Ann Arbor, MI priest sent a letter to his parishers

[AlanM]

Priest's letter to Ann Arbor church about guns

The letter is quite long but a great, well thought out, articulate read.

There's also a link on that page to a synopsis of the 8 major points made.

I want to comment on this passage:

■ "During the CPL class last Saturday at Christ the King, a police officer from a suburb of Detroit who was conducting part of the class pointed out that because more Detroiters are protecting themselves, more of the criminals are now targeting the suburbs, because most of the suburbs consider themselves distant or immune from the threat. But in point of fact, as the officer pointed out, the threat is actually growing there. It is not just in the big cities either."

I first saw this effect in the movie "In Days of Wine and Roses" when I was in high school. Jack Lemon's character sprayed Lee Remick's apartment for roaches and almost immediately EVERY OTHER tenant in the building screamed at him because they were being invaded.

The second time was when I was living in an apartment in Charleston, SC in about '70 and our neighbor had Orkin spray her apartment and suddenly we were up to our knees in roaches. BTW - palmetto roaches give my heebies the jeebies.

Fast forward to 2004 when Ohio got concealed carry. Almost immediately Toledo saw a decrease in crime and the counties across the border in Michigan experienced an INCREASE in crime.
This effect was documented by John Lott in his study described in "More Guns, Less Crime."

[Reverenddel]

It makes sense "Move to an area with better victims, and less 'heroes'."

Same thing for banks! We bump up defenses to the Nth degree, make it VERY difficult to commit theft of ANY kind... it doesn't have to catch ALL, but higher than everyone else! They move on!

It's the "I don't have to outrun the bear, I only have to outrun YOU!" argument.

[Rualert]

Same thing we used to tell our customers when I worked in Automotive electronics. Whenever someone asked if this new alarm system would stop their car from being stolen or broken into, we would tell them no it won't, but what it will do is make the thief look for another car that doe not have protection. They would think about it for a minute, and say, "You know your right, that makes perfect sense". We would respond, that yes, you may have this car, but isn't their someone in your neighborhood or maybe street with the same car? The bad guys will just look up the street, and try the one without the protection. Same thought process, just different conversation.

Casey

[dorminWS]

Precisely. If thieves and thugs weren't strongly inclined towards easy pickin's, they'd get an honest job and WORK for a living.

[AlanM]

Father Ed's bishop has ruled no more classes at the parish.

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2015/04/23/p ... or-parish/

I wonder what the Catholic church's response will be when a terrorist bomb goes of at the Vatican or at a public appearance of the Pope.