Some interesting statistics to ponder

I was traveling over the weekend (which is why I haven't posted in a couple of days, sorry about that) and while in the Minneapolis airport bookstore I purchased a copy of the February 2008 Consumers Digest to read on the plane.

While reading the magazine, I came across an article on page 18 entitled "The hang-up with dialing 9-1-1". The lead paragraph includes the sentence "But some safety experts warn that consumers should not assume that somebody will answer their call or that they will receive help in time." In other words, you just may be on your own in an emergency. You'd better be prepared to deal with the situation on your own.

How bad are things in 911-land? According to the magazine, last year in Nassau County, New York, a very prosperous and well-served area, there were 568,746 calls to 911. Of that total, 11 percent were put on hold for as much as three minutes before they were connected to an emergency operator. That's three minutes just to get connected, not before help was dispatched. Part of the problem apparently stems from the fact that there are only 133 operators available, out of a budgeted 160.

San Francisco, another urban area known for lots of services to its residents, is in a similar pickle. They have budget room for 187 operators (ironic because 187 is the police code for murder in California), but the city currently only has 155 on active duty, as well having 29 percent of them on long-term disability for job stress reasons.

The Consumers Digest article is really about debating whether or not homeowners should have an expensive first aid kit available, but I would argue that one should also decide whether or not to have a defensive firearm that's easily available to the adults residing in the home as well. After all, there are crime emergencies every day, as well as medical ones. Shouldn't a household be ready to deal with either kind of situation, as they are supposed to "not assume that somebody will answer their call" ?

That sounds like good common sense to me. I think I'll write in and mention that fact to the editors at the magazine. Let's see if they agree.


Update: This is really eerie. No sooner do I post the above comments and start my round of Monday morning blog-and-forum visiting, when I find that one of the other members of the Twin Cities Carry Forum has posted the following YouTube capture of a 911 call in which a woman shoots and kills an intruder who is trying to strangle her while she is on the phone with the 911 operator.





If this isn't enough to convince people that a defensive firearm is a good thing to have around, then I don't know what would be.