Buying A Gun, Etc.

This week, my wife and I were sitting in a friends living room when he announced that he intended to get his concealed carry license soon.  I asked him what weapon he intended to use.  He replied that he would probably use his .380 Makarov.  I suggested that that might not be the best idea.  Here's why:

The Makarov is a wonderful weapon.  I owned one of the Soviet Military issue 9 mm x 18 versions for years and I loved it. The Makarov is a rough Soviet copy of the German Walther PP.  It is a fine pistol in its own right and was state of the art for decades.  The 9 mm x18 Mak is a robust, hard shooting, highly accurate, completely reliable weapon.  The .380 is a lower powered version designed for old Soviet bloc police departments and retail sale in countries where sale of firearms capable of firing military issue ammunition is prohibited.  It is easily concealable.  But, it is obsolete and there are problems associated with it that have nothing to do with the many fine qualities of the weapon. 

First, neither .380 or 9 mm x 18 Makarov ammo are cheap.  In .380, Winchester White Box, the standard range ammo, runs about $20.00 for a fifty round box.  9x18 Markarov is more expensive.  However, 9mm Parabellum Winchester White Box is only around $15.00 a box for 50 rounds or a little over $25.00 a box for 100 round range packs.  And, you can go cheaper in 9 mm ammo depending on your weapon.  My Glock will eat just about anything you feed it without a hiccup so I usually use $10.00 a box Soviet Tula steel case on the range.

Second, the .380 round is not really a good self defense choice.  The 9 mm Parabellum is the oldest semi-

auto pistol round in use today and a lot of time and work has been put into refining it.  The .380 is also a 9 mm but with the cartridge case and propellant load shortened.  So, you can think of a .380 as a 9mm "short" in the same way that you would compare .22 long rifle ammo to .22 short. The standard 9 mm is about 40% more powerful than a .380 when a purpose loaded self defense round like the Remington Golden Saber is used. In a self defense situation that means that each round you hit with is going to do 40% more damage and be 40% more likely to take your assailant down.  In a real gunfight, you are not going to place every shot where you want it and you need the ones that do hit to do the maximum amount of damage possible.  The video below shows what happens when a 147 grain 9 mm Parabellum Remington Golden Sabre hits ballistic gel.  Ballistic gel is a substance designed to have the same physical characteristics as human body mass.



Third, there is the problem of capacity.  The standard Makarov holds eight rounds.  Some later versions may hold ten or twelve in double stack magazine which increases the weapons thickness and reduces concealability.  Modern medium frame 9 mm's have a fifteen or sixteen round magazine capacity.  In a real self defense situation, you are not going to hit every shot.  The more chances you have to hit your assailant, the more likely you are to survive.  A modern 9 mm handgun can give you up to twice as many shots without having to do a combat reload.

My advice is to acquire a quality, state of the art weapon and then learn how to use it.  Every weapon is different and you need to become completely comfortable, confident and competent with it.  The 9 mm is the smallest pistol cartridge recommended for self defense these days.  .380 is usually reserved for "backup" weapons and with the advent of .380 sized 9 mm pocket pistols, the round is becoming less and less relevant.

I carry a Glock 19 9 mm.  It cost a little under $500.00.  I decided to go with the Glock because I had already become accustomed to Glocks when I trained with a Glock 22.  I bought the 19 because it is

more concealable, cheaper to shoot, fits my smallish hands better and has less recoil.  It has a fifteen round magazine capacity and no bad habits.  It shoots accurately and predictably.  There are also .22 caliber conversion kits for the Glocks and I will probably purchase one in the future to further reduce my training costs.  I shoot at least a hundred rounds per month live fire and would like to shoot more.

If I were not in the security business and was going to purchase a weapon for home and personal defense, I would probably choose the Smith & Wesson SD9VE.  Smith & Wesson has had a lot of teething problems with their semi-autos but they seem to have them licked now.  The SD9 is identical in many respects to the Glock 19.  It even field strips identically to a Glock.  It is combination of previous models including the less than stellar performing Sigma and the better performing Shield series.  The SD9 is now considered to be an accurate, reliable weapon.  I trained with a guy carrying one and it didn't hiccup once in over four hundred rounds fired despite the fact that the guy was "limp wristing" the weapon at times.

The decision to carry a firearm is a serious one that should not be taken lightly.  If you are going to carry a weapon you need to be competent with it.  That means choosing a good quality weapon, firing it until you become competent and then firing it some more on a regular basis to stay competent.  Given that, it just makes sense to invest in a good quality, state of the art weapon that will not cost an arm and a leg to fire on a regular basis.

The Quiet Veterans ....

When we think of Veterans and Veteran's day we think of combat.  And that is good.  Combat is what the armed services are all about.  The front line forces are the tip of the spear that protects us all. But, I would ask you to a moment to give silent thanks to the rest of the veterans .....

• To the young people who will step on board an obsolete ship or airplane desperately needing
  
  maintenance and refits that the current administration will not fund and still do their best to do their job anyway with the full knowledge they are taking their lives in their hands on what should be routine missions.
• The the brave men of the amphibs who routinely do things with ships, small craft and vehicles that would scare any sane person to death and drive a civilian safety expert insane.
• To the men and women sitting in dark, heavily guarded rooms watching flickering screens and streaming data, knowing full well they are literally holding the fate of
  
  the world in their hands and aging their hearts and arteries decades for every month they continue to serve.
• To the sailors who walk out on to the deck in bad weather and risk their lives to keep the ship safe and on its way its next assignment.
• To the airmen who dance the deadly ballet of the flight line among whirling propellers that will instantly turn a person into a bloody pulp all over the surrounding surfaces and jet intakes that will literally suck a man in and turn him into something no longer recognizable as human.
  
• To the MP's, SP's, CID, NCIS, and other "special" agency people who quietly serve as the cops in a society constantly trained to professionally apply violence. 

And all of the others who never see combat but risk their lives and health daily to serve you.  God bless kids.

Putin Defends the Faith

We are surely living in a world turned upside down. Yes, that is Russian Premier and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin sounding like Ronald Reagan:

 

It is entirely possible that this is all masterfully done propaganda but I doubt it. We Americans have always tended to equate Christianity with our own culture and failed to recognize that there are ancient Christian traditions in other cultures as well. There have always been rumors of a powerful Christian underground in Russia that for generations has reached into the highest levels of power and that these areas of influence are quietly passed on from generation to generation through powerful families in the national institutions. Is it possible that Putin is one of these people? Who knows? But, at this moment, given a choice between voting for Putin and our current president, I would have no hesitation in voting for Putin. Putin is NOT a Muslim, he IS a warrior and he DOES NOT advocate the destruction of western culture. May God have mercy on us for letting this situation develop in a country founded on Christian values.

A Quick Lesson In Leadership

Every man who is a man has moments that he will never forget, moments when he was tested.  One of my worst moments was small by the standards of combat veterans but it still marked a milestone for me. I conquered my fear and did something that I knew could kill me.

While in the Navy, through an unusual set of circumstances, I was ordered to join the ship's landing party and make an amphibious landing with our embarked Marine unit during a training exercise in Latin America.  While that does not sound like a big deal, it was to me at the time.  First, Marines were trained to do that stuff. They trained on nice safe barricades ashore until they had they had the skills down.  Then and only then did they do it for real.  My first time was with no training in a very much "for real" situation.  Second, sea conditions for a landing were "marginal" on that day.  It was very much a judgment call whether or not the seas were too rough to conduct landing exercises at all. Given that, I was acutely aware that our squadron usually lost a marine or sailor or two during every landing exercise even though it was just training.

The act itself was straightforward.  You climb over the side of the ship and then climb down a cargo net to a spot a couple of feet above the deck of a landing craft and then jump down to the deck.  You start about thirty to forty feet above the landing craft.  (Did I mention I don't like heights? Never have.)  The problem is that on this particular day, a three to five foot swell was running.  That meant the ship was rolling about five degrees or more.  That meant that the cargo net would be tight and then slack as you climbed down.  It also meant that the landing craft below was swinging out from the side of the ship leaving nothing but blue water beneath you.  And finally it meant that the landing craft was rising and falling six feet or more with with the swells, so you had to time your jump on the up swing or you would not be jumping two feet but eight feet or more.  And, I forgot to mention, if you fell off or got tangled in the net, you could be crushed between the landing craft and the ship.  And also, since I was carrying a radio, spare batteries for it, a carbine and a combat load of ammo, two day worth a C-Rats and other field equipment, if I did fall and hit clear water, I would have to strip all of that before I would have a prayer of floating.  (Did I mention that I can't swim? The Navy figured an electronics technician didn't need to and never contemplated that I would wind up doing amphibious operations.)

As I as standing there on the deck, waiting for the order to "embark," I was scared to death.  I was on the edge of just walking away and refusing my orders.  Sensing my fear, an old Gunny walked up to me and said, "Come on son, let's go."  I will never forget that face.  Korea and Vietnam were permanently etched in his eyes.  His nose and cheeks bore the marks of  regular alcohol consumption.  But, whatever else he was, he was a leader.  He was calm and confident.  He didn't order me to go from behind.  He told me to just come on with him. 

We went down that net side by side and I did it. That is leadership in a nutshell.  You don't ask people to do things you won't do yourself and as far as possible you share the danger/burden of the exercise.  I was still scared to death but I went.  I learned a permanent lesson in leadership from that old Gunny.  Any *sshole can stand around and give orders.  But, true leadership must be earned and it is best exercised as a participant not as an observer.  That is why I hold the opinion that no person should ever serves as POTUS who has not served in the military.  If you have never sworn to lay down your life your country if asked to, you have not earned the right to order others to do so.

The time is coming very quickly when we are going to need real leadership.   I pray to God that our new gay friendly, politically correct, God denying military establishment has not purged all of the real leaders from its ranks.

I recently read An American Saga, Juan Trippe and His Pan Am Empire.  It was a fascinating read but more importantly it is almost a primer in how successful American businessmen work.  Here are some of the key lessons:

Connections always matter:  Juan Trippe was born into the upper social classes of America.  This gave him two advantages.  The first was obvious.  When you have Yale classmates and personal friends with names like Vanderbilt, raising a little capital is not going to present a problem.  The second lesson is more subtle but perhaps more important. Having been born into that class, Trippe instinctively knew the rules of dealing with powerful people, everything from how to dress to what not to order at a business lunch.  He had immediate social acceptance in business situations, not only because of his birth but also because of his personal presentation.  Trippe made new connections easily because he was viewed as someone important even if the person didn't know who he was.  The subtle choices of clothes, manners and personal presentation came naturally to him. When I worked for computer companies, they took great pains to teach us those things because powerful people won't consider what you have to say if the don't consider you, if not their social equal, at least a person who will not embarrass or betray them.  Back then, companies like IBM and Xerox had strict dress codes and paid tens of thousands of dollars to teach their representatives the secrets of personal and business presentation that people like Trippe knew naturally.

You must be ahead of the curve:  Trippe understood that you have to stay ahead of the curve to be successful.  Trippe did not let his customers define his business or the services he provided them because they rarely knew what they needed or what was possible.  Instead, Trippe chose to define his own market and services in such a way that he was always considered a trend setter.  He literally made his own markets and customers flocked to them.  For example, when other airlines were worrying about delivering a few bags of mail between American Cities, he was working with aviation experts to design long range flying boats that would link the major cities of the Caribbean and South America with luxury passenger service.  If he had listened to his customers, he would have been one of many competitors that might or might not have had moderate success in a turbulent US market.  Instead, he set the curve in a new market and emerged as literally a world changing leader who was a defacto third diplomatic force in foreign politics involving the US. The Boeing 707, Americas first jet liner, was built to Pam Am specifications on the promise of their order if the specs were met.  It was built to serve markets he had created, the long haul Atlantic and Pacific runs. The Boeing 747, the first jumbo jet, was also built to Pan Am specs and Pan Am engineers had significant input into the final design.  Pan Am engineers in cooperation with RCA literally developed the long range radio navigation systems that are still in use and were the only means of radio navigation until GPS.  Trippe realized that long term success requires more than just showing up and doing what is asked.  You have to define what needs to be done and then do it better than anyone else.

You must demand excellence:  Everything about Pan Am was the best.  When other pilots and air crew were allowed to fly in leather jackets and civilian suits, he demanded that his crews wear spotless naval style uniforms.  They were not allowed to smoke or drink in public nor even appear in public without their jackets and ties.  Pan Am flight-line services set the standard for the rest of industry.  Trippe never forgot that he was in a life and death business and that lives depended upon everything being done right the first time.

So long as Trippe was alive, Pan Am was the leading overseas airline in the world.  As he passed so did Pan Am.  The reasons are complex but they boil down to the fact that his successors lacked his vision and ability to demand excellence.

So what are the lessons for a small businessman?  You may not be born into social and business connections but you can make yourself into a person that any businessman will be happy to do business with regardless of which side of the tracks you were born on.  You can choose that your business will be ahead of the curve in everything it does, that you will define your market and services based upon the superior knowledge of your industry that you have worked hard to develop.  And, you can decide that "good enough" is never good enough, that excellence is the only acceptable standard.

I'm Impressed .... And a little shocked!

As you probably know from my previous posts, our farmhouse was burglarized last week.  Now that my anger is subsiding, there is something that I need to say.

I am deeply impressed by the response of the Sequoyah County Sheriff's Department in this matter.  When my cousin John discovered the break in a deputy was there in less than an hour.  I was there within two hours and within an hour after that the deputy was back taking a supplemental report.  For a rural county with a small department and high crime rate, that is impressive response.  That was faster response than we could have gotten in Metro Tulsa.

Here in Metro Tulsa where there are literally hundreds of officers, a smaller land area to cover and two departments working offenses and sharing jurisdiction (PD and Sheriff's Dept.) officers simply do not respond to theft calls.  As a matter of fact, as evidenced by my past posts here they don't even respond to grand theft auto calls.  But, here in Sequoyah County, USA darn they still act like you are a person and your property is important to you.

The real capper came at lunch time today.  My phone rang and it was a Sequoyah County Sheriff's investigator.  She asked me a few more questions and I gave some further information.  I also described a possible suspect.  I was already in awe that they were treating my complaint like the real crime that it is instead of blowing it off like the officers do here in Tulsa.  But son of a gun, this lady was actually investigating and talking about pulling in a suspect or two for questioning.

In Tulsa, I would have been told to fill out a form online so that could send me a letter in 90 days telling me they were closing the investigation and the file on it.  After I got over my shock, I realized that this is how things are supposed to work.  That in the REAL AMERICA, cops still do their job and treat the community with respect.  Increasingly, Tulsa metro police are "too busy" for things like street crime and theft.  That is sad and counterproductive because the criminal class no longer respects the law, the police or the law abiding population.

I was ready to treat this like a "Tulsa Situation."  Before the nice Deputy called, I was already going through my files looking for the number of a tough young ex-Dallas cop PI I know who could go down there and ask some questions and shake some trees.  I was getting ready to make the telephone calls to local LEO's in Sequoyah County to let them know that my PI would be down there nosing around.  But after the nice Deputy's call, I realized that Sequoyah County is NOT TULSA and I don't have to pay someone to do the cop's job for them.  

Again, I'm impressed with Sequoyah County and saddened that Tulsa, my hometown, has become the mess it is.

Our Farmhouse Was Burglarized!!!

Sometime between Wednesday and Saturday morning this week our farmhouse was burglarized.  Aside from making a mess, they only took three items, two of them of great sentimental value.  If the thief reads this be advised, the local Sheriff is looking for those weapons and I am looking for those weapons.  One was a gift from my long dead father.  I will look for that weapon until I find it or die and be advised, I have a lot of assets at my disposal to help me find it.

People like to tell themselves that crimes are committed randomly by strangers.  If you ask a cop, he will tell that you that is a self deluding crock of shit that lets everybody sit around the table at Thanksgiving and Christmas and smile and pretend that the people sitting across from them are not the cause of their heartbreak. When cops investigate a theft, the first people they look at are family members, friends and neighbors.  In the case of petty theft and burglary, they especially look for family members, friends and neighbors with a drug problem, or money problems or both.

I know that many of my family members and friends from around the neighborhood at the farm read this blog and my Facebook posts.  I will post this several times until I am sure the word has gotten around.  This is not a threat or even a warning. It is a fact.  If you ever have the misfortune to illegally enter a residence that I am occupying by either stealth or force, I will be in reasonable fear of my life or great bodily harm.  At that point, Oklahoma law allows me to kill you where you stand.

I don't care if you are Aunt Jenny's favorite nephew, my cousin fifteen times removed or the bastard son of poor little Suzie Jane.  I don't care if you came from a broken home and didn't get brand name sneakers while you were in Junior High.  When you illegally enter my residence you are nothing but a threat and a target. In the split second before my bullets rip into your chest, you can curse your parents for refusing to discipline you and allowing you to grow into a worthless piece of dung.  Or you can curse your grandparents for bailing you out time and again when facing some consequences might have saved you.  Or you can just scream and die.  It won't make a lot of difference because you will have finally stepped across a line where there are consequences that you can't get out of.

TPD and "The Invisible People"

Recently, we were sitting around the dinner table with a group of friends and I heard an absolutely amazing story.  Last winter, in the middle of the night, our friends heard loud yelling and screaming coming from their back yard.  When they looked out, they saw a Mexican man, obviously on serious drugs, waist deep in their pool.  The problem was it was the middle of winter and he had fallen through the pool cover. They called 911, and since they live in SOUTH TULSA, they got a fairly quick response.  The man was apparently high on bath salts or one of the other street drugs that increase body heat to the point that the user thinks they are on fire and will do just about anything to put it out. 

The next day, they noticed a car load of Mexicans in a car in front of their house, all pointing at our friends backyard and talking away in Spanish.  The street is a cul de sac and my friends knew all of their neighbors so those folks really had no business there.  They became concerned after a while and called the police.  In the course of reporting their situation, they mentioned the call to their house the night before.  Curiously the desk sergeant on the phone couldn't find any trace of the incident.  It was obvious that the officers responding hadn't bothered to report the incident.

After hearing my friend's story, I was reminded of another conversation that I had a few months back with a former city official.  He told me that Tulsa had become a defacto "sanctuary city" for illegals and that in most cases of minor crime, they were never arrested, simply detained and released.  In cases of impaired driving or driving without insurance, the car was simply parked near the scene and the keys taken.  Never mind the fact the owner could be back in a few minutes with spare keys and drive away as soon as the police did.  He also told me that huge numbers of men, probably illegals, would gather in some city parks and drink, cook and party to the wee hours without TPD enforcing noise, public drunkeness or other misdemeanor charges.

On the one hand, I can see TPD's point.  Arresting an illegal on minor charges is an exercise in futility.  With no ID at all or a fake ID, as soon as Juan Gonzales friends make his bail he will be gone to another city, or if the charges are serious enough, back to Mexico, where he will just melt into the crowd.  Further, serious attempts at doing something about the situation would prove politically embarrassing and might even bring the Justice Department down on TPD's head.  The lesson of the now infamous feud between Eric Holder and Sheriff Joe Arpaio has not been lost on Police Chiefs around the nation.  If you try to deal with the illegal alien problem in your city, the Feds will punish you.  And, if you just honestly report the crime that is occurring, you risk the Feds suing your city for arresting too many minorities and not enough "majorities" regardless of the fact of who is actually committing the crimes.

So, the net effect is that we have a growing population in Tulsa who are virtually invisible to the city government and the police.  They are not required to get food handling licenses, etc. for their pushcarts and food wagons.  They are not required to have insurance for their vehicles.  And, when the police do respond to anything less than a major felony regarding them, nothing much will probably happen.  Other minority groups have noticed this and are now complaining that too many of THEIR people are being arrested and not enough people with lighter skin.  They apparently want to be "invisible" too when they break the law.  If the trend continues, we may soon see only "majority"  (who are now becoming minorities in whole parts of the city and country) offenses prosecuted.  So much for equal justice before the law.

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Report No Evil - And Improve Your Peformance Rating

Nearly three years ago now, my wife and I were nearly killed by a hit and run driver on Admiral Boulevard.  I evaded the head on collision, did a 180 turn across Admiral, chased the highly impaired driver down and pulled my car in front of his pickup truck so he could not simply drive away.  We then called 911 and waited over an hour for a police officer to respond.  At one point, we watched as a TPD unit pulled in to a nearby restaurant for lunch in clear sight of what was going on.  The officer said that he could not respond  since he was "off duty" but driving his cruiser in uniform.  This week, my dear friend had his work van full of inventory stolen. We also waited over an hour and no TPD unit responded.  We watched TPD and Tulsa County Sheriff's units drive past as we waited.  We wondered where they were going and what could have been so important that they could not respond to a grand theft auto report.

Last night, it occurred to me that it is not in the police department's best interests to respond to crime if they don't have to.  They have already devalued the definition of crimes they will respond to to the point that the odds of getting an officer to respond to normal neighborhood crime are almost nil.  And now, it appears that even grand theft auto has been included in this "officer does not respond" list.

So, what is the effect if an officer does not respond?  For the police department it is all good.  Crimes that are not reported do not have to be investigated. And, they do not have to be included in the crime statistics for the city.  So, by simply defining crimes the department will respond to upward, the department has less work to do and looks better on paper.

But there is a downside.  Citizens cannot live in a society without order.  If the police department will not respond, they will respond themselves as my friend did .... by driving around a North Tulsa neighborhood doing the police department's job.  And that is very dangerous, not for the police department or the criminals but for the victim who could become another George Zimmerman for simply trying to make order out the chaos of situations the police department won't respond to.

If You Live In Tulsa Don't Bother Calling 911 - Part Two

My friend who had his business van stolen yesterday got it back today.  You would think that once he got his police report filed
that the tag number and description would have been broadcast, that Tulsa PD and Sheriff's units would have been instructed to look for it, that in their diligent patrols of our streets it would have been spotted and my friend would have received a friendly call from Officer Friendly to come pick up his stolen vehicle.  NOT IN TULSA OKLAHOMA.

This morning, my friend and his grandson got in their beat up old car and started searching the streets near where the theft occurred.  (Wouldn't you think that is something our highly paid police officers would have been assigned to cover?)  At any rate, within an hour or so they found the stolen van parked in plain sight in the parking lot of just about the only grocery store on the north side.  The keys were in it, his fruit, tools and personal possessions were still there.  Only some minor electronics had been stolen.  So, in a way, my friend was lucky.  He got his beat up old van and load of fruit back.  But, was he really lucky.  I think not.

I think that when a grand theft auto is reported that any citizen has the right to speak to a police officer within a few minutes of making the 911 call.  That did not happen.  I think that when an auto theft occurs, a citizen should not be required to get himself to a police station somehow and then beg police officers in the parking lot to take a report.  I think that when an auto theft report is taken that the citizen has the right to expect the police to make at least a cursory search for the vehicle.  And, I think that if a stolen vehicle is parked overnight in a public parking lot in full view of dozens if not a hundred passing TPD and Sheriff's units, at least one could have had the common decency to investigate.  That's what I think.

And, I think that my friend is awfully lucky that the vehicle was abandoned.  What if he had drove up on it and the thieves had been in it or nearby?  Would my friend have become the next George Zimmerman for doing the police department's job? 

It seems to me that Tulsa's city government, especially the police department, has abdicated its duty.  I no longer bother to tell clients to call the police when they are the victims of theft, embezzlement or even blackmail.  And, I tell them not to bother with the DA's office either.  All of those people that we pay to protect us are too busy for the day to day crime that costs us a fortune in the aggregate and even makes our lives a living hell at times. This situation has to change because anarchy is already taking hold.

If You Live In Tulsa Don't Bother Calling 911 - The Police Aren't Coming

Increasingly, the actual probability of a TPD officer responding to your crime report is getting miniscule.  Common theft reports are now apparently not responded to at all and the victims are advised to either file a report online or go to the nearest police station.  In either case, in a few weeks you will get a letter from TPD telling you that the investigation is closed and you should simply suck it up.  That's the cost of living in Tulsa.

But, today's experience was new low for me.  Around 4:00 PM, I got a call from an old friend and occasional client.  He is not a wealthy man.  He makes his living selling fruit both wholesale and retail. At any given time, his whole business is contained in the big van that he works out of.  Nearly in tears, my friend told me that his van had been stolen while he stepped inside a business to try to sell some fruit.  I asked him where he was and he said Pine and Utica.  I told him to call 911, sit tight and I would be there in ten minutes.

I got there in about ten minutes.  My friend had called TPD several minutes before he called me.  We sat in my car and waited.  My friend told me that several police cars had already passed and that he had waved at them but they didn't stop.  We continued sitting in my car and waiting.  It was not a comfortable wait.  My car looked really out of place in that part of the 'hood and we were attracting attention that made both of us  uncomfortable despite the deeply tinted windows.  A couple of hookers and local "street businessmen" passed close by to get a better look inside even though we were parked in the middle of a gravel parking lot.  But, we continued to wait.

After about half an hour, I called TPD and asked when we could expect an officer.  The dispatcher said that he could not tell us when TPD would get around to honoring us with their presence.  I told the dispatcher something to the effect that we weren't sitting in the safest place in the world.  He said that he just couldn't help.  Several TPD cars and a Sheriff's unit passed by but didn't stop.  After we had waited over an hour, my friend just gave in and said "take me home Bill.  This is enough."

I can't describe to you the look on my friends face.  Every nickle he had was tied up in that van, the load of fruit in it and the expensive tank of gas he had just bought.  He was also headed out for the week and had personal possessions in the van.  He even lost his new glasses.  My friend had just lost just about everything he had and the Tulsa Police Department couldn't even be bothered to respond, take a report and put the description of the stolen vehicle on the air so that the law enforcement community could be looking for it.

A couple of hours later, I got a call from my friend.  He had driven from his home to the nearest police station only to find that they had already closed for the day.  He flagged an officer down in the parking lot who could not take his report.  But at least that officer did contact someone who could and over two hours after the theft and my friend's DRIVING TO THE POLICE STATION AND BEGGING AN OFFICER IN THE PARKING LOT TO TAKE HIS CRIME REPORT, it was finally filed.

TPD's response to minor crime started lapsing years ago.  When it did, we began losing neighborhoods to  hoodlums who had a more or less free hand there.  As the years passed, the severity of the crime TPD no longer bothered with increased.  Now, apparently TPD is too busy to respond to major crimes like grand theft auto.  It is past time for TPD 's leadership to change and along with it the department's whole attitude toward the city they serve.  And, in case you think this is an isolated incident, read this blog entry from 2010 about TPD taking over an hour to respond to a hit and run accident my wife and I were involved in where I chased the perp down and pulled my car in front of his vehicle to keep him from driving away.

Confidence in a police department is built a call at a time.  At this moment, I have no confidence that TPD would respond to my 911 call if my home was being broken into.  They have a long way to go to earn back my trust and for that matter the trust of good people of North Tulsa.  The bad people of North Tulsa already trust them .... NOT TO SHOW UP.

The Lesson of Wounded Knee

The following article is circulating widely on the internet. However, it is next to impossible to trace to its original source. Is it historically accurate? It appears to be. No one argues that the U.S. govt was sent to disarm The Wounded Knee band of Sioux Indians. No one argues that that government troops then used state of the art machine guns against mostly disarmed and helpless men, women and children. So, at least that part of the article is accurate. The opinions are just that ... opinions. But based on the history of the US government in dealing with people it finds troublesome such as the pacified and peaceful most Christian Cheyenne killed at the Black Kettle Massacre, the civilized tribes who were decimated to seize their lands in the Southeast and even the Mormons who were forced to literally build their own country in the middle of the desert, the opinions are well founded as well.

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Lesson to be Learned on the Anniversary of Wounded Knee 

December 29, 2012 marks the 122nd Anniversary of the murder of 297 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Federal agents and members of the 7th Cavalry who had come to confiscate their firearms “for their own safety and protection”murdered these 297 people, in their winter camp. The slaughter began AFTER the majority of the Sioux had peacefully turned in their firearms. When the final round had flown, of the 297 dead or dying, two thirds (200) were women and children.Around 40 members of the 7th Cavalry were killed, over half cut down by friendly fire from the Hotchkiss guns of their overzealous comrades-in-arms. Twenty members of the 7th Cavalry were deemed "National Heroes" and awarded the Medal of Honor for their acts of cowardice.

We do not hear of Wounded Knee today. It is not mentioned in our history classes or books. What little does exist about Wounded Knee is normally the sanitized "Official Government Explanation" or the historically and factually inaccurate depictions of the events leading up to the massacre on the movie screen.Wounded Knee was among the first federally backed gun confiscation attempts in United States history. It ended in the senseless murder of 297 people.
Before you jump on the emotionally charged bandwagon for gun-control, take a moment to reflect on the real purpose of the Second Amendment- The right of the people to take up arms in defense of themselves, their families, and property in the face of invading armies or an oppressive government.

The argument that the Second Amendment only applies to hunting and target shooting is asinine. When the United States Constitution was drafted "hunting" was an everyday chore carried out by men and women to put meat on the table each night, and "target shooting" was an unheard of concept, musket balls were a precious commodity in the wilds of early America, and were certainly not wasted "target shooting".

Wounded Knee is the prime example of why the Second Amendment exists, and why we shouldn't be in such a hurry to surrender our Right to Bear Arms. Without the Second Amendment we have no right to defend our families and ourselves.The Second Amendment was written by people who fled oppressive and tyrannical regimes in Europe, and it refers to the right of American citizens to be armed for defense purposes should such tyranny rise in the United States.

As time goes on the average citizen in the United States continues to lose personal freedom or "liberty". Far too many times unjust bills are passed and signed into law under the guise of "for your safety" or "for protection". The Patriot Act signed into law by G.W. Bush, then expanded and continued by Barack Obama is just one of many examples of American citizens being stripped of their rights and privacy for "safety". Now, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is on the table, and will, most likely be taken away for "our safety".

Before any American citizen blindly accepts whatever new firearms legislation is about to be doled out, they should stop and think about something for just one minute- Evil does exist in our world. It always has and always will. Throughout history evil people have committed evil acts. In the Bible one of the first stories is that of Cain killing Abel.

We cannot legislate "evil" into extinction. Good people will abide by the law; defective people will always find a way around it. And another thought Evil exists all around us, but looking back at the historical record of the past 200 years across the globe, where is "evil" and "malevolence" most often found? Evil exists in the hands of those with the power- governments. The greatest human tragedies on record and the largest loss of innocent human life can be attributed to governments.

Who do governments target? "Scapegoats" and "enemies" within their own borders...but only after they have been disarmed to the point where they are no longer a threat. Ask any Native American, and they will tell you it was inferior technology and lack of arms that contributed to their demise. Ask any Armenian why it was so easy for the Turks to exterminate millions of them, and they will answer "We were disarmed before it happened". Ask any Jew what Hitler's first step prior to the mass murders of the Holocaust was- it was confiscation of firearms from them.

Wounded Knee is the prime example of why the Second Amendment exists, and why we shouldn't be in such a hurry to surrender our Right to Bear Arms. Without the Second Amendment we have no right to defend our families and ourselves and our people.