Atlanta under siege?
The Atlanta metro area suffered a siege led by a guy named Sherman back in the mid-‘60s. That’s 1860s. This time the “siege” is a massive new crime wave. Back then, the criminals all wore blue uniforms. Today, you’re more likely to see criminals in oversized T-shirts, pants down below their butt crack, and baseball caps on askew.
Every day’s news is filled with stories of car-jackings, daring daylight burglaries of homes, bank robberies and drive-by shootings. And Atlanta-after-dark is even more exciting. Murders are becoming so common that they are not the lead story on the evening news. Oh, no. The news directors think that gangs of thugs smashing through the front door of a blue jeans boutique and carrying out the inventory is more horrific than the loss of life. That probably has to do with the fact that there is security camera footage of the robbery, which can be shown on TV. Whereas, even footage of a murder would not be shown on TV. A visual medium will always default to a visual story.
It’s gotten to the point that it’s not safe to go to a gas station or through a fast-food drive-thru any more, as criminals are car-jacking people as they wait for their gas or food.
The greatest public service that the TV stations could do for the safety of the entire Atlanta metro area, some 5 million souls…is to vigorously promote gun ownership and responsible use of firearms. Criminals watch TV too. It would not take too long to change the perception of criminals that people are easy targets.
Advertising is advertising. If you see my message to buy a product often enough, it will change your perception about it. Coca-Cola knows this. McDonalds knows this. Likewise about firearms for protection.
What I would like to see is as many public service spots about firearms use for protection as we saw for the Congress-forced switchover to digital TV. After a while, honest citizens would change and so would criminals.
More guns in the hands of honest citizens would cause the crime surge to plummet. </em>
