You're On Your Own

[Tom Givens]

Collierville, TN, is a quiet suburb of Memphis, with just under 50,000 residents in the far east of the county. It is very well policed, with over 100 police officers, a lot for a town that size, augmented by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. It is where Lynn and I lived until five years ago when we moved to Florida.

Today, an evil person shot at least 13 people, at least one fatally, at the Kroger supermarket right in the middle of town. Predictably, everyone was “shocked” that this could happen in a quiet, “safe” suburb. The truth is, one should not be shocked.

I have two students who were forced to shoot criminal attackers in Collierville in separate incidents. Another student’s wife was abducted from the Sonic in Collierville at high noon on a Saturday in front of 41 witnesses. She was taken to a rural area, beaten to death and dumped in a ditch, all because three teenage thugs wanted her car.

The simple truth is, you are not “safe” because you are in this geographic location or that one. Anywhere there are people there is a potential for violence. You are safe wherever you make yourself safe, by being armed, trained, and aware. No matter how well policed an area, no one can come in time to save you. You have to be your own first responder.

[lwt16]

This. Times a thousand.

[Borderland]

Then there are places in the US (may issue) where a person can't get a permit to carry.

That case is going to the SC in Nov..

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/supr...y-gun-law.html

It's time everyone should be able to acquire a permit to carry. If the SC doesn't rule in favor of shall issue I'll be shocked.

[Flamingo]

It is funny (in a non-funny way) that you posted this. I haven't watched the news lately so this post was the first I head of this attack, but just before I sat down to look at the computer, the wife and I had a discussion of why I carry at home and anywhere else I can. I told her that although we live in a safe area, you just never know what a crazy/criminal minded person is going to do, or when they are going to do it.

[Wise_A]

(1) I rarely get a call from a bystander before the Bad Thing happens.

(2) If by some miracle someone calls right away, by the time I get said bystander to shut the fuck up, tell me where they are, confirm where they are, figure out what's actually going on, and get units en route to it, it's too late.

The call that sticks in my mind was taking one from a drunk bar owner who didn't know the address of his place, couldn't describe the subject, and couldn't tell me which way "down" the street was, and was irate I was asking all these questions. Subject in question had just got done beating a guy to death in this establishment.

[pangloss]

After the grocery store shooting in Colorado earlier this year, I was talking with my next door neighbor about pistols. He's a lifelong and avid hunter, but he's completely new to pistols. Late last year he about a P365, and I loaned him Tom's book to read. Anyway, he said something about not needing his pistol at the grocery store, and I told him that I bet a few of those people in Colorado really wished they'd had a pistol on them. He gave me a funny look, and asked if I carried a pistol when I went to the grocery store. I stopped to think for a minute, and I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd been unarmed in a grocery store. I might have been to the grocery unarmed once since we moved here in 2015. If so, it was probably before my first class with Tom!

[RJ]

I thought of Tom when I saw this story. We stayed in the RV at Meeman-Shelby State Park to attend Tac Con in 2016, and passed through Collierville on the drive up to the park. It was very nice.

This is a sobering reminder of why you need to carry your gun.

[FNFAN]

4 Killed in Las Vegas grocery store ahooting

I lived about 4 blocks away from this Albertsons when Zane Floyd flipped his wig. It was where we did our family grocery shopping.

"LAS VEGAS - A camouflage-clad man roamed through a supermarket blasting with a shotgun today, killing four people and wounding one before being arrested by officers who talked him out of taking his own life."

[CraigS]

A month ago I got to the shopping center and realized I wasn't armed. How the he11 I left the house like that I don't know. I went into the store looked a round for about 6 minutes and left. I felt kind of dumb that I felt uneasy, but the uneasy won and I went home. Fortunately I am retired so the 2 other stores I had planned on going to that morning, I waited until the next day.

[Rex G]

The grocery stores and supermarkets were “hot spots” in my patrol area, in Houston, Texas, where I worked the night shift, for most of 34 years. The neighborhoods varied from a poor “ward,” to upscale, where Houston’s “old money” shopped, but complex tactical problems happened, regardless of the immediate locale’s income level.