One of my commenter’s suggest that instead of having a population with the option of being armed that we all just “wait for the police”.
Ignore, for a bit, the obvious… “they aren’t coming fast enough to help”. The main issue is prevention. Armed populations prevent crime. Criminals must behave as if threats are everywhere, because they are.
In the Mumbai case, I’m not talking about movie style hunting terrorists down. I’m talking about prevention through stalling their actions. Not knowing what waited around every corner and in every hotel door would have slowed them down. Barricades set up by those trapped in that hotel and covered with even a single pistol would hold up terrorists for hours. Pop a terrorist with your carry piece and upgrade to an AK and they aren’t getting in.
Police excel at taking crime reports and giving you tickets but not at crime prevention. Death, abortion (related to death) and long jail times prevent criminals from committing crime, waiting for the police doesn’t.
And suppose you did wait for the police…. what if they come, and they do this:
This is an Indian policeman, shooting AT the hostages and terrorists with one hand and not aiming. That is a sign of a policeman who is untrained and/or doesn’t care about these particular hostages (in this case it was the Chabad House – the Jewish center for the town of Mumbai).
Clearly they need training. And I’m sure they will be getting some really soon. Munich in 1972 started the professionalization of anti-hostage/anti-terror forces. Columbine and the North Hollywood bank heist accelerated a trend towards patrol rifles and related long distance training.
But all of that hardly matters since they are 10 minutes away from you and the terrorist/hostage taker is acting now.