Our Dysfunctional Island Family
News from the STX Avis (Sunday/Monday): “Taxi driver kills robber”. A taxi driver who had driven a guy to his desired destination was the victim of an armed robbery, but the tides turned on this hoodlum, who was out on bail from an armed robbery in January of this year. This thug was also a suspect in other armed robberies.
I say to the taxi driver, “Good on ya!” Criminals are let out to continue to terrorize our community every day, and it’s getting VERY old.
We know good hard-working restaurant owners who have had their place robbed and shot up on numerous occasions. The police come and say there’ s nothing they (the police) can do about it, so the citizens may need to take the law into their own hands (wink wink).
But it’s not so simple, is it? If your restaurant is held up by gun-wielding creeps and you try to shoot the perpetrators, and a stray bullet hits one of your patrons, then what?
Meanwhile in the same issue of the paper, there is a HUGE ad by the “Right to Lifers” who want to prevent women from having control of their own bodies and aborting unwanted children. I sure hope these people are willing to adopt all the children they are “saving”. How ironic would it be if one of these “Right to Lifers” were shot and paralyzed or killed by one of these unwanted kids who become hoodlums?
Wanna talk about opression? Here’s a group of people who want to take the reproductive rights away from women who have been raped or who have accidently become pregnant. Condoms break, the pill is not an option, there’s always the “heat of the moment”. Abortion is not a perfect solution, but none of us are perfect and abortion may be the lesser of two evils in, unfortunately, too many cases. (See above)
March 24th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Thank goodness the taxi driver had a licensed fire arm , cause if he didn’t, he would have been in big trouble. Sometimes, the good guys win!
March 24th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Trudi, are you saying that the taxi driver, who was defending his life and his livelihood, would have been in BIGGER trouble than the criminal in this case, who was out on bail for armed robbery?
Do you think they would have LOCKED the TAXI DRIVER up for defending himself? For true?
March 24th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Good for the taxi driver….he needed a cap popped in him.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Terry, the Taxi Driver could still be charged. The perp was shot as he was leaving, so it was no longer self-defense. Crazy, huh?
March 24th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Absolutely Terry, the taxi driver, although defending himself, would have been in real big trouble if he used an unlicensed fire arm. I remember in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, the pharmacist in F’sted, shot and killed a young man who broke into the pharmacy. He was sentenced to a mandatory six (?) years ( I can’t remember the exact number of years) by Federal Law. He used an unlicensed gun while protecting his property, and perhaps his life, during the looting of his pharmacy.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Very crazy, indeed!!
And is it any wonder that the cops don’t feel like doing their jobs? They arrest a thug for armed robbery and the system lets him back out on the streets to do it again.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I live in Illinois, where the law-abiding citizens cannot legally carry a firearm to protect themselves and their loved ones.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:22 am
Really Gary? Whatever happened to the “right to bear arms”?
Personally, I hate guns, and could never own one, but I certainly understand the necessity of a taxi driver having one. They are held up quite frequently.
March 31st, 2009 at 9:57 am
I visited St. Croix a few weeks ago and attempted to find out what the local firearms rules and regulations are, and wasn’t very successful. In Illinois, a firearms OWNER has to have a “FOID” (Firearms Owner Identification) card, issued by the Illinois State Police after a background investigation. If you’re found to be in possession of either a firearm or ammunition and you don’t have a valid FOID card, you’re in trouble. The possession of a FOID card only allows you to possess a firearm, not to carry a concealed firearm.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I’m not sure about all the rules and regs, but do know you have to register with the police, be fingerprinted, etc. I also know that we do have “concealed carry” permits, but am unfamiliar with the process.
At a recent hearing in front of our Legislature’s Homeland Security…etc. Committee, the VI Police Commissioner reported that over 60% of “illegal” firearms confiscated by police here were originally legally registered guns that had “disappeared”, been “lost” or “stolen”. Someone suggested that maybe, like vehicles, registered gun owners should have to re-register their firearms annually, with an inspection by police to ensure the guns haven’t been illegally modified, or “gone missing”.
I agree. If someone is incapable of keeping track of their firearm, I don’t think they’re responsible enough to be trusted with one. Of course, I feel the same way about children, and pets.