Meanwhile Back Here In The States

Mike Totten is headed to a Fallujah that is largely peaceful now and his business and sometime travel partner, Patrick Lasswell has a run in with a shotgun wielding maniac here at home. I am thinking that in some neighborhoods that are gang infested a COIN based policy could be followed and be very effective.

While running around in my PJ's armed exclusively with a flashlight, telephone, and civic virtue, my libertarian interest in keeping the police from having military weapons died of exposure. When the the kook drove by and kept pointing his lights at my position, I was all for the 911 operator getting access to laser armed satellites or police helicopters with precision guided munitions. The notion that patrol cars might have AR-15 rifles onboard seemed prudent, not an infringement. All apologies to Glenn Reynolds, but I wouldn't choose to face deranged shotgun toting citizens armed only with a pistol, why should the cops? Afterwards, I considered the comforting weight of my Navy Reserve unit's sweet shooting M240 machine guns and how nice it would be to lay the bipod on my driveway while covering the bad guy. Who am I do deny reasonable comfort to even the forceful Portland Police?

I would settle for a Desert Eagle .50 for personal protection in that situation but a combat style shotgun would be nice as well.