I must admit that my political beliefs lean more toward a democrat than a republican.
Lately, I am terribly frustrated with both parties.
The majority of complaints I hear today are about the sad state of the economy.
Because of the economic difficulties, many are ignoring the surging crime situation.
Of course, the recession is inflaming an already dismal crime atmosphere.
Instead of Legislators addressing this problem, passing stiff sentence guidelines and giving citizens broad powers of self defense, they are doing just the opposite.
State and local governments are quietly restricting and in some cases banning non lethal self defense weapons.
I fail to see the logic in this insane course of action.
It appears that legislators believe that restricting pepper sprays, restricting stun guns and restricting tasers are going to reduce the crime rate and make it safer for everyone.
They believe that the extremely few times these weapons were used to commit crimes warrant restrictions.
They have completely overlooked the many times non lethal devices have delivered their own constituents from serious injury and death.
They forget or don't care how many times an inexpensive container of pepper spray or a stunning device has saved women from brutal rapes.
Because I sell non lethal self defense products, some might argue that my perception of this situation has blinded me because of self interest.
However, that is not the case; I am truly concerned about the safety of law abiding citizens jeopardized by ridiculous ill conceived laws.
Most shoppers who live in cities and states where these products are banned have them shipped to a friend or relative in a neighboring city.
My concern is they should never have to do this.
To put this issue in perspective in some cities you can legally own a gun but not a stun gun or taser.
This whole affair, has reinforced my belief that our legislators have lost touched with their constituents.
Local, state and federal legislators have access to unlimited and immediate police response.
I am not exaggerating, during my eleven years with the Baltimore City Police Force, I observed this many times.
I was assigned to a reaction force sent to high crime; areas.
Our job was to flood the area with police, maintain a high visibility in the community and make felony arrest.
One week my entire squad was moved from a high crime area and put in a neighborhood where one burglary had occurred in eighteen months, this is the same neighborhood where a city councilman lived.
The area we were removed from had many burglaries, armed robberies, a few rapes and murders.
When we complained our Lieutenant replied "The region you were in always has crime, this neighborhood is not used to crime, and we are going to keep it that way.
" This is the main reason I left the police force as they say, in the military rank has its privileges.
The sad truth is that there will always be a disparity between the well off and the poor, the politically affluent and the average citizen.
Today, police officers are primarily a reactionary force.
There are not enough officers and too many criminals.
Police try to apprehend criminals after they commit a crime.
It is a rare case when they catch one committing a crime.
Our lawmakers should be ashamed when they pass laws to restrict our rights for self defense.