i suppose you guys are right......i guess im just not a huge fan of waiting around for someone else to solve my problems and hope they catch the jerk
I don't think any of us are--it's just that it's usually the best idea.
Sometimes things work out for the best, sometimes they don't.
Bask in the early nineteen seventies, I was driving to work listening to the radio. I was shocked to hear the very distinctly identifiable voice of a man in my department explaining with his strong Aegean accent to a reporter how he had stopped a car theft with his rifle and held the two perps at gunpoint until the police arrived to take them away. It had just happened.
When I got to work the man was filling everyone in on the details. The car was an Oldsmobile belonging to a resident of the apartment building next door. The rifle was a .22 semi-automatic. Our hero shouted some politically incorrect threats at the perps, and they remained with their hands up until they were arrested. They "caught the jerks" because of his actions.
Knowing what I think I do now, I don't think what he did was lawful, but he was not charged. He did, however, end up very angry.
A couple of days later he reported to us that another car, a convertible, was taken from a parking place right next to the Oldsmobile. We talked about the rising crime rate in his neighborhood.
What made him angry was seeing the very same perps he had apprehended waving at him insolently from the stolen car as they drove past him with the top down on the following weekend.
Upon reflection, two things come to mind these decades later: (1) our hero put himself at some tactical (and legal) risk
for nothing; and (2) it's a jungle out there, and it's a good idea to carry a gun if you know how to use it, when to use it, when not to, and how otherwise to avoid trouble.
I carry a gun and a cell phone and a pepper blaster. My objective is to protect myself (and family) should the need arise. I do not intend to try to apprehend or detain thieves. There's too much downside risk and no tangible upside, and I do not need to satisfy my ego by acting like a policeman.