Their children hoped they would see their parents again but both were executed with shots to the head after answering a Craig List ad.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/27/us/craigslist-georgia-slain-couple-charges/index.html

This is why the only place you ever go to look at anything like a car or other item for sale from a stranger is in a very public place with plenty of people around. And Craiglist .... i don't want anything to do with

I've never done a craigslist meeting:

A. Anywhere near my own property
B. Without cameras everywhere via CCTV
C. Without a firearm on my person

People are cray cray, no need to take chances.

Your Uber driver for this evening....

Right on Dart. Uber is the "next big thing" for predators.

One of my constant fears.
Is one of my daughters communicating with some freak on the internet.
And going to meet him face to face.
I don't think a week goes by with out me warning them of the dangers involved.
Yes I do check my girls emails and social media accounts much to there annoyance.

I meet a person at a bank at night, one time, but I had my gun with me. That was the first and last time I did that. I meet people in well lite areas, but I prefer to meet them in daylight.

I only used CL one time to buy one item: a Playstation 3.

It took me a week of communicating back and forth with the seller both by email and live cell phone voice calls before I agreed to meet up with him in the parking lot of the City community center/Police substation.

He didn't even know it was the Police substation until after we both got there and we were looking at the merchandise and he noticed all the police cars going in and out;

that's when I pointed it out to him this is a City community center and a Police substation in one.

Yes, I was carrying both my main firearm and my backup and wearing my bulletproof vest.

He turned out to be an honest person and he also custom build computers for a living.

So I kept his # and email and every now and then I still email him asking him computer questions and when I am ready to buy a new computer, I will have him build one for me.

Yep.

I buy a lot of stuff on Craigs but at the meeting I never get out of my tank.

Only in 'murica....

In a light hearted manner, you guys sound like a real life spy movie.

Guns in open carry holsters, body armour, frag grenades.....


All you need to do now is meet in an underground carpark, and flash your headlights...


"You got the merchandise?"
"Yeah"
"You got the Money?"
"Yeah"
"Its a setup!!"

Cue Sweeney/Ipcress file shoot out.



Over here we just "meet under the clock tower, town XYZ."
No need for firearms and flak jackets, you know how to throw a punch...you're good to go.
OK maybe a baseball bat for good measure.

This is what many other countries don't really understand about America.

Despite rhetoric about this or that country or organization, despite concerns about immigration, despite all of that, what Americans fear MOST...is other Americans. Ones that wear badges. Ones that work for the gov't but don't. Ones that don't work for the gov't. Ones that don't work. One that don't look like them. Ones that do.

Americans want to have guns because OTHER Americans have guns.



The Jedi Master

Oh? Which countries dont understand?

Not the UK where people riot after soccer games and are you highly likely to be stabbed.

Not France where there is a pretty entrench social battle going on between religious groups.

Not Spain or Italy where rape culture is fairly high.

Not Brazil where the #%&*$# hits the fan in their poor sectors on a monthly basis.

How about Mexico where you are likely to be beheaded by a cartel or abducted and ransomed...

Nothing in the east sector or the Middle East... or Africa...

I'm pulling a blank here on just who might not understand.

I didn't mean they don't understand the feeling. I mean they don't understand that WE have it.

Those people in those countries who believe that America is too busy doing X to the world to have that problem.




The Jedi Master

I think many of us come off as incredibly paranoid paramilitaries. When I go to a craigslist meet or a movie or something and I have a gun on me it's as common as remembering my wallet (and I'll get the exact same feeling of weight missing from my clothes if I don't have it). Regularly armed people are a minority, but like seatbelts it sure doesn't hurt.

I don't fear some drugged up mugger, I can certainly do something about that. I fear nukes, carnies, and freak accidents, things I have no control over.

That and Master touches on a mindset many on SimHQ have, which is that evil exists, crap happens, and there's simple precautions against it. It's one thing I love about this country. I read these news stories left and right about all the horrible things that happen to people around the globe, and I'm glad I have the ability to easily avoid most of it.

Can't hear you I just got back from the Americans are fat thread, and it reminded me that I had to finish my 3 cheeseburgers. Then I got so fat I went deaf

In most cases, murder victims are more likely to know their murderer or are related to them in some way, much more so than a random act of violence on the street. That's often the first thing that investigators presume- how are the victim and suspect related, since that is more common- either there is a pattern of domestic violence and abuse, or the suspect was carefully grooming the target and planning it for some time, using the knowledge and access to the person to do it. A couple of days ago, there was a suitcase found full of body parts up the street from me, but that kind of thing indicates that whoever that was knew the person who did that, no need to really worry about a random person doing that to just anyone they meet.

As for the street thugs, they would still tend to look for easier targets more often than not. They gain like an extra sensory perception and become very good at reading the body language and gauging the victim mentality of potential targets- how self confident do they look, how large is their stride, do they make eye contact, how heavy do they shift their movements. Studies have even shown that they can get so good at this that when shown video clips of mugging victims against against a control group, they are highly accurate in picking out the victims who have been mugged before.

"Americans want to have guns because OTHER Americans have guns."

No, we want to have guns because BAD PEOPLE have guns.

I am not afraid of any of the groups mentioned....well maybe the gov't, if they succeed in disarming us, but to say we walk around afraid of one another is a bit over the top.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid

Well, I think the psychology is a bit more complicated. There is something to be said for gun sports and gun culture and social bonds connected around those things, which is different than the self defense (or offense aspect).

There are people with guns who want them because they represent power- make no mistake about that. You don't have a gun, you're a a punk, you don't get respect, or you will be a victim- and this isn't a rule necessarily for responsible gun owners, that is a rule for gangsters or people who come from the wrong side of the tracks, or some unbalanced individual who uses one to force his neighbor to turn down his stereo. They don't just use them to defend their lives, they use offensively, or they use them to parlay, fear is a tool, it's a different mindset.

American culture is a bit neurotic in this regard as people try to make sense of it- in some other country, it could be required that people have guns and you'd never have much of a problem with gun violence, or conversely, in others guns are strictly controlled or even prohibited, yet there isn't the problem of the government running over the civilians because they are unarmed.

No, there's something to be said for a melting pot in a country as large as the USA just as the starting point, before you start factoring in all kinds of other stuff. But as mentioned above, the citizen on citizen violence is largely unconnected- you don't see for example sectarian or religious violence as much, not even with Muslims like you might see in other countries. It tends to be I think a more individualistic, disconnected, sociopathic kind of violence rather than political or sectarian violence, generally speaking, because there are exceptions.

Are you implying BAD PEOPLE are not American, or that no Americans are BAD PEOPLE?

If you disagree with both parts of that statement, then mine still stands. I didn't specify some percentage of the population like 90%, OTHER simply means non-zero.



The Jedi Master