Interesting. Number of Illinoisans signing up for CHL

[Oldgringo]

...Producers vs Recipients...

Good analogy.

[Abraham]

Why are city folks so afraid of protecting themselves?

Weird.

As a child, I went to over 25 different schools (there were more but, I can't list more than that) as my Dad and I hitchhiked about the country for a decade or so.

Know what I did when challenged by a bully at a new school?

After being verbally baited, I hit him before he hit me and that effort generally avoided the pain of being bullied - however, once I had a tiger by the tail and he and I battled for some time.

Eventually, I quit hitting him as he wouldn't stop fighting and I hadn't the ugliness to keep hitting him. So, I said to him, "we're even". At that point, he quit fighting.

BTW, he was a LOT bigger than me...

[chasfm11]

Why are city folks so afraid of protecting themselves?

Weird.

As a child, I went to over 25 different schools (there were more but, I can't list more than that) as my Dad and I hitchhiked about the country for a decade or so.

Know what I did when challenged by a bully at a new school?

After being verbally baited, I hit him before he hit me and that effort generally avoided the pain of being bullied - however, once I had a tiger by the tail and he and I battled for some time.

Eventually, I quit hitting him as he wouldn't stop fighting and I hadn't the ugliness to keep hitting him. So, I said to him, "we're even". At that point, he quit fighting.

BTW, he was a LOT bigger than me...

Our society seems to work hard at telling people they have no right to defend themselves. Our legal system is not always kind to self-defendants. Our churches, in over-emphasizing "turn the other cheek", have made it difficult for many to feel as though it is OK to fight back.

Like you, I grew up going to many schools. Several of the latter ones were in very closed communities who were, if not physically inbred, at least so tightly inter-woven that they rejected anything that looked like an "outsider." If you add to that someone who was a uncoordinated klutz, incapable of in the minimum requirements of any type of sport in an environment that adores sports, you have the makings of a target for constant bullying. I learned by 6th grade that I didn't stand a chance in fight with those who were compelled to bully me so I did everything possible to avoid situations were I might have to fight back. I still got knocked around a lot and often with at least the tacit support of the authorities who I thought should have been trying to protect me for not wanting to engage in fights. I consoled myself with the thought that I was "better than than."

In Chicago, you have thousands of people whom I believe have the same attitude, derived in much the same way. They have been bullied by society and the means of them equalizing against greater force have been demonized, much as those means are in the NJ or NY. If you go to NJ and ask, you will find out that a majority of the population believes it is wrong to have a gun for self-defense. You must defer to the authorities for such matters. But history also shows that NJ and Chicago abandon those same people when the authorities are called for that defense. I can readily identify with the resulting feeling of helplessness. Fortunately for me, I never abandoned my feeling of self-reliance and have been able to expand it to self-defense. I truly wish that there were some easy way for the Chicago population to do the same.