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Something many of you veteran LEOs no doubt already know:“The US didn’t have a spike in violent crime in 2016.A handful of neighborhoods in the US did. A mere five neighborhoods in Chicago supplied one-third of the increase in violent crime in 2016. Murders in the U.S. rose nearly 9% last year, and one-third of that increase came from just a few neighborhoods in Chicago, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the FBI’s annual 2016 publication, Crime in the United States. While violent crime (homicide, rape, assault, and robbery) also rose nationwide from 2015 to 2016 — over 4% — the data show the increase was not uniform, but rather concentrated in cities like Chicago and Baltimore. Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., meanwhile, saw “meaningful declines in violence [that] have been sustained since the 1990s.”This means the US doesn't have a violent crime problem. We have a violent zip code problem. This, of course, is hardly news. Anyone watching the country knows that the worst of criminality falls in a handful of places, typically poor neighborhoods in big cities, and the root of the problem is gang violence and turf wars. John Lott published a study in 2016 using 2014 crime statistics finding that murder in the US is very concentrated by location.In 2014, the most recent year that a county level breakdown is available, 54% of counties (with 11% of the population) have no murders. 69% of counties have no more than one murder, and about 20% of the population. These counties account for only 4% of all murders in the country.The worst 1% of counties have 19% of the population and 37% of the murders. The worst 5% of counties contain 47% of the population and account for 68% of murders. As shown in figure 2, over half of murders occurred in only 2% of counties.Murder has gotten more concentrated in fewer places. John Lott again:Murders actually used to be even more concentrated. From 1977 to 2000, on average 73 percent of counties in any give year had zero murders.Criminologist David Weisburg of George Mason University criminologist, released a study in 2015 that described what he called the “law of crime concentration,” and “the criminality of place”: a disproportionate amount of any city’s violent crime occurs in a small geographic area of the city. His data showed:Weisburg found that in large cities, 50% of crime occurs on just 4% to 6% of a city’s streets, while 0.8% to 1.6% of streets produce one-quarter of all crime.In many concealed carry classes you're dutifully told there's no such thing as a bad neighborhood that you can avoid to have no risk of violent attack. While I agree with the sentiment that you should always be aware of your surroundings and that lightning can strike in odd places, these statistics show that statement is just wrong. There are bad neighborhoods, and your chances of being involved in a violent crime are much worse in some places. If you don't have to go there, don't go. Complicating Weisburg and Lott's findings is the side effect of protests against police that have police vowing to have a lighter presence in the areas that need them the most. A Pew Research Center poll from January 2017 showed that an overwhelming number of police officers say widespread protests following high-profile killings of black suspects have made police less willing to conduct basic police work, such as stopping and questioning suspicious people in high-crime neighborhoods, and using an appropriate level of force to diffuse a situation.In Baltimore, violent crime rates were going down until 2015, when police officers “pulled back from a more proactive approach” following widespread city riots after the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a severe spinal injury while being transported in a police van on April 1, 2015, and died one week later.Violence in Baltimore has stayed historically high following the riots, with arrests plummeting, shootings soaring, and the police force itself getting smaller.One thing that has been proven to reduce crime rates is more proactive policing. Yet the "Ferguson Effect" has caused an increasing reluctance of police to go into those neighborhoods, and more reluctant to carry out everyday tasks of policing. You might have noticed that the left is currently lobbying for all of the things that make the murder rate worse.Remember: it's not gun control we need. It's zip code control.”

While not liberally correct, frankly I'm glad to see the situation becoming what it is in those parts of the country. You can make up news stories, hire 'experts', and have all kinds of propaganda, but for the average person, facts are facts, they believe what they see. You are now seeing some elements of these communities (aka Baltimore) coming forward and saying they want more police presence, they don't want the police to step back, and the activists and protesters who pushed for reduced police activity in the community did not represent nor speak for them. I say, you reap what you sow. You stood there in silence when the officer knocked on your door and asked if you knew anything about the gunshots that happened across the street last night. You stood there in silence while neighborhood kids conducted drug sales in the open. You stood there in silence while prostitutes walk up and down your street soliciting customers. You stood there in silence while bands of thugs played 'the knockout game' in tourist parts of your city. You stood there in silence.... until it started to affect you personally. Well, it's about damned time you stood up and said something. Sorry to see it took you so long. You knew what needed to be done to fix the problem before, you just weren't willing to do it. So it had to get THIS bad before you could break your silence. Now stand up and say something the next time someone asks if you know anything. It's YOUR community, YOUR neighbors, YOUR police, YOUR problem, YOUR chance to fix it. ... And hey, show of hands, how many people think the crime situation factored into the decision for Discovery Channel to relocate their HQ to Knoxville, vs. moving the Knox operation to Baltimore?

I ask @Grand Torino if he could do a knife for me from a farrier rasp. He asked me a few questions ( I told him I liked red) and this is the results. Yes, they are both being added to my collection from GT. Every time I get a knife from GT the photos have never done justice to the real thing. I can't wait to see these in person. No words of thanks can do justice to the quality from GT. But thank you GT. You knocked these out of the park.

The comments about bad neighborhoods speak directly to the thought that your personal risk goes up with EACH of these... Going to Stupid Places, with Stupid People, doing Stupid Things. Sometimes good people go to Stupid Places for good reasons, but you can almost always avoid the other two. Don't be Stupid!

I also thank PP for this posting. And Leroy is on point with his assessment. Political correctness calls for us to bury our heads in the sand and ignore the problems. Until we have the courage to stand up as a nation and say "enough" this will get no better. Law Enforcement needs to be allowed to do what's necessary. Period. I say the downhill slide began when "profiling" became the Left's cause of the week.

I'm sorry to hear what you are going through Ronald, and I totally understand your frustration and concerns. Our oldest is my 16 year old stepdaughter who up until this last summer has kept us on our toes. She's was never a bad kid, but she's always been the type to be influenced by the here and now, with little thought to anything else but how to be popular. We held her off from pretty much all social media until she was 14, at which point she got an instagram account. Even though my wife had access to it and checked her phone almost nightly (it had to be on its charger in our room by 9 every night), I could see her change from the sweet/seemingly innocent girl she once was to one obsessed by how many people were "liking" the occasional picture my wife wold let her post, and she constantly chafed under the restrictions my wife gave her about what she could/couldn't wear in said pictures. As she turned 15 we caught her lying to us about communication and interaction with a couple boys we didn't know. Thankfully she wasn't great at covering her tracks or aware that I had been not that great a kid growing up so I knew where/how to flush out what was going on. We saved her from making some big mistakes but in the end it was for not as she chose to go live with her biological father this summer after he told her she would get a Lexus and the newest iPhone for her sweet sixteen. Hard to compete with that, not that we would have. It's been very hard on my wife to relate and wrap her head around what's going on with her daughter as she (my wife) has legitimately always been a good moral, modest woman. The daughter is now on every social media known to man, including the real wolf in sheeps clothing, Snapchat. Total garbage, nothing good about that app but they market the hell out of it to these young girls with all the filters, streaks, trophys, etc....I'll catch my wife near to tears sometimes when she sees what her daughter is posting and wearing (or not) in her pictures. If you want to look into cameras checkout the 4 or 8 camera set by Nightowl at Costco. It will do pretty much everything you asked about in your OP and they run $300 and $500 respectively. I just helped my Dad install the 8 camera set at his church and they are super clear, and work great at night also. Sorry for what you are going through, I feel for you. As others have said you have to bite the bullet and get ahead of it if at all possible.

The original link is here, http://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-us-didnt-have-spike-in-violent.html I agree with @ReeferMac This line of thinking has merit, you need to police your own neighborhood. While the protesters, who are mostly outsiders, want less police, the opposite is actually needed. But there are other factors, such as what was coined as "The Ferguson Effect", while I'm sure many LEOs won't publicly admit it, it has to weigh on the way they do their jobs.

You can often find STI 2011s on Gunbroker for around $1500. VIP and 4.0 models.

As upsetting as that was, it would have been a lot worse if someone had accidentally pushed the "launch" button instead ...

Heads need to roll over that, and not after some investigation. Like now.

Seems like a good single mode flashlight is harder to find these days. I want to click the button and know it is on the brightest setting and no strobe option. Guess I'm old fashioned.

Many a male can relate, and probably a few females too.

A Texas built, High Standard 1911 Officer's model for me. It's a cheap piece of crap, to be honest, but I've never enjoyed shooting a pistol more.

I'm hoping someone else picks up on the X9 concept. Springfield or SIG or Ruger could do it for a whole bunch less. The Springfield EMP 4 Carry Contour is not that far off. It's a neat idea and I especially like the bobtailed/no-grip safety frame, but as usual with Wilson, it costs twice what it's worth. STI's double stacks are all based on a 2011 frame. They probably make a Commander-sized 2011, but it's probably not as slim as an X9.

Exactly. How many times is there a shooting in a residential area, cops interviews dozens of people, nobody saw nuthin. The guy that gets shot, didn't see whodunnit. You, me, and officer McGee know that's a crock O' BS. See Something, Say Something! Little Johnny was over there hanging out w/ his crackhead friends the other day, and I saw some other kids breaking into the basement of the abandon house a couple hours before and.... NOW the cop's have a lead.

But when laws are subverted for political correctness no one wins but those in power.

Necessary is the favorite euphemism for unconstitutional when it comes to matters of safety and security. I'm all for police exercising their lawful authority...but the lawful part must always come before the authority.

Pop... Thanks for posting this great article... Interestin stuff, indeed... I think this is a very interesting and insightful thought.... This is the "elephant in the room" that no one wants ta talk about; as it smacks of all the forbidden issues; poor neighborhoods, dope, gangs, hooliganism, tribalism, and all the other things that are forbidden today... There are, indeed, bad neighborhoods where there are bad people... Like Pop says, "... If ya don't have to go ther, don't go..."... Excellent advice, indeed... Thanks for posting this insightful info... leroy...

Yes they are, he does every part of it by himself they are true custom knives he has his own water jet and everything else

I think you may be there a while. http://www.fox13memphis.com/top-stories/icy-conditions-cause-massive-pile-up-on-i-40/682987373

Yeah, they’re fine. I mean, it’s an ammo can - not a Pelican case. Use it for what it’s intended and you’ll be fine. I wouldn’t stash any fancy lenses in them. Gaskets seem fine. I wouldn’t try to raft the Colorado with them. They stack well. Drop them full and they’ll dent - just like the originals.

Maybe they’ve developed 5.56 mm smoothbore with proprietary rifled slugs.

jmecklen, The wide FL allows the use of cover as we did under the old rules, and also the way most of us have been trained to do using standoff from cover. Using movement around the cover to expose each target, the wide FL will let the shooter arrive where we would have under the old rules to engage the last target. In this regard the wide FL is sort of a limit of advance around the cover. And Yes...., based on the statement from the link it also appears that the Gamers can rush full-speed directly to the wide FL fully exposed to all targets and engage each target as they would have appeared if they where actually using cover. Yet, I think the wide FL is necessary. Based on some the tight FLs that I have been seeing at local matches - - - nearly 90 degrees from the edge of the cover - - - there is little to no way to correctly employ standoff from the cover, it forces the shooter to crowd cover leaving little or no room for actual movement.

MAC address filtering on the router is good. If the device isn’t approved by you - it doesn’t connect to the network. We have a rule in our house. No devices in bedrooms. Period. All phones (my wife and mine included) get charged in the main area of the house. That makes it convenient to check it. I sat with a parent of a 13 year old a couple of weeks ago - trying to find her after she had gone missing. We were looking at her Instagram account from a forensic perspective - a secondary account she had opened after her parents found her previous one and shut it down. This one had been open for just over 24 hours. There were 11 people she knew following this account. There were 1089 anonymous followers - in under 24 hours - many of whom turned out to be sex offenders - including the person we eventually found her with. We’re not going to put the internet back in the box. It’s here to stay - yet it is still remarkably immature. You’ve got to find a framework where you help your kids figure out that consumption - what’s okay, what we need to limit, and what we need to avoid at large. Theres something else that I find myself saying with parents a lot when I lecture on this topic. “Our kids may or may not listen to us, but they never fail to emulate us.”

I’m in the M&P M2.0 Compact crowd. It is just simply a fantastic pistol and the hit of 2017’s new offerings. This old school beast is late by about 50 years but it was new to me in 2017.

I agree, totally. I just need to follow that advice myself. I freely admit to having been where I shouldn't have been several times. Not necessarily doing bad, evil, or unlawful things; but could have used better judgement at those times. Sadly, several of them involved the 2 biggest problems for a man...women and alcohol.