Burglar-alarm policy prompts call to arms Resident urges purchase of guns

[democracyindanger]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/11/BAG6CB978T1.DTL

With his city's police force poised to become the first in California to stop responding to most burglar alarms, Fremont insurance salesman Dennis Wolfe is urging his fellow citizens to arm themselves.

"I absolutely believe everybody should own a gun in Fremont now," Wolfe said Thursday. "If the police aren't going to protect us, we have to protect ourselves."

...

Even Fremont gun shop owner Martin MacDonald -- whose Irvington Arms was burglarized soon after the policy was publicized -- disagrees with Wolfe.

...

But Wolfe -- a self-employed health insurance salesman whose business card depicts a plane flying into the World Trade Center because he's a "real patriot" who doesn't "want people to forget" -- said residents have little choice.

[stepnw1f]

1. That Is Just Plain Crazy!!!

Something you might see in a "Simpson's" episode.

Do right-wingers realize how nuts they really appear to be or are?

[meganmonkey]

6. I know!

What a f*cked up business card! That is so creepy.

Right, just so we won't 'forget'. eeewwww...
:puke:

[benburch]

2. If a burglar enters my home while I am here.

He *will* leave it either in a body bag or in handcuffs.

And I don't care if you think that makes me a bad person.

I am a Fully Armed Liberal.

[DulceDecorum]

3. Most Iraqi men feel that way too,

and we are not allowed to see the body bags coming home.

[merwin]

4. I agree 100%

[Brooklyn Michael]

5. On the contrary...

I don't think defending one's home makes anyone a bad person. Nor does keeping guns.

I just don't think having EVERYONE armed to the teeth and taking the law into their own hands is the way to a happy, free society. At least outside the home. If someone breaks in, hey, it's their ass...

My 2 cents....

[flobee1kenobi]

8. I agree witheveryone here

If someone breaks into my place-they don't leave

The article simply states that the police can no longer respond to calls that have the "possibility" of being a false alarm.

how sad

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. or you will

I hope you don't have small children in the home.

[benburch]

10. Nope. All grown up.

And while I had a small child, the gun was locked in a gun rack, and the ammo in a locked box. Unloaded. And I had a military pepper gas spray for use with intruders. Still do, and would likely use that first, and only resort to the Remington if that didn't work.

I also taught my kids gun safety! All children should be taught how to safely deal with a gun when they get old enough, because there are guns EVERYWHERE.

[woodsprite]

11. Citizens in our neck of the woods are feeling the same way...

We've had over 100 burglaries and home invasions since October. I would say we're a semi-suburban area of around 30,000 people, that up to this point, had very little home breakins/burglaries like this. They were burglarizing the homes while people were away, but within the last couple of months, he (or they) have been cutting phone/electric lines breaking a window and walking right into the home with the residents there in the middle of the night.

[stillcool]

9. Our future....

[NickB79]

12. Um, no one has commented on the actions of the police force yet?

"With his city's police force poised to become the first in California to stop responding to most burglar alarms".

If there are no police responding to a burglar alarm, how exactly do you prevent someone from robbing you and possibly killing you?

I don't blame this guy for suggesting that people arm themselves if the police stop doing their job.

[democracyindanger]

13. Um, did you read the article?

98% of the alarms police respond to are false ones, costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars and preventing or delaying police from responding to ACTUAL crimes.

[Lindacooks]

14. Yep, that's right.

And I blame the Repukes, of course. If they weren't slashing funding for police to the bone, this wouldn't be such an issue. As it is, police funding has been cut so drastically that they have to do even more prioritizing of response to calls.

[mtnester]

15. In our area, false burgular and fire alarms are charged

You get the first 3 for free, after that, false calls get billed to you at the going rate of $150.00 per responded incident. (Meaning, if you set it off by accident and are home and cancel the call, it does not count...if the police have to respond and it is false, that counts)

This is how you deal with it rather than stop responding altogether. Once this billing started several years ago, false calls went down drastically.

[Gaben]

16. Protect Yourselves

I guess I'm cut from a different cloth, the sons of the old state militia still meet and discuss neighborhood safety in my neck of the woods.

Oh, we're somewhere short of Switzerland's "every citizen must have a gun to stop invaders from crossing their property in a war" mentality, but not much.

If everytime someone broke into a home they got shot, even with a 410 or a .32 mousegun, they'd probably stop breaking into homes pretty quickly...

Just a thought.

[democracyindanger]

17. Welcome to DU

Neck of the woods matters a great deal. Fremont is a suburb that was considered the sixth safest city for its size in the country.

Regardless, this Wolfe guy is a crackpot. I actually saw the main thrust of this story as 'Paranoid Wingnut Demonstrates How Paranoid He Is."

[mtnester]

18. Don't get me wrong, ours is a liberal housed armed

I was strictly referring to billing people who have false alarms, for whatever reason, and do not deal with them or get the problem fixed.

Break in here tonight, and you can be introduced to Mr. AND Mrs Wesson, and if you like, we will also show you Mr Capstun x2 and the Wesson's children, Colt and Winchester.

[applegrove]

19. The trick with guns is that if they can get you to hold one - you will

The trick with guns is that if they can get you to hold one - you will be lured by its power.

Don't love your neighbour if he/she is episcopalian or gay - but loooooove than ******* gun!