How many reloads does it take to shop at Wal-Mart?

This is beyond scary:



This is a good way for someone's little prince or princess to get shot to death by a scared shopper.  As I've mentioned before, there are folks out there (like me) who might not have the option to leave the area.  There are some who would casually say to let the cops handle the mess, which I agree with whole-heartedly, but what happens when the 300+ kids decide that the watermelons they're throwing just don't splatter enough, and they turn towards your cart with your kids.  If you don't think that will ever happen, are you willing to bet the lives of your children on it?  I'm not.

Teenagers or not, the disparity of force is overwhelming here even if they were all eight years old; and it's been well established that mobs like this tend to get violent in a heartbeat.  I'm still of the mindset that I would try to get out with my family if I can, but if not I would back my kids into a corner and try to keep the savages away.  Seeing a mob like this one in a small area makes me think a lot less of two spare magazines.

More mob violence

This dude was beaten almost to death by a group of guys in Alabama.

Owens' sister, Ashley Parker, saw the attack. "It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed." Parker says 20 people, all African American, attacked her brother on the front porch of his home, using "brass buckles, paint cans and anything they could get their hands on."

And the media did the country no favors for their works in inciting a race war.  Good job.

I'm going out on a limb and suggesting that this sort of behavior is going to get much much worse in the coming months, and when it does it will be everywhere.  This wasn't a savage beating in Chicago or North East DC; it was in frickin Mobile Alabama.  All cities have their rough spots, but the hatred of man is going to start pouring out from every crack and crevice, so be prepared in your daily life.

Drive-by crossbowing and other violent and bizarre stories

It sounds to me like this country has come completely unglued. There are so many violent attacks and thievery in the news these days that it makes my head spin; we have this morning a story out of San Diego about a kid shot with a crossbow in a drive-by. We also have widespread and rampant thievery of things like HVAC units, copper pipes and wire, toilet paper, hair extensions; and it's all become a family affair as well.

I've passed on many crazy stories just like that one this week already, but there are so many that are too close to home that I'm getting irritated.

There's this one out of the Fredericksburg, Virginia Wal-Mart where a teenager was beaten into a coma by other teens, and also an armed robbery and carjacking at a gas station right across the street. I shopped at that Wal-Mart with my family this weekend, and I get gas at that station all the time with my kids in the car early in the morning; the idea of a group of thuggish little shits attacking my family or driving off in my car with them makes my blood boil. There was also an armed home invasion where the homeowner was attacked with a baton over some prescription meds.

If anyone wonders why I'm so damned paranoid, this is why. With all the mob-of-disenfranchised-teens beating up folks and robbing stores all over the country, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's on edge.

Even the ladies are doing it

Video footage of a group of teenage girls savagely attacking a woman in Philly. It seems that city has seen the most use of the teen mob attack.

My takeaways from the half of the video that I was able to watch are: 1) the victim noted that she heard the attackers coming up behind her, and said that she is vigilant about being aware of her surroundings; 2) By the time she turned around, the attack was already initiated; 3) She was on the ground immediately.

To address the first takeaway - being aware of your surroundings is paramount to your safety. The consensus is that picking up on an attack and avoiding it is the best option, and will have a better outcome than a fight and/or shooting your attacker(s). With that said, you cannot count on vigilance to always win the day, so be prepared.

On the second takeaway, even if you spot an attack before it happens, you may not be able to prevent it regardless, so be prepared.

Third takeaway - learn to fight on the ground. Most physical fights end up on the ground anyways, and I am as guilty as any about doing my practice shooting while standing. Most of that has to do with where I shoot; I can shoot safely with a handgun or rifle from a bench, but not up at a target while I'm on the ground. Shooting school is where you would learn the techniques. I would imagine that it's difficult to get a gun into play while a group of people kick you in the head while you're on the ground, but it's a probability that could happen, so be prepared.

Also, just because attackers are female does not mean that they aren't capable of inflicting severe or fatal injuries. A girl can end your life just as easy as boy or man, especially when you're on your ass in a parking lot and there's six of em'.

Lots of 1st person perspective on Philly mob attack

There's a bunch of details here from a dozen victims of the Philly attack a couple of weeks ago. The girl that was injured the worst had to have surgery to repair her shattered tibia; I still call that serious bodily harm. The victims who were physically attacked all reported being punched in the neck and the back of the head, with some of them getting stomped on the head while they were in the fetal position. Also, several of them noted that there was nothing taken from them; in other words, this wasn't a bunch of kids trying to steal their wallet; their intent was to beat people up.

All of the victims tried to run away, but were quickly caught by the teenaged attackers and punched to the ground. The victims were not exchanging words or taunting the attackers; the first blow came from an attacker who ran up from out of nowhere. Interestingly enough, one of the victims had this to say:

Unless you are literally Charles Bronson, you just don’t win fights where you’re outnumbered 20 to 1, even if you have a gun.

I believe that if you had to shoot one of the attackers, the rest of them would most likely run off. That's my guess, anyways. I wouldn't expect a victim would have to shoot every attacker like they were a horde of zombies, especially considering that they're teenagers most of the time.

Two things though are of immediate concern to me as I consider what would happen if I couldn't avoid a flash mob and was attacked. First is that I'm likely to have my kids with me, and we've already seen that attackers have no problems attacking little kids. With all the accounts from these attacks recently, I have every belief that my kids, my family, and I would be seriously hurt or killed in such an attack. My second concern is ending up on the ground in the fetal position while dozens of kids stomp me, and having my gun taken away and getting shot with it. Staying upright and trying to gain some control is paramount, again, if you cannot avoid an attack in the first place.

I don't live in a major city where I would expect a mob attack, but that's not to say that it couldn't happen.