An international incident?
No, merely a journalist not paying attention to what he was doing.
"Terkel Svensson, a writer for the Danish News Agency, could not get wireless Internet access at the schoolhouse to file a story. But Svensson could get his cell phone working so he called his editor in Copenhagen and started wandering across a quiet country road as he chatted away. "I was just so occupied dictating my story that I didn't really see where I went," Svensson told me later. "I was just walking and talking." What Svensson didn't realize was that he had stopped walking a couple hundred feet away, on the front lawn of an elderly woman. An elderly woman who looked through her window and didn't like that a strange man was standing outside her house. An elderly woman who had, um, a gun."
Svensson noted after the "incident" that his wife and kids thought he was on a safe trip.
Yes, Mr. Svensson, because many Texans are armed, you were in one of the safest areas you can be. You just need to pay a little closer attention, Sir.
02 March 2008
'Incident' Near Bush Texas Ranch
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4 comments:
You have to be joking. The murder rate in Texas is astronomical, compared to the rest of the Western world. In 2004 the murder rate in Texas was 6.1 per 100000 citizens. The corresponding rate in Denmark was 0.79.
The old lady is clearly psychotic. Does she do the same thing when children run in to get a lost soccer ball? When delivery guys approach her house? Jehova´s Witnesses?
Captain, thanks for writing. Texas is safer than other parts of the US. The highest violent crime rates in the nation are in the places where there is strictest gun control.
True, Denmark has a lower violent crime rate than Texas, but non-violent crimes of opportunity are rising rapidly, whilc the crime rate in Texas is stable. Now, to call the woman psychotic without examining her (are you an MD? I'm not), is a stretch. My fear is that you are projecting your own fears of what you would do against a child with a soccer ball, delivery guy or Jehovah's Witness on this woman. The reporter walked where he wasn't supposed to, he CLEARLY admitted he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, and she shooed him off. End of incident.
I kind of doubt your ideas on the safety of places without gun control. The murder rate in the US, Texas and Denmark, were as follows:
1976 12.2 , 8.8, 0.7
1984 13.1, 7.9, 1.0
1994 11.0, 9.0, 1.5
2004 6.1, 5.5, 0.79
Texas is at all times higher than the US average, the murder rate in Texas follows the general US trends and Denmark actually has a downwards trend. Massachussetts, a much less gun friendly state, was at 3.3 (1976), 3.6 (1984), 3.5 (1994) and 2.6 (2004). It's an interesting comparison.
Also the rest of the Western world, with much stricter gun control than America, has a much lower rate of murder.
Certainly you have a right to tell a person to get the hell off your property. But to take out a gun and point it at a person is only called for if there is an immediate emergency. If the old lady had actually feared this stranger, she would clearly have locked the door and called the police. She would not have gone out and confronted Jesse James or Al Capone. *LOL*
She clearly went out because she knew she was in no danger. She was angry, not afraid.
Having a gun pointed at you is an extremely shocking experience for most people, not in any way comparable to being tired of people wandering in to your backyard. The idea that a death threat is a suitable "punishment" or remedy for someone doing something that's completely harmless and that ranks below stealing chewing gum, IS insane. A property owner has the right to use reasonable force to protect their property, not to use any kind of force they like.
A simple solution is to put up a small fence. That makes it impossible for people to miss that it's private property or to just wander into your backyard.
This incident isn't flattering to your country, to say the least. I'm just very grateful that I don't have to live in it - for many reasons.
That's okay. In a free country, no one would force you to visit or live here.
But more importantly, you and I have NO idea whether this woman was in fear. The is a subjective area. I do not know whether she knew he was a reporter. Perhaps she had had problems with other people trespassing as they come in and and around President Bush's ranch. There has been a lot of that, and not everyone in the area has been polite to area homeowners.
In the United States, private property rights are virtually sacred. Should she have pointed a gun? I don't know. But he still was safer in Texas than even in this nation's capital. Work is being done to a handgun prohibition in Washington DC, and replace it with sorely needed citizen safety legislation. The U.S. Supreme Court will be ruling on that issue sometime this summer. Captain, as always, thank you for writing.
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