I haven't written about the unfolding kidnap/exploitation of three (at least) young women in Cleveland because your home TV set is full of it -- in every sense of the word. But the media, having approximately the cleverness and creativity of a 1970s photocopier,* is now trotting out every last survivor of long-term creepezoid kidnappers they can find.
It's a short list.
Nevertheless, they're playing it up and you may find yourself lookin' at strangers and bus drivers in a whole new way.
Reality is, the distribution curve for human behavior is way wider -- and way taller in the middle -- than either the talking heads on TV or conventional wisdom would suggest. And it tapers off in the usual bell-shaped way, which is the real problem.
See, horrible people do horrible things; always have, even back in "the good old days;" but they are both more horrible and less common than you'd think. The trouble is, there's a lot of in-between awfulness to give the really icky ones cover.
Take, for instance, the padlocked interior doors noticed by family members of the guy alleged to have been the prime kidnapper in the Cleveland case (and seen in some published photographs). They're a not-uncommon feature of poorer homes, to either slow the depredations of light-fingered relatives or in the mistaken belief that law enforcement needs a separate warrant for every locked door. If Uncle Weirdo is a little paranoid, or hiding illicit substances, who's to pry? Especially as he's known to have a bad temper? --And so it goes.
Pervert kidnappers are not behind every corner; but they're out there. As Breda has remarked, "carry your gun. It's lighter than regret."
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* Ask your googleparents.
That's the problem with a 24/7 news cycle. Gotta fill all that dead air with something.
ReplyDeleteProvided you live in a Place that:
ReplyDeleteA) Allows Concealed Handgun Carry in the First Place, which Cleveland, Ohio DID NOT at the time of their Abductions (unless for those Politically Connected, just like New York City, Chicago and Los Angles are today); and
B) One is 21 and Older.
Which means those three Women, who were 20, 16 and 14 at the time of their Abductions couldn't Carry at all.
But if one is over 21 and lives in place that hasn't Disarmed one's Citizens, CARRY YOUR GUNS!
There is no doubt that these were very sick, cruel individuals. But it not uncommon in this world. Even here in the USA up to the
ReplyDeletecentury women (and kids were little better regarded as property and treated as their owners wished. In the world at large how are they treated today? Look at some of the so called enlightened countries (in Muslim Nations on how women are regarded and their female offspring. It doesn't excuse what happened in Cleveland and doesn't excuse it in anyway if happens anywhere but their are some really sick people out there who do it. I have no answers except as you mention, be armed and keep your loved ones from harm and close. Good wishes to these poor girls.
.5
Fourteen is more than old enough to carry. Particularly for girls, who mature faster than boys.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I favor Constitutional Carry, starting at the Hispanic age of consent for females and 18 for boys.
Stranger
Bubblehead Les,
ReplyDeletePerhaps the line should then be changed to:
Resist by any and all means available, provide yourself with the best means possible, and fight with equal vigor for better tools.
BGM
+@ on Fuzzy, and yes carry... period...
ReplyDeleteLes: could not *legally* carry. Further, prudence says not.
ReplyDelete