History And Moral Philosophy

There's outcomes that I can affect.

There's outcomes that I cannot.

If I cannot affect the outcome, I cannot be held accountable for it.

There are situations where others try to hold me accountable for actions that others take.

I rankle a great deal at "the responsible gun owner always..." in the same way as I reject "no true Scotsman."

Your gun locked in its safe and in an empty house for 10 hours while you're at work?  Far less secure than hiding it under the seat of your car at a football game for 2 hours.

I know it doesn't seem like it, but it's true.

Access is measured in time.

Your house is just as easy to break into as your car and the thief has five times the time to do it.  There are also many fewer witnesses.  The house also provides concealment for nearly the entire event, the burglar only being exposed for the entry, exit and egress.

It's sobering.

The best we can do is make our cars and houses less attractive to the thieves than other houses and cars.

Something I've mentioned before is the victim is a participant in the victim selection process, but is not a participant in the crime.

It's true of muggings.  It's true of rape.  It's true of getting your car looted.  It's true of getting your house broken into.

Hiding your pistol out of sight in your locked car is actually doing something to prevent its selection over leaving the pistol in plain view.  The thief is looking for something valuable.  It is important to remember that the thief has already decided to commit a crime before they ever touch your car.

They've selection criteria.  They might limit themselves to just the cars that were left unlocked.  They might pick every car on a block, locked or not and break windows.  They might just do a quick rifling, in and out.  They might be very thorough.

You don't know which kind you get until you actually get something stolen from your car.

Did you do everything you could have done to prevent the theft?  No.  You cannot secure your car well enough to prevent all theft.  It's impossible.

The lock on the glovebox?  Useless.  Lockbox under the seat?  It slows the thief down, but screams "something valuable in here!"  Locked in the trunk?  Access to the passenger compartment is access to the trunk in most cars now.

All you're hoping for is to slow them down enough that they move on without taking anything.

And it is just hope.

Don't tell yourself that, "It will never happen to me because I always..." because it can so happen to you.  Especially don't get on a moral high horse about it, because your precautions are not as effective as you think they are, you're just filtering for a different breed of criminal.