Recently, my beloved state of Indiana has experienced some pretty dramatic flooding, as well as mass power outages and a loss of emergency services in several areas. Thankfully, despite me repeatedly tempting fate with my giant trees in the backyard, my house has so far been spared any damage (knock on wood).
Oddly enough, during all the catastrophe, a co-worker and I were talking about (of course) why I own firearms. The recent flooding, power outages and accompanying loss of emergency services in some areas serve as a stark example of why I choose to own firearms, as well as keep a decent supply of food on hand. Yesterday, the word was that Indianapolis Metro PD was having to patrol some areas in Hummvees, because the water was so high that they couldn’t reach the affected areas in their regular patrol cars.
Now, to the credit of Hoosiers, we haven’t descended into looting and pillaging areas where the power is out and services are down; in fact there has been a very strong and concerted effort amongst residents to work together to make sure that everyone is cared for. But imagine for a second that you’re in a bad neighborhood, the power’s out and flooding has made your area inaccessible to the police and fire departments. You’re fine, you have food, fuel and a generator enough to last for a week or so, but some other people aren’t. In this situation, you’re on your own. If someone decides they want to take your food or your fuel, the police can’t get to you to do anything about it – is it any wonder that I’d want to have a firearm to defend myself and my family?
You’d probably argue that the above is a hypothetical scenario, and you’d be right. But it’s not a far-fetched scenario either for a lot of people; it doesn’t take much for flooding to get to a point where cars “just don’t go” any more, and it’s certainly not a hypothetical situation for people who lived through the looting in the aftermath of Katrina.
My bottom line remains where it has always been, I keep firearms because I believe that I am personally responsible for my safety and the safety of my family – despite my LE/Military background, I don’t believe that it’s the police, military, or anyone’s job to help me when I’m up the creek.
