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Mike1951 wrote:Except that the date for Texas' National Night Out has been changed to October 7th.

I guess my city didn't get the memo. They are doing it tonight.

Well I think tonight is "National Night Out". http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/

I am the first to admit that I am not real chummy with my neighbors. It's not that I am reclusive or that my family are non-social, but it's more about the fact that we are just not often home. We have a yard guy who does the yard work for us. I work on my cars inside the garage. We don't spend a lot of time outdoors in front of the house just shooting the breeze with the neighbors. We are insanely busy most of the time so we just don't take the time to get to know the neighbors. But last night as I was pulling into the driveway the lady from across the street walked up and talked to me about the National Night Out and she said that in the spirit of helping the neighbors to get to know each other, she and her family were going to host a barbecue in the cul-de-sac for NNO, and she wanted to see if my family could attend. We are going to make every effort to be there for at least part of it even though we have a Tuesday commitment at the same time.

Now I guess maybe this depends on the kind of neighborhood you are in, and how much you likely fit in with your neighbors. I live in a suburban middle-class "master planned community" type neighborhood on a cul-de-sac street with about 12 houses on it. All of the houses on our block are within 20% of the median price, we are all working similar types of jobs, most are families with school-age children, so you know we all kind of have a lot in common anyway. But I know of people (my parents, for example) who actively fued with their neighbors so I can see how it goes both ways.

Frankly I think that whether you like them as pals or not, getting to know your neighbors and banding together to watch out for one another is a huge deterrent to crime and only can have a positive impact on the community. Once my wife called while I was out on a bike ride at night and she had to be rushed to the hospital. You know I was really glad to find my next door neighbors there when I got home, keeping my kids. Once I had to be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night and when they saw the ambulance lights several neighbors got out of bed and came out to see if they could do anything to help. There are many times when it has been a neighbor who has come to my aid, or I have come to theirs, and often times you might find that you are truly stuck and need some help and you may kick yourself for not finding a way to make friends of your neighbors.

IMHO of course. Easy for me to say, I live in a nice neighborhood with very nice neighbors.

I kind of like the idea that neighbors would look out for each other's property.

Too bad so many people think that if it is not their own precious life or property that is threatened that they can just ignore it and have a clean conscience. IMHO that is ridiculously self-centered and cold-hearted, and it indicates the degraded state of our society as a whole.

BTW a few more details are coming out.

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=8777227

Also there is a four page discussion on it over on THR. I see some of our TX CHL Forum guys are contributing over there.

SCone wrote:Strange car driving up and down the street - call the police and report the activity, get a license plate, description of the occupants, maybe a photo or two.

Maybe in Kingsland this would do some good.

In Austin you would just be wasting the police's time. They are not going to investigate something like this. Suspicious car? Give me a break!

This type of shooting has nothing to do with concealed carry laws.

The guy retrieved his gun from inside his home and proceeded out the door with it on his own property, and we do not know yet whether he was on his property when he shot the bad guys but the point is this was not a CHL issue. It doesn't even matter if the shooter had a CHL, it was not important.

Half or more of all households in the USA own a gun and therefore you have a 50/50 chance as a bad guy that the house you are hitting could be occupied by a gun owner, and a near 100% chance that a nearby neighbor has a gun.

The CHL gives us the opportunity to carry a gun outside out home or car, but these shootings like this one and Joe Horn are completely beside that point. This gun was deployed within range of the shooter's home, where it is always legal to carry a gun.

How about if they are driving away in the getaway car? IANAL but I think this is probably still legally justified, but in the court of public opinion it would get the shooter skewered, especially if the BGs are minorities and the shooter is not. This is not likely to play out in the court of public opinion however since it's in Kingsland and not a large TX city.

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=8763997&nav=0s3d

I guess the spirit of Joe Horn lives on.

the BGs were in the process of fleeing, inside their car when they were shot.