destroyed not by terrorists but by Political Correctness, Politicians and Lawyers.

Question?

Since I raise cattle, and have noticed that beef prices have gone from $1200 to $1500 for a pair (Cow and calf) two years ago. Now they are bringing $3500 to $4500 a pair.

How are you going to feed all these immigrants (legal and illegal) in the next few years?. Never mind. Don't worry about that until they come and try to take your food.

Apologies if my comment led you to believe I referred to you. Not the case and a poor choice of words on my part then.

Actually I think we are more in agreement than not. The politicians and the political correctness focus on making a 100% "safe" society are , in my opinion, how our rights, and not just Second Amendment rights, will be stripped.

Yes, my family immigrated legally and my uncles spoke English as a first language, although they also spoke Polish. As a third generation American my Polish skills are poor. I'd need an interpreter. I was born in the US and raised in our culture. In Poland I'd be looked at as an American, not a Pole. And that is what I think the kids of today's immigrants, not illegals, should strive for.

I also agree with you that there are immigrants and illegals that come here to live off the free stuff. And often our government makes it easier. The recent governor of my state allowed illegals to get drivers licenses- because we would all be "safer". Luckily he was not re-elected.

What percentage of immigrants and illegals are only here for the free stuff? I don't know. Some are, some aren't. My point was that I respect those immigrants who come to the US legally to work, contribute to their communities, and become Americans. They work hard. However, I do not respect those born here who, when they disagree with, say, a grand jury decision, do not peaceably assemble to make their opinion known and instead riot.

 

[the ringo kid]

I live in an Apt complex where your not allowed to keep your guns at home. However I ignore that stupidity and have two there at all times. All my others in a safe at my Sisters home.I plan on adding at least one more handgun to the small stash too.

 

[marvin the martian]

On a more positive view. After such attacks, this Country comes together and accomplishes some pretty amazing things!
Just ask Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, or sadam or bin laden, or....

 

[M3Stuart]

I think we may be giving the bad guys WAaaaaayyy too much credit, and, our LEO/FBI/etc. waaayyyy too little credit.

I think these dirtbags are at it all the time but have people keeping tabs on them...and interdicting them.

In my thinking, if this were not the case, there would already have been dozens of attacks here.