Crime soars in relatively gun-free Seattle

I frequently try to make a comparison between the liberal and conservative way of life and places to live and how I feel as thought the conservative way is better. It is not my intention to hurt anyone's feelings when I am doing this and yes, I am biased because I was raised conservative and have always lived in conservative areas. I haven't even spent that much time anywhere that could be considered overwhelmingly liberal and well, there is a reason why that is. On one of the few instances that I visited a college friend who lives in New York City, I was truly out of my element. I realize that I do not know all the ins and outs of liberal life because I have never tried to embrace it into my own. I am a country boy at heart and don't agree with liberal policies and would prefer they be as small a part of my life as possible.

That being said I am one of those pro-gun-ownership nuts that thinks that the world is actually a safer place when you have an armed and responsible citizenry the likes of which we have here in Eastern North Carolina. The county that I live in has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the state and I'm sure it is just a coincidence that we also have one of the lowest levels of overall crime, let alone violent crime.

Recently I can across a story about how Seattle which is one of the most liberal cities in the United States, has recently broken their all time homicide record.

src

The above graphic is just about violent crime, which can mean a lot of things. I don't know where the line gets drawn but if you were to do a similar graph about where it is that I live that line would be nearly completely flat and located at the bottom of the y-axis.

src

As of yesterday, the all-time homicide rate has been broken in Seattle, where a man was beaten to death at 11:30 in the morning.

This follows a mass exodus of nearly 600 police officers when there was an anti-police movement in that and many other liberal cities during the height of the BLM craze. The city of Seattle is seriously struggling to replace these officers and there have actually been more homicides in 2023 then there have been hired officers.

I have said many times before that I don't really care for having police in my life at all but then again they are not necessary here where I live. We are a respectful, safe, law-abiding, and also seriously armed-to-the-teeth community. Nobody is going to take the chance, even if they are a violent person, on attacking someone if they know there is a better than 50% chance that the person is armed and also allowed to protect themselves with deadly force if it is deemed necessary.

Washington State has the 11th lowest gun-ownership rates in the country and while I don't want to say that this is directly why crime is so bad in Seattle, it certainly doesn't help. It is possible to get a firearm license in Seattle, but the restrictions are pretty tight and there are long waiting periods as well as it being necessary to have lived in the state for a certain amount of time before said license can be procured. In North Carolina, for certain types of weapons, you don't need a license at all to obtain one. We also have very accessible concealed-carry licenses and open-carry has always been allowed as long as I have been alive.

Are you going to attack a guy that has a 9mm attached to his waist? I think that a criminal might think twice about this.

One thing that I think the conservative areas of Washington, which is most of the state, keeps around is that they still have access to guns and even have "stand your ground laws" as well. The choice to not have guns is the population's own and from what I have gathered of people that live in urban areas, they tend to not feel the need to have a gun as much as those of us that live in rural or sparsely populated areas. The only thing I can think of as to why this is would be because they depend on the police and the rule of law for protection... but at the same time the political movement, largely pushed by BLM objectives, have vilified the police to the point where they are unlikely to intervene or even be able to respond to a violent situation.

The people of Seattle, or at least a very loud and perhaps minority portion of the population, have seen to it that the police are either unwilling or incapable of protecting them. And here we are just a few years later and crime is skyrocketing out of control.

So what is the solution here? In my mind it would be to move the hell out of Seattle. I know I am glad I don't live there