Calling all Cars!

Yesterday, I got to experience my first armed bank robbery. Bullets were flying and getaway car tires were screeching. Of course, I wasn't the gunman - just an innocent bystander standing outside the bank, in Guadalajara. The bank robber didn't know that one of the bank customers was an armed agent of the state attorney general's office. Coincidentally, this same agent was, at the time, assigned as the bodyguard of a family friend in the Mexican Congress (the congressman wasn't present at the time of the robbery). Anyway, when the agent tried to stop the robbery, gunfire erupted and the agent was shot. Unfortunately, the bank robber got away with the cash; and from what was reported, the agent is in grave condition.

Nothing like a nice, quiet vacation to get you ready for another year of work.

But, I thought guns prevent crime? You MUST have the situation wrong, like the agent was a perp or something, because cross-fire is unpossible...

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Originally Posted by KC2UGV

But, I thought guns prevent crime? You MUST have the situation wrong, like the agent was a perp or something, because cross-fire is unpossible...

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Read the post again—he was in Mexico, where citizens are not allowed to own firearms.

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Originally Posted by KJ6BSO

Read the post again—he was in Mexico, where citizens are not allowed to own firearms.

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So, the agent was a perp then. Because, it's unpossible for a cross-fire between perps and legal gun owners...

Glad to read you weren't hurt.... bet the adrenaline was flowing high for a few minutes though....
Get back to work and have a real rest..:)

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Originally Posted by KC2UGV

But, I thought guns prevent crime? You MUST have the situation wrong, like the agent was a perp or something, because cross-fire is unpossible...

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Nobody said guns prevent crime in an absolute sense. It almost harps on the absolute and invalid argument that some people use when they say, "radiation is 100 perfectly safe" to counter the valid argument that atomic energy is relatively safe.

Of course guns don't prevent crime. What they do is give you a margin of protection in the event an armed criminal decides that he is going to kill you or some innocent person. Like if a prowler is coming into my house, fully aware that I know he's coming in, but he doesn't care because he plans to "take care of me" once he gets inside. In such case I can shoot him and thus save my own life and perhaps others as well.

Speaking of Bank Robberies, I would have loved to watch (from a safe distance of course) a gang like John Dillinger's mob pulling a roaring 20's bank job. I could just imagine the scene. The robbers enter the bank wearing suits and fedora hats carrying violin cases. But they are not going in to play a concerto. At least not the kind that is aesthetically pleasing to the auditory nerve. Suddenly the bank alarm rings, triggered by a nervous frightened teller, and the violin cases come open. The robbers race out of the bank carrying bags of loot, jump aboard the getaway car, and the car speeds away in a hail of Tommy gun fire as one of the robbers fires away at any pursuers while standing on the running board of the car.
A scene so romanticized in books and on celluloid over the decades. Yet, I can imagine, quite terrifying in real life.

Nope, guns never do anything useful.[/sarcasm]
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53...olice.html.csp

And you can never defend yourself against someone that has the drop on you.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_784320.html

Although I don't know enough to vouch for its accuracy, here's an interesting read on firearms ownership in Mexico: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Mexico

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Originally Posted by n2ize

Nobody said guns prevent crime in an absolute sense. It almost harps on the absolute and invalid argument that some people use when they say, "radiation is 100 perfectly safe" to counter the valid argument that atomic energy is relatively safe.

Of course guns don't prevent crime. What they do is give you a margin of protection in the event an armed criminal decides that he is going to kill you or some innocent person. Like if a prowler is coming into my house, fully aware that I know he's coming in, but he doesn't care because he plans to "take care of me" once he gets inside. In such case I can shoot him and thus save my own life and perhaps others as well.

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+10000 internets.

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Originally Posted by KC2UGV

+10000 internets.

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Hah... I don't know if that's good or bad. :-D