Why I Plan To Carry

A 21 year-old girl calls 911 to report she is being attacked by a stranger. The police arrive. 48 minutes later, after her attacker had brutally murdered her. You can read the full story here.

The police are supposed to protect us. That's their job. But, as this article clearly shows, they are not always around when we need them. You're being attacked, you call 911, then what? You need the police now, but they're minutes away if you're lucky. Ultimately, your own personal safety is your responsibility.

That's one reason why I plan on owning and carrying a gun (my age and present housing situation currently prohibit both). No one has a right to harm me or take my life from me, and I have a right to defend myself if someone tries. And I know for a fact that the police probably won't show up until it's too late.

A few months ago, somebody broke into the house around the corner from mine. The woman who lives there called 911, but by the time the police responded the guy was long gone. I wasn't home when the break-in happened; I actually wound up sort-of following one of the responding officers there. It was no more than five or six minutes from the second he turned on the lights and siren and blew passed me to when I drove past the woman's house as I turned onto my street, but that fast the guy (I think I remember learning that it was the homeowner's ex-husband; they'd just gone though a very bitter divorce) was in and out. Thankfully, the homeowner wasn't harmed. But she was lucky. Brittany Zimmerman wasn't.