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Posted by Glenn E. Meyer: As Claude mentioned, it's hard to find instances of a criminal who took rounds and continued the usual property crime.
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I agree with that--but I do not think it prudent for me to prepare for the "usual property crime" without a significant margin of safety.
I'm not concerned vey concerned about property crimes. I'm more concerned about crimes of violence.
I live very close to a major Interstate Highway that is one of the most heavily trafficked drug arteries in the country. It also provides transportation into and out of a major city that has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the country and that is minutes away. Our county is number one in the state for meth lab busts, and the state has the dubious honor of being number one in the nation. None of the contiguous counties rate much lower. There was one lab incident every fifteen minutes in the five contiguous counties last year.
The real problem is the crimes committed by those people and by the urban criminal element.
Armed robberies and carjackings are increasingly common in area parking lots that are near the highways. One not infrequently observes predators who are very obviously looking for victims in those lots during the day. I have seen several stops on the highways involving large drug busts (indicated by scanner chatter calling for reinforcements). I have driven by fires that followed lab explosions. I have seen officers come to a campground to haul the meth guys and gals and their kids away.
Police and parol officer friends and acquaintances tell me that meth users are usually very violent and desperate and that they do not experience fear of being hurt and often cannot feel pain--that it is necessary to shoot until they drop.
Those folks may not perpetrate "usual" property crimes, depending upon how one wants to characterize the taking of propane and anhydrous ammonia, but they are a major concern.
I do carry a snubby much of the time, though I occasionally question the wisdom of my decision, and focussed training would be a good idea for me.
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Posted by Frank Ettin: There's an excellent chance that any problem will be pretty routine (in fact, there's an excellent chance there won't be a problem).
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Very true. But prudent risk management cannot be based on those assumptions.