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I've actually read a number of such things happening, and then it occurred to my dinky little mind --especially in recent years, I have noticed that rural people (not sure if this was "rural" or not) seem to be really paranoid and "trigger happy" about the prospect of a burglar breaking into their house. They seem to have a really inflated sense of the supposed "high crime rate" of their great little town.
I grew up in the rural areas myself, but I spent 10 years in the "pits" before returning to the country and really noticing this phenomenon. Let me tell you, obviously no place is 100% crime-free, but these people in the country acting like their great little area is some hot-bed of criminal activity like the urban pits, are you kidding me? Try living in a place where murders appear on page B13 of your newspaper and THEN get back to me about the "crime wave" in your area. I have no clue, since I grew up in the sticks and am voluntarily living there again, so this is not some "city slicker talking down to people in the sticks" as much as it appears, I'm more a slow learner who IS a person in the sticks but who also spent time in the city so I have exposure to both.
I say this because, well, to me, besides my just being ignorant in and of itself, to me this mentality is what leads to tragedies such as this, people having a very exaggerated sense of crime in rural areas and being too "trigger happy" as well. If I understand correctly, even the NRA, an organization I like by the way, teaches and stresses gun SAFETY and RESPONSIBILITY, they don't just support the 2nd amendment (by the way I support it too), they also stress responsibility.
Paranoia isn't just irritating, it's also deadly it seems, at least on some occasions. Have these people never heard of yelling out "hello" first or the like? THINK before you pull that trigger, THINK.
There. Fixed it for you.
If you have to make your point by denigrating a class of people, maybe you need to rethink your point. All I did was change the thrust of your attacks back onto yourself. Betcha didn't like it, huh?
I've got an adjoining neighbor. The first time I saw him he was going after a "friend" with a baseball bat. One day I was entertained by police choppers over his place as they raided him. A neighbor up the street supported his meth habit by stealing my metal. Me, paranoid? Yeah, sure.
I'm reminded of a situation in Vermont a few years back where a professor (yes, intelligent people live in the "sticks") and his wife were killed by an intruder, who had been turned away by another neighbor who answered the door with gun in hand.
I've lived in cities as well. I understand about there being crime there. There was a murder a couple doors down from me one year. Got it.
If the intent of your post is to request people think before pulling the trigger, that can be said in one sentence. It is equally important in city or country. Deal with it and don't be an azz.
The same thing is true of fear of terrorism. People living in small towns in the middle of the country are much more concerned about terrorism than people living and working in NYC, DC, and other areas that are obvious targets for terrorism.
The same thing is true of fear of terrorism. People living in small towns in the middle of the country are much more concerned about terrorism than people living and working in NYC, DC, and other areas that are obvious targets for terrorism.
Exactly. I tend to think maybe it's a "Barney Fife" syndrome, on many episodes he would "drum up" action when Sheriff Taylor had it right--in a simple place like this, you don't need all of that nonsense. For Barney Fife, though, the boredom got to him, so he pretty much made a mountain out a molehill so as to have some action going on. I think that's a lot of it, it's as if the lack of drama bored him.
Not me, that's why I moved back to the sticks. (I think some posters are failing to notice, I'M ALSO A RURAL PERSON. I'm doing like Jeff Foxworthy when years ago he said "I've always you can't make fun of rednecks unless you are one, and I are one.") The lack of drama is a huge attraction to me. That's exactly why I chose to move to the sticks, no people all close to me with all of that noise (and yes, I do look for the country to be quiet too, so don't move next to me if you have a noisy barking dog you intend to just let be) and with me not having to assume a practically Ft Knox level of security with my car and such because people steal all the time.
As I said, here I go bike-riding and leave my bike laying "loose" all the time, nothing, whereas in the city even having it locked down with good locks and with my apartment complex being only a 21 unit place or such, my bikes were STILL being stolen constantly. I like being able to go for walks and it's QUIET for the most part, no wall-to-wall traffic and 8309 stop lights, no ambulance sirens screaming no loud-azz mufflers from idiots who think noise is cool--no, I didn't move back to the country to have freedom to MAKE noise or commit illegal acts, I come here for freedom FROM such, and for the most part I've found it.
The one person who said "if you want to blame anyone, blame the media for driving people to paranoia," oh yes most certainly. There's plenty of paranoia everywhere, like the mother I saw last week in an itty-bitty taco place who wouldn't let her girl who had to be at least 7 years old use the bathroom by herself, she INSISTED on going with her even though the establishment was TINY (to where you could hear noise easily if someone screamed or banged on the doors etc) and even though the bathroom was a 1-person unit and the doors locked and the commode was a small "tank" model vs a "jet engine" model--still, she INSISTED she had to accompany her daughter to the bathroom with her daughter very adamantly protesting "I don't need you to go with me, I can do it by myself."
I just hope she doesn't end up shooting her daughter 11 years from now when her daughter comes home earlier than normal from her late-night job at the very same taco stand.
Our doors have not been locked since the day I hung them. In this area all winter long people leave their parked cars running as they grocery shop or go into the post office.
Our local news is state-wide because there is not enough going on in any one county to fill a news segment.
A couple years ago, they arrested a 'zumba dance' instructor for prostitution. It was covered in the news for 8 months as the police tried to track down all of her customers. The town only had two cops. The senior cop is a female and she was overwhelmed by trying to do the 'investigation', so they had to bring in state investigators to cover the workload. After nearly a year when it finally got to court, they had spent a ridiculous amount of money investigating all of this. Of course it was only a misdemeanor crime. It had been so long since the previous prostitution arrest anywhere in the state, that it consumed all the news commentators the entire time. The locals were all aghast that the state was clearly being over-taken by the wave of prostitutes.
This last year it has all been about drug busts. We seem to average one drug bust every week somewhere in the state. But that is enough to keep the locals saying that drug crime is now the big thing.
Our doors have not been locked since the day I hung them. In this area all winter long people leave their parked cars running as they grocery shop or go into the post office.
Our local news is state-wide because there is not enough going on in any one county to fill a news segment.
A couple years ago, they arrested a 'zumba dance' instructor for prostitution. It was covered in the news for 8 months as the police tried to track down all of her customers. The town only had two cops. The senior cop is a female and she was overwhelmed by trying to do the 'investigation', so they had to bring in state investigators to cover the workload. After nearly a year when it finally got to court, they had spent a ridiculous amount of money investigating all of this. Of course it was only a misdemeanor crime. It had been so long since the previous prostitution arrest anywhere in the state, that it consumed all the news commentators the entire time. The locals were all aghast that the state was clearly being over-taken by the wave of prostitutes.
This last year it has all been about drug busts. We seem to average one drug bust every week somewhere in the state. But that is enough to keep the locals saying that drug crime is now the big thing.
(1st paragraph ) I consider leaving one's car unlocked totally different than leaving one's house unlocked at night.
I am not in any physical risk if someone steals my running , un occupied vehicle.
Location: In a rural place where people can't bother me ;)
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I worry more about animals than people. In the spring and summer....it's the bears and Cougars that can stumble onto my property. I have several shotgun shells loaded with rock salt just in case I need to send them packing.
In 3 years, it hasn't happened yet. The first week we were here, however, a bear did knock over our BBQ and got into our garbage. That's it.
I reserve my 30-30 and or Ruger 10/22 for other forms of protection. I doubt someone will ever venture onto my property. Living at the end of a mile long dirt road, they'd have to cross over 4 easements through others back yards where the road goes through.
Everyone knows everyone that lives on our road and the cars they drive. We look out for each other.
We lock our doors at night as part of nightly routine before bed. We us d to live in a suburb so its just habit. Plus when my folks come over, my mom will not sleep unless all the drapes are drawn and doors locked and lights shut off LOL
One of the reasons for the supposed "paranoia" is exactly because crime is relatively rare in many rural areas.
Add to that many rural areas don't have neighbors close by keeping an eye on things.
Also, as someone said, roads lead out but also in. I live in a fairly rural Maryland county where 60plus% of the residents go outside the county every day for work, leaving a lot of unoccupied houses. Those houses have been targeted for daytime burglaries for years, a majority committed by non-residents of the county. The non-resident numbers have held true for car thefts, bank robberies and even shoplifting, the majority of arrests for those crimes are non-residents.
Drug dealing and assaults, except for bar fights in the one town, are generally homegrown.
The main, and only, road in and out is MD RTE 4 and has been nicknamed the Robber's Highway by the police agencies.
Outside the city limits of Manitowoc, there were rural break ins, they came up from the big city of milwaukee to burglarize. I don't believe that its paranoid about rural break ins, word gets around that doors are unlocked. I think your problem is that you want to bring the big city kind of thinking with you in to rural living.
I've actually read a number of such things happening, and then it occurred to my dinky little mind --especially in recent years, I have noticed that rural people (not sure if this was "rural" or not) seem to be really paranoid and "trigger happy" about the prospect of a burglar breaking into their house. They seem to have a really inflated sense of the supposed "high crime rate" of their great little town.
I grew up in the rural areas myself, but I spent 10 years in the "pits" before returning to the country and really noticing this phenomenon. Let me tell you, obviously no place is 100% crime-free, but these people in the country acting like their great little area is some hot-bed of criminal activity like the urban pits, are you kidding me? Try living in a place where murders appear on page B13 of your newspaper and THEN get back to me about the "crime wave" in your area. I have no clue, since I grew up in the sticks and am voluntarily living there again, so this is not some "city slicker talking down to people in the sticks" as much as it appears, I'm more a slow learner who IS a person in the sticks but who also spent time in the city so I have exposure to both.
I say this because, well, to me, besides my just being ignorant in and of itself, to me this mentality is what leads to tragedies such as this, people having a very exaggerated sense of crime in rural areas and being too "trigger happy" as well. If I understand correctly, even the NRA, an organization I like by the way, teaches and stresses gun SAFETY and RESPONSIBILITY, they don't just support the 2nd amendment (by the way I support it too), they also stress responsibility.
Paranoia isn't just irritating, it's also deadly it seems, at least on some occasions. Have these people never heard of yelling out "hello" first or the like? THINK before you pull that trigger, THINK.
There. Fixed it for you.
If you have to make your point by denigrating a class of people, maybe you need to rethink your point. All I did was change the thrust of your attacks back onto yourself. Betcha didn't like it, huh?
I've got an adjoining neighbor. The first time I saw him he was going after a "friend" with a baseball bat. One day I was entertained by police choppers over his place as they raided him. A neighbor up the street supported his meth habit by stealing my metal. Me, paranoid? Yeah, sure.
I'm reminded of a situation in Vermont a few years back where a professor (yes, intelligent people live in the "sticks") and his wife were killed by an intruder, who had been turned away by another neighbor who answered the door with gun in hand.
I've lived in cities as well. I understand about there being crime there. There was a murder a couple doors down from me one year. Got it.
If the intent of your post is to request people think before pulling the trigger, that can be said in one sentence. It is equally important in city or country. Deal with it and don't be an azz.
That's it, in a nutshell. The homeowner made an impulsive, stupid mistake. He is not the norm, city or country. As for real home invasions, if you can't deal with people who deal with crime themselves instead of waiting to be victimized, move somewhere near the police station.
Yes, and do so constantly. 40-ish years, now, and counting.
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