Growing budget problems and your families safety

Count on the Police?

Many cities, towns, counties and municipalities are having a severe decline in tax revenues as citizens have less disposable income, therefore they are buying less.  With less goods being purchased, that means there is less sales tax revenue for paying for government services.

I'm lucky where I live that our tourism hasn't taken that large of hit so our government services aren't too badly affected. However it can still take up to 30 minutes to get a deputy after calling 911.  That might not be true where you live though.  I know of some areas up further north in Texas and my old stomping grounds in Missouri where services have been cut, officers and deputies laid off, and response times can be over an hour for an officer or an ambulance.

If that is your town, what do you do if someone you don't know is trying to kick in the door?  What do you do when you dial 911 and they tell you it will be an hour before someone can get there?  Do you have the means to protect yourself?  And this isn't someone way out in the back beyond either.  Look at Detroit.  They have response times in excess of 90 minutes for a life threatening emergency. 

I used to live in St. Louis Missouri and when I lived on the south side in the Third District, police response times were anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes on average.  I worked for the Housing Authority doing security.  I would have a near riot of opposing gang members and call for help.  I would get guys from other project sites before the police would arrive.  And this was 1 mile away from the District station.  My help from the other sites were anywhere from 3 to 6 miles away.  They would be there 20 to 30 minutes before the police got there. 

You tell me what the problem was.

And seriously look at your own town.  Get a scanner listen to the police response times, listen to how many officers are on duty.  If the average response time is over 3 minutes, you could be dead by the time the police got to you if you call 911.

What do you do?

First, don't just go out and buy a firearm and some ammo and put it in the closet and pray you never need it.

Research first.  Find out what your options are.  Look at your situation.  Do you live in an apartment complex with their notoriously thin walls?  Do you live in a house?  Do you share a common wall with the people next door?

There are a lot of things you need to check out for yourself BEFORE you go out and buy your personal defense weapon.  I would suggest you start with Bob Owens e-book "So you want to own a gun".  I don't get a thing for recommending that and Bob only charges .99 cents for it.  Buy that, read it, before you decide to purchase a firearm.

After you decide what type of firearm you want to get if you even decide to, you need to research training for whatever you do purchase.

When I was doing security I had to be trained to use my pistol, my pepper spray, my baton and my ASP expandable baton.  I had to have certification on all of them showing that I was trained and competent in their use.  I couldn't just carry whatever I wanted, I was restricted to certain types and manufacturers by the Police Board.  Regular P.O.S.T. Certified Police Officers were restricted the same way.  I would highly suggest you get training as well.  Training from a Certified Instructor, with a good reputation.  Yes training can be a little costly, but it's your and your families lives at stake.

The whole point of this post is this. 

"You CANNOT rely on the authorities to protect you, you can only rely on yourself."

So make sure you CAN rely on yourself.  Get training, make sure your family has training in case you aren't home when everything goes sideways.  Get prepared, because as the saying goes, when seconds count, the police/fire/ambulance are minutes away.