Bellevue Kroger

[Guest crytes]

The real problem seems to be public perception. And if the public only see guns in the hands of lawenforcement and criminals then how will public preception ever change. What seems nesisary is that Either everyone carries concealed as the law intended or everyone starts carrying open so it becomes a common sight to see armed law abideing citizens and would thus be no cause for alarm. As an added bounus all those guns out in the open will probally reduce crime just as will issue laws seem to in place were they are adopted. We also need more public media corolateing increase in registered gun ownership and cary permits to reduced violen crime and push those numbers. We need to expose guns in their positive light and when people once again see it as their duty to arm themselve they wont allow themselves to be disarmed again.

Crytes

[Marswolf]

We also need more public media corolateing increase in registered gun ownership and cary permits to reduced violen crime and push those numbers.

Crytes

I don't think it's possible to do that. While this makes sense, it gets into a lot of post hoc stuff that doesn't prove the cause and effect relationship between increased carry and lower crime. Frankly there are too many factors at work to make that correlation, IMHO. Also you would have to explain places like New York City that has relatively low crime and very few packers.

The reason to pack is because it makes you safer, not because it makes society safer.

[Mark@Sea]

I've heard that New Yorks' low crime rate is actually a result of them not reporting the crimes, rather than a drop in same.

No hard facts on this, just secondhand info.

[Marswolf]

New York's lower crime rate probably comes from a much higher percentage of middle and upper economic class folks who insisted the city crack down on criminals some years ago rather than ignoring the problem as Philadelphia and other large cities have done. But this means having a lot of cops. With the socioeconomic realities of New York, they can afford them. Their solution doesn't transplant to Newark.

[Guest Phantom6]

New York's lower crime rate probably comes from a much higher percentage of middle and upper economic class folks who insisted the city crack down on criminals some years ago rather than ignoring the problem as Philadelphia and other large cities have done. But this means having a lot of cops. With the socioeconomic realities of New York, they can afford them. Their solution doesn't transplant to Newark.

I agree. It won't play in Hoboken ... or Newark. Just to give you an idea of how many cops that the City of New York can afford to field, consider this;

• The city of Kingsport has a population of 44,191 (give or take a few)* making Kingsport the 12 most largest city (by population) in the state.
  
• The NYPD's current authorized uniformed strength is 37,038, which was scheduled to increase to 37,838 in January 2007. This figure does not include other agencies working in the area such as Port Authority or Housing Authority departments among others.

With these figures in mind, if the entire NYPD were to be passing through the state of Tennessee, they would be (population wise) larger than cities like Colliersville, Germantown,Gallatin, La Vergne, Lebanon, Maryville, Oak Ridge and others. In fact, they would be the 13th largest population in the state at the time**. Of course, if they were all in busses heading down I-75 for the UT Vols home season opener against Southern Miss. on 8 September they would be on 806 Grayhound buses in a train that traveling at interstate speeds, would stretch nearly 30 miles.

Wow, that's a bunch-o-cops!

Sources

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* http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/misc/pdfaq2.html#41

** http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-Tennessee.html

[Guest ETS_Inc]

Just think of the business Krispy Kreme would do that day!