By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)-
In the United States, armed citizens are seldom robbed. When they are, it is usually because the robber does not know that they are armed, and simply makes a mistake in victim selection. That may be what happened with an Illinois police officer. It happened on 7 September, 2014. From wgntv.com:
An off-duty Harvey Police Officer is in critical condition after being attacked and robbed.
It happened around 3:00am this morning near 59th and Lake Shore Drive, at the nearby harbor.
The officer was reportedly hit in the head with a gun, before his gun and badge were stolen.
It is noteworthy that the officer was off duty when robbed. Very likely, the criminal did not know if he were armed. Criminals do not want to be shot, so they avoid armed victims. Criminal surveys have confirmed this fact. From The Armed Criminal in America:
Fifty-six percent of the felons surveyed agreed that “A criminal is not going to mess around with a victim he knows is armed with a gun;” 74% agreed that “One reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot.”
A 57% majority agreed that “Most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.” In asking felons what they personally thought about while committing crimes, 34% indicated that they thought about getting “shot at by police” or “shot by victim.”
Of course, it is hard to determine if these numbers are accurate. Criminals lie, and the desire to “look tough” and appear fearless very likely suppressed the numbers. I suspect the actual percentages to be much higher.
c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Did the officer conduct a background check before transferring his weapon to the thug?
I personally feel bad when someone commits a crime with a gun. It only fuels more crap about how BAD I am because I’m a gun owner, a lawful gun owner for now. But having said that, Chicago is only reaping the crops that they have sown. This PD may be a great guy, but he is part of the corrupt Chicago machine. If they don’t care about the welfare of their own PD why would you work for them?
Texas still doens’t have open carry ! That is correct although we will after the next legislative session,it will pass easily. For me personally it’s a mute point. I have been legally carrying concealed in Texas since ’95. I will continue to carry concealed even when open carry is passed. I prefer that nobody knows I’m carrying at all,why advertise ? But it will be nice to have the option like AZ does and a few other states.
Janet, open carry is the best way to carry a pistol BUT you will need someone to watch your BACK because the thief will attack from the back
I used to live in Harvey. One would think a cop from that area would have a little better situational awareness in the south side.
@Lee Cruse – ‘Open Carry’ only makes you more of a target. There are criminals who would risk snatching your gun and there are people who want to snatch your 2nd Amendment Rights.
This story is nothing but a lie. Only the Police are allowed to have a weapon in Chicago. Shame,shame,shame on you.
Maybe if Illinois allowed law abiding citizens to carry arms per the Constitution , maybe he would not be robbed and robbers would be stopped.
Interesting observation. I wonder if this might be a case where open carry would be more effective than concealed carry? I think that we should have the option, however, TX still does not allow open carry of handguns.