Why I carry a handgun for protection, Vol. 34

We had the opportunity over the weekend to attend the open house for the headquarters of the Phoenix Police Department's newly-created Black Mountain precinct.  The polite, professional and service-oriented officer who led our tour gave us many fascinating and much-appreciated insights into the daily life of a regular street patrol officer.  He also, however, let slip a couple of nuggets of information that reinforce our decision to carry a handgun for personal protection on a daily basis:

1.  The new precinct's location was deemed necessary because, at least until they go live on August 23, response times to calls for service by citizens of far north Phoenix are averaging 15-20 minutes each.  That's not very reassuring at all as violent crimes against those residents can happen in a matter of seconds.

2.  Street officer manpower is reduced, sometimes to dangerously low levels, during regularly-scheduled shift changes.  A savvy criminal who managed to obtain that scheduling information from a rogue officer or a careless family member of a good cop could create quite a bit of mayhem during that window and the department would oftentimes be able to do very little about it.

We very much enjoyed our chance to peek into the life of a dedicated public safety official.  We are also even more convinced, though, that there just aren't enough of them, and that the ultimate responsibility for one's personal protection rests squarely on the shoulders of the law-abiding public.