VolkStudio Blog

On the way to the NRA convention, my friend Dennis and I wound up cutting through about twelve miles of Illinois territory and went through the main street of Cairo.

The entire town looked like this or worse. The only buildings in good repair were government offices. Most houses are dilapidated, with windows broken or boarded up. We saw only three people, two of whom moved rather furtively. The entire place reminded me of a post-Apocalyptic movie set, except that it was real. We didn’t have to stop the vehicle and so were spared the worst of it…I can’t imagine living in that town or that state, unarmed by law and trying to get through the day in an place that was depressed both economically and culturally.

It’s bad enough that violent crime exists. It’s worse when the state government sides with the criminals and makes the rest of us easier to victimize. Not that Tennessee is perfect in that regard — we have far too many exclusions to legal carry and the law also discriminates against people under age 21, though they happen to be at very high risk of victimization relative to the rest of the population. But they can at least have the protective umbrella of older friends and family, whereas the residents of Illinois have no such advantage.