How dare the San Bernardino City Attorney to tell the residents of his city to protect themselves …

According to the City of San Bernardino police, a son found the body of his 76-year-old mother, Mary Elizabeth Blaskey, in her ransacked San Bernardino home where she apparently was killed by someone who then stole her car.

In a town hall-style meeting to discuss the impact of the City’s municipal bankruptcy on policing and the slaying of Mary Blaskey, San Bernardino City Attorney Jim Penman told the approximately 200 attendees to “go home, lock their doors and load their guns.”

According to City Councilwoman Wendy McCammack who called the meeting, “The city has had three homicides in less than two weeks and 43 this year. the City of San Bernardino. “We're down 80 cops. It makes it tough to police a city this size, especially with the parolee population, to get a handle on the proper amount of patrols in every neighborhood."

The liberals are outraged …

SB City Attorney spouts inflammatory remarks at town hall meeting 

Well, San Bernardino City Attorney Jim Penman has done it again.

At a town hall meeting prompted by an elderly woman’s slaying last week, he told an overflow crowd of worried residents to go home, lock their doors and load their guns.

That’s right, to load their guns.

A recipe for survivor-mentality vigilantism and accidental shootings. Nice work, Mr. Penman.

The inflammatory remarks at the town hall meeting at Arrowhead Country Club came as Police Chief Rob Handy was taking questions from residents upset about increased panhandling and a homeless encampment near a freeway exit in their well-heeled neighborhood.

Handy told the crowd of more than 200 people that panhandling laws are inadequate to fix the problem and that panhandlers, when arrested, are quickly released from jail.

Penman elbowed his way to the microphone and told the crowd police in the bankrupt city would not be able to protect them and that they should arm themselves inside battened-down homes.

First of all, stirring up more fear among residents is irresponsible. People already have a distorted sense of how dangerous the city is. Truth be told, the vast majority of homicides are of people with risky lifestyles such as gang activity.

Second, Penman’s incendiary comments undermine the police at a time when the department is already in turmoil. Nearly 30 sworn-officer positions are vacant as part of the city’s plan to reduce a $46 million deficit and emerge from bankruptcy.

Penman didn’t need to undermine public confidence in the police department’s ability to keep the city safe. Handy said it can get by with 260 officers.

Penman owes the police and the residents an apology for an ill-timed, unwise statement when San Bernardino least needed it.

But he doesn’t care about that. Creating drama is his style.

Source: SB City Attorney spouts inflammatory remarks at town hall meeting : Cassie MacDuff

Sounds reasonable to me …

Penman told CBS Los Angeles: “Well, if I remember right, I told them to ‘lock their doors and load their guns.' Let’s be honest, we don’t have enough police officers. We have too many criminals living in this city. We have had 45 murders this year…that’s far too high for a city of this size.”

“I’m not advocating that people go out, who don’t have any training, and buy firearms. I certainly strongly caution anyone who has children at home not to have a loaded gun in the house.” <Source>

In his own words …

What nonsense …

Consider the following facts:

• You have a God-given right to protect the lives of yourself and your family, using deadly force if required. Perhaps in your state or municipality, lesser rights when it comes to using deadly force to protect property.
• The police are required by law to maintain government-mandated law and order, but do not have any responsibilities to protect individual citizens that are not in their custody. That is, an individual cannot sue the police for failing to prevent crime when and where it occurs. You are pretty much on your own, even if you live across from the police station.
• Weapons, properly used, are a force-multiplier that permits weaker, infirm or elderly people to respond and resist superior force or armed assailants to prevent injury or death.
• People, many of whom do not have familiarity or training with firearms, view firearms as dangerous to all society and suggest that they be tightly controlled.

And while it may be statistically true that you are unlikely to encounter life-threatening aggression under ordinary circumstances, it really sucks to be you if you are the one who is at the statistical end of the scale and you are unprepared to save your own life or the lives of your family.

If people want to cower in fear, beg and plead for their lives in front of deranged or drug-addled criminals, it is their choice. Some of us may chose another path. To protect ourselves and our families from the growing criminal population that has been mollycoddled and been given early release by liberal politicians.

Bottom line …

In the final analysis, it is up to the individual to protect themselves from injury or death. You can trust no one but yourself. Your neighbor who spouts this twaddle about gun control is either unprepared or unwilling to come to your assistance if circumstances turn against you. You will find them hiding in their gated communities, in well-protected, alarmed homes with panic rooms, waiting for help to arrive.

It is helpful to remember that when seconds count and the police are minutes away, there is a handy dispenser of justice at your fingertips.

In my world, gun control is not about disarming the population to avoid rebellion in the face of government tyranny, keeping children and criminals away from guns, empowering criminals by creating more victims – it is hitting what you shoot at. A cliché to be sure – but a wise one based on human experience.

-- steve

Full Disclosure: I am a life member (Benefactor Level) of the National Rifle Association. The NRA supports the Second Amendment of the Constitution, provides training for law enforcement and civilians and promotes sportsmanship in weapon-related sporting events as well as hunting.