Well if that's your take on it, I guess there's your view and my view.

I remember a friend's mom during those riots getting squirt pistols and putting crushed chilli peppers mixed with water into them. Her idea was to use them against intruders. Luckily for her, her house was not hit.
My point is that for the ethnic Chinese folks, had they had guns, they could have protected themselves against the mobs.
Had the mob broken past the police perimeter in our area, we definitely would have needed guns as well.
The mobs weren't really willing to risk their lives over anything either. Once the cops were able to show up, with the exception of the stuent protestors, they all fled.

After the 98 riots, black market guns became popular, especially with the ethnic Chinese folks. Black market salesmen actually approached ethnic Chinese and certain foreigners trying to sell the stuff. One appeared at a work place of someone I know offering to sell the damned thing. Funny thing was, the salesman trying to sell the black market pistol hadn't he faintest idea as to how to use it.
They wouldn't have bought it had they felt they had no need for it.

So while living in Phoenix, did you like to take a stroll out at night while people were having pitched gun battles?

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

So while living in Phoenix, did you like to take a stroll out at night while people were having pitched gun battles?

I don't recall any pitched gun battles I just recall gun fire for all I know they were firing in the air or shooting cats, rats or the next door neighbour, this was a neighbourhood that happily fired guns in the air for new years so as I said it was a pretty eclectic bunch.

As far as going for a stroll while it was going on, no I didn't but that was primarily because it was 2-3am and I was asleep, I did run into a few people wandering the streets during the day (one Mexican guy wandering down to a seven eleven with a shotgun scared the crap out friends but I didn't see him myself so that might be all BS but the guy refused to come back and visit ever again) and they seemed reasonably calm.

But I am sure you would get a better description of the area from AZ than I could ever give.

I tried.

Originally Posted by MontyB

I don't recall any pitched gun battles I just recall gun fire for all I know they were firing in the air or shooting cats, rats or the next door neighbour, this was a neighbourhood that happily fired guns in the air for new years so as I said it was a pretty eclectic bunch.

As far as going for a stroll while it was going on, no I didn't but that was primarily because it was 2-3am and I was asleep, I did run into a few people wandering the streets during the day (one Mexican guy wandering down to a seven eleven with a shotgun scared the crap out friends but I didn't see him myself so that might be all BS but the guy refused to come back and visit ever again) and they seemed reasonably calm.

But I am sure you would get a better description of the area from AZ than I could ever give.

Well that's a bit different from hearing gunshots and screaming afterwards isn't it?
In your case, you just heard gunshots, which wouldn't be too out of place in a place with a lot of guns. What I meant with incidents like mine was shooting to kill or incidents where others were willing to kill and a gun for self defense would have been useful. Or else I would have also talked about the time I was taking a stroll out in the woods to hear some kind of sound that sounded a bit like gunfire. Turned out someone was shooting an air rifle at targets.
Or this other time when I heard some gunshots (though muffled a bit) coming from a building only to find out that it was a shooting club for people using .22 rifles for competitive shooting. The building had an open area like a large garden.

Originally Posted by MontyB

Lets do a bit of risk assessment here shall we:

What is the realistic chance you are going to get attacked in your home in "upstate NY":
- Multiple times daily?
- Once a day?
- Weekly?
- Monthly?
- Yearly?
- Every decade?
- Probably never? <-- I am guessing this is the real answer.

I can understand the desire to own a gun for sport, hunting, targets, etc. but I get very dubious about people's argument that they need a gun for "protection" when few if any people ever run into a situation where a gun is necessary.

You're absolutely right. And the fact that you're right changes nothing. Just because it probably won't happen doesn't mean it won't. You can go right ahead, but I refuse to take the chance. No matter what laws are passed I will retain the means to defend myself on equal terms against any man, illegal or no.

And there are some bad places up here, some parts of Poughkeepsie and New Haven are rotten.

I find it hard to argue against major liability on this one.
You just never know, and the fact that you have guns keeps those bad people away.

OK, let's build a City with the Massachusetts & Vermont boarder running right down Main Street. Ma has rediculous State gun Laws, Vt has few. In Vt you can carry w/o a permit, no Wild West shootouts going on. Any how, if you are a criminal, what side of the street would you choose to break into?

That's an interesting question.
What happens in real life?

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

That's an interesting question.
What happens in real life?

Burglery rate is lower in Vt than Ma.

There you go.
There is our answer.