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Old 01-22-2017, 04:47 PM
 
3,279 posts, read 5,294,637 times
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Man Shoots Wife He Mistakes For a Burglar

Man Shoots and Kills Wife Who He Reportedly Thought Was a Burglar

I've actually read a number of such things happening, and then it occurred to me--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 dinky little town.

I grew up in the rural areas myself, but I spent 10 years in the city before returning to the "sticks" and really noticing this phenomenon. Let me tell you, obviously no place is 100% crime-free, but these people in the sticks acting like their dinky little area is some hot-bed of criminal activity, 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. They have no clue (and again, I grew up in the sticks and am 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 someone 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 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.
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Old 01-22-2017, 06:00 PM
 
4,315 posts, read 3,967,844 times
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" dinky little town "


My cousin and her teenage son and daughter lived in a " dinky little town" and certainly weren't " paranoid"


They never locked their doors because they believed like you said about no crime in their .............."dinky little town "


Late one ne night two thugs from the big city were in their" dinky little town" and realized they didn't have gas money to return home.


They checked 3 houses that were locked. House #4 was not locked.
End result.........beatings ,rape, culminating with 3 throats slashed.


Yes, I attended the funerals.


It is not paranoid to realize that if there are highways leading thru/past your town, you have no idea what criminals are in your town at night or passing thru.
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Old 01-22-2017, 06:33 PM
 
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Again no one is saying that small places are crime free, but this idea some seem to have that a given rural area is practically the south side of Chicago is nonsense, and when it becomes paranoia things like this can happen. That's why they calling it "going off half cocked."
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Old 01-22-2017, 06:42 PM
 
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"Rural"


"Dinky little town"



I do not think that word means what you think it means!
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Old 01-22-2017, 07:32 PM
 
Location: The Woods
18,337 posts, read 26,393,318 times
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It's not that major crimes are a common problem. It's that at my place you're entirely on your own when they do happen. No neighbor in shouting distance. Hardly any cell signal at my cabin, and forget about the police coming out there in any reasonable amount of time (in winter if there's snow they'll be needing to literally drive to the end of the plowed town road, then unload a snowmobile to get the rest of the way in).
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:52 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arctichomesteader View Post
It's not that major crimes are a common problem. It's that at my place you're entirely on your own when they do happen. No neighbor in shouting distance. Hardly any cell signal at my cabin, and forget about the police coming out there in any reasonable amount of time (in winter if there's snow they'll be needing to literally drive to the end of the plowed town road, then unload a snowmobile to get the rest of the way in).
Now that I can believe, totally. At the same time I just figure that the relative low likelihood of anything occurring (again, lower likelihood, not 100% total unlikelihood) would outweigh it.

That's one thing I've noticed, how many small town and/or rural people can be real "jumpy" if you, say, happen upon their area walking around or such and the way I hear so many of them talk at length about what caliber of gun they have and how "boy, just let someone try and rob me, I've got this sucker here just waiting for them" a lot of them seem so preoccupied with the topic. To me I'm like "given the extremely low likelihood of anything happening to start with I just don't think it's that much to bother with worrying about." I do have a .22, but it's much more for dealing with pest control as in those pesky armadillos that like to ransack my dog food.

When I was in the city this one spot I was out walking to the convenience store around midnight for a snack, on the way home I saw a body in the small bridge underneath where I was walking. That very homicide only appeared on like page B12 or something, around here it would be the talk of the town. This came 3 days after a night when our place was lit up in the middle of the night from police helicopters shining their lights pursuing a criminal.

Here, I leave stuff lying around lose in my yard all the time (tools, keys in the car ignition etc) and NOTHING has gone wrong, whereas in the city I couldn't leave my bicycle outside the store for even 1 minute without it being stolen. In my apartment complex, a small place with only 12 units or so, I had a bicycle stolen which was locked up. Around here, I go bicycling and leave it loose and unlocked at the lake while I'm swimming--nothing.

I'm not saying that something could not possibly happen, I understand no place is 100% perfect, but it still is a far different and more relaxed atmosphere coming from 10 years in the city and I'm like "man, what are people so scared of?" When you've lived that, people in small areas acting like their area is some big criminal hot spot, I'm like "oh please, you have no clue."

And that "go off half-cocked" tendency some have, and that paranoia about burglaries, to me such is what led to this. Heck the few times I thought I heard something, I pointed the .22 towards the CEILING and had my finger NOT on the trigger, I didn't immediately point it straight at the given area ready to fire at a split second, because of the risk of this very thing, and that risk is really much higher than a burglary, especially when you have a spouse working overnight shift work.
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:55 PM
 
Location: Silicon Valley
18,813 posts, read 32,322,822 times
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You said you don't know if this story is about someone in a rural town. Yet you posted this story, with the intent to start a discussion about people in rural America being paranoid about crime?

My head hurts with trying to figure out your point or your logic.
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Old 01-22-2017, 09:38 PM
 
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If you don't want to bother with ordinary precautions, go right ahead.

No matter how safe my area is, I will continue to be cautious. It doesn't matter that the crime rate is, say, 1 in 10000. Maybe I would be that one incident. "It can't happen to us" is a form of allowing crime to happen.

Especially now that meth and heroin have infiltrated rural areas, you can't count on the criminals targeting only cities. Plus, as someone else already pointed out, criminals from the city do get around.

Taking care does not equal paranoia.
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Old 01-22-2017, 09:40 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe View Post
You said you don't know if this story is about someone in a rural town. Yet you posted this story, with the intent to start a discussion about people in rural America being paranoid about crime?

My head hurts with trying to figure out your point or your logic.
The point is that being paranoid about crime can result in an awful tragedy. Imagine, being so paranoid about a burglar breaking into your house and harming your loved ones that you go over-the-top and in doing so end up causing the very harm yourself that you were worried about someone else doing. The very weapon meant to protect your loved ones was instead used to harm them, and by you of all people. What a burden to carry.

It may well be that the paranoia I spoke of is common in many areas, but what I'm saying is that I've especially noticed this with people in rural areas and if there is anyone whom you would think would be at-ease it would be people in the boonies like myself. Instead many of the ones I've met seem almost obsessed with the idea/possibility of a burglary, and I'm like "sorry, but our/your little area ain't all that." Moreover, whatever region, anyone thinking of using/buying a gun for protection better darned well also be just as vigilant about learning how to use it properly as being concerned about the possibility of a burglary to start with, what caliber to use, revolver or semi-auto, etc.
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Old 01-22-2017, 09:44 PM
 
Location: Middle America
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In the rural area where I was raised, people are so non-paranoid, they rarely even lock doors.
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