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Don't go arming everyone
The Los Angeles Times ^ | November 6, 2013 | The Editorial Board

Posted on 11/06/2013 12:01:39 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

When new Police Chief Cecil Smith arrived in Sanford, Fla., in April, he suspended the city's neighborhood watch program — the one under whose auspices George Zimmerman had patrolled the streets until he fatally shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. Now Smith is restarting the program, but the police department says it will exercise more control over volunteers, including doing background checks and asking them not to carry guns. "We just don't see the need for anybody to be armed," Smith told the Associated Press.

Smith has chosen to ask the volunteers rather than order them, perhaps because Florida law allows citizens to carry concealed weapons if they're properly permitted, as Zimmerman was. We wish he had gone further and told the volunteers that no one participating in the neighborhood watch program would be allowed to carry a gun — and that if they did they would be removed from the program.

No doubt Zimmerman was an aberration in the world of neighborhood watch volunteers: a pistol-packing cowboy who ignored advice from a 911 operator not to pursue Martin. But even if most volunteers are more responsible than Zimmerman, why do they need guns?(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: banglist; ccw; crime; florida; neighborhoodwatch; selfdefense; trayvon; zimmerman
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To: exDemMom
I'm sure if it's explained to the thugs that the Neighborhood Watch people are giving up their guns the thugs will agree to it. But wait...to make it really fair the police shouldn't have guns either.

Violence problem solved. <^..^>

21 posted on 11/06/2013 2:33:37 AM PST by grania
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To: GOPJ; grania

See, you two are just making sense now...;-)


22 posted on 11/06/2013 3:58:55 AM PST by stevie_d_64 (It's not the color of one's skin that offends people...it's how thin it is.)
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To: TigersEye
Don’t arm the insane. Don’t arm liberals. But I repeat myself.

I would add: Don’t arm LIARS – but that’s just repeating ourselves thrice

Libs are Liars

Support the Commonsense Civil Right of Self-Defense.

23 posted on 11/06/2013 4:13:27 AM PST by StaffiT (It takes a special kind of stupidity to think criminals will obey gun laws)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Recently my neighborhood decided to start a Watch Program so I went to the community center to check it out. I took one of the flyers and then sat down to listen to discussion. The knowledgeable officer then stated that while on volunteer duty you must be unarmed, yeah right, and that I couldn’t have my 80lb German Shepard walk with me because it might intimidate people. Hell yeah it might intimidate someone, that’s the point. At that point I got up, handed the flyer back and along with three others walked out. We still don’t have a Neighborhood Watch program, wonder why. Oh I should mention that the four of us who walked out (all combat veterans) take long walks at night with our guns and our dogs. HOOAH!


24 posted on 11/06/2013 4:20:41 AM PST by RetiredSACVet (Never Surrender!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is a good start: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3088055/posts


25 posted on 11/06/2013 4:33:05 AM PST by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: RetiredSACVet

“The knowledgeable officer then stated that while on volunteer duty you must be unarmed...”

You need a Constitutional sheriff to protect your neighborhood and families. We have one, and he encourages everyone to be armed and trained. He appears before women’s groups and tells them to buy a weapon for protection. He backs shooters who ventilate bad guys in self-defense shootings.

BTW, welcome to FR.


26 posted on 11/06/2013 4:41:45 AM PST by sergeantdave
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To: sergeantdave

“We just don’t see the need for anybody to be armed,”...

That should work real well. (sarc)


27 posted on 11/06/2013 4:47:36 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: RetiredSACVet
Oh I should mention that the four of us who walked out (all combat veterans) take long walks at night with our guns and our dogs.

In essence, you are the de facto neighborhood watch program; you simply haven't been "credentialed" by some government entity. The United States used to function quite well with "un-credentialed' citizens performing such tasks. Then again, the Constitution was about all the authority one needed back then.

Mr. niteowl77

28 posted on 11/06/2013 4:57:29 AM PST by niteowl77 (Establishment Republicans possess fewer guts than the last gnat that hit the windshield of your car.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
We need to care about what they are pushing.

Fair enough, but I'm more interested in how to sharpen our own message.

29 posted on 11/06/2013 6:36:51 AM PST by Carry_Okie (Grovelnator Schwarzenkaiser: fasionable fascism one charade at a time.)
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To: stevie_d_64

:)


30 posted on 11/06/2013 6:48:03 AM PST by GOPJ (Many Nazi functionaries were “decent people”-but did evil things while at work.GladeCuru)
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To: StaffiT
Unfortunately the Liar in Chief is already armed...

...and he says he is "good at killing people."

31 posted on 11/06/2013 8:14:01 AM PST by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We just don’t see the need for anybody to be armed,” Smith told the Associated Press

Are you and idiot?
Putting unarmed people out at night??
If Zimmerman had not been armed he might be dead instead of the perp..


32 posted on 11/06/2013 8:54:09 AM PST by SECURE AMERICA (Where can I go to sign for the American Revolution 2013 and the Crusades 2013?)
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