rharv, not sure i worded it right or if i missed putting the right words together here ... I am a law-abiding, carrying citizen of Michigan. I've never drawn down on anybody in my life, but I have seen the what the inside of a barrel looks like ...

My wife, myself and my 4-year old grandson were coming back from a trip to Cedar Point in Ohio. We were driving north to our home at night driving through a nasty part of Detroit -- pulled off the freeway to get gas, pulled out of the drive the wrong direction, got turned around somehow and had trouble finding the interstate and next thing ... I'm asking for directions in a neighborhood I'd rather not remember. Anyhow, I stop to ask for help at a BP gas station and a car with 4 guys in it pulls in as I'm walking out to my car and points a long-barrel revolver out the window at my wife and grandson. Yep, laughing their as*** off too! My wife cried over that issue. My grandson cried because my wife was so upset. Wife still will not travel with me if I've got to go anywhere near Detroit and my grandson, now 9 tells us he actually remembers the episode. The cop tells me, "Well, by now those boys are home in bed." The officer is telling me I guess that I wasted my time reporting it and I deserved it because I shouldn't be in this neighborhood at night and well, "... they're just boys." After my own research, I sent a long letter to the police chief of Detroit and to the station chief in that neighborhood. I / we never received a phone call or even a letter. Yes, my attitude has soured. I won't wait for someone to protect my family ever again. I have two friends that are state troopers and another, a chief of police for a community close to 200,000 north of Detroit. All of them have told me privately that if it were them, they would not hesitate ... they would protect first and answer questions later. They, themselves don't do anything different (you're not gonna wait and see if the guy's gonna pull the trigger -- not if you want to go home at night). My feelings are exactly the same as my three offer-friends. I get bashed lots because of my feelings about this (I express them freely these days), but it doesn't bother me anymore -- I'm too old to think like that anymore. I can take the criticism. The laws simply don't protect all of us and they've had plenty of time to get it right. Until I'm satisfied that the law will in fact protect me and my family, I'll still carry (and I'll be ready), and I'm hoping that the guys who drew on my family that evening read things like this ... they should know that the next time, I won't wait to see if they're gonna pull the trigger -- joke or not.

So parents (or relation) of these kids, I suggest you keep those kids home where the ought to be! There are plenty of people who feel just the way I do and you wouldn't want your loved-one not coming home some night because of a stupid prank (pointing a weapon at somebody). It happens a lot more frequently than you think it does.

Ike