RW>My suggestion would be allowing every adult in the area
  >to carry a concealed weapon.  Let the gang know that
  >they are in danger if the try to commit a crime.
CH> An open shooting war, Rich?
No, trying to stop one already in progress by arming
the other side.  If arming people started a war then
Florida, Tennessee and the 21 other states that have
either enacted CCW laws or loosen the restrictions on
who can carry would be knee deep in blood.  Especially
Vermont where anyone over 21 can carry a concealed
weapon with out any type of government approval.
If you care to check you will see that in almost every
state the crime rates have dropped faster than the
national average AND the percentage of permit holders
who have used their weapons illegally is so small that
you need a microscope to see it. 
I think in FL in the first year or two there were about
100 people out of well over 100,000 who had their
permits revoked which I believe works out to be
0.00001% and only 2 (0.0000002%) permits were revoked
because of violation of any weapons law.
So you can see that LEOs are not the only people who
can carry a weapon without whipping it out and shooting
anyone who urinates them off.  I hate to say it but
this seems to surprise a lot of LEOs.
                      Remember:  Freedom isn't Free!
--- timEd-B11
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