Bad Advice

Cooperate_with_robber

James R. Hall at Kentucky Coalition to Carry Concealed tells us about a robbery gone bad, and offers good advice, considering the circumstances..

just read with interest a story in Louisville’s Courier-Journal newspaper about a night club robbery [Nightclub employee shot in robbery, 21 Nov 06]. According to the story, Metro Police Lt. James "Mueller said the robber entered Petrus, on East Main Street, with a gun about 3 a.m. through an open door and demanded cash. The employee complied, but as the robber was leaving, he turned and fired several times, striking the worker once in the shoulder."

According to Hall (and we'll all find this advice eerily familiar):

... what makes these people "extremely dangerous" is the fact that they are armed and their victims are not. This is the ultimate truth that never seems to make it into most news stories. In the article, Lt. Mueller is said to recommend that "business owners and employees could go to www.lmpdasap.com to find robbery prevention tips." I went there looking for these tips and what I found made pretty good sense. There were also some "Robbery Reduction Tips" that, for the most part, were worthy advice also but, there were a few items that bordered on insanity.

For one, NOWHERE does it suggest that someone might actually arm themselves in order to have a fighting chance against an armed assailant. IN FACT, they advise against "escalating" the situation by attempting to fight or using a weapon to defend yourself!!! At this point I have to wonder, if you already have a gun in your face, what could be considered "escalation"? Another tip: "Remember: robbers seldom hurt people who cooperate with them." Unfortunately, the title character in this story turned out to be one of the seldoms!

"Escalation" is a handy word but it ignores the fact that when you have a gun in your face, "escalation" is a difficult term to quantify.

Here is an article which describes 'escallation' on an international level.

This article illustrates "escalation" on an entirely different level ... that of egregioius infringements of individual rights to privacy by your national govenment.

This is an example of the consequences when people assume that 'someone else' will protect them against violent attack.

And finally, here is what happens when a citizen realizes that nobody will protect him from casual violence, so he determines to protect himself.

You decide what is the best approach for your own defense.