Topcat02 said:
Blimey,
I dont suppose you get many burglaries in your neck of the woods then!
Yeah, breaking into a house in Arizona is to literally take one's life and cast it upon the winds.
Legally, breaking into any occupied dwelling, assault, rape, car jackings, etc, is considered grounds for lethal force, irregardless of whether or not the perpetrator is armed, no retreat required, no limit on the number of rounds fired or the type of ammunition used (hollowpoints, flechettes, whatever suits your fancy). Coup de gras and stuff like that is generally a no-no after they are already down, and is frowned upon if it's obvious. If the cops show up and there's some perp - usually with a prior criminal history - laying dead with six .357magnum hollowpoints in him, they'll generally consider it saving the taxpayers a lot of money and themselves future trouble. Even if you are not the one being offended against, like say you see a woman in a parking lot being brutally raped, you can whip out your pistol and send the perp(s) to the hereafter.
Conceiled weapons permits in Arizona are reciprocal with 36 other states and they are easy to get provided that you have no currently active felonies on your record. It's a 'shall issue' state and not up to the personal whim of local cops to deny you the permit. It's a short class you have to take and about US$100 and it allows you to carry any weapon on your person in a conceiled manner that you can legally own (gun, knife, sword, taser, axe, switchblade, morning star, Fed registered machine gun, whatever makes you feel good - but no grenades, you can easily buy commercial explosives in Arizona but you cannot use them as a weapon). You can carry conceiled on private property with no permit. No permit is required to pack a loaded weapon in your automobile.
However, unless it's a pocket knife and you're trimming your nails, don't whip it out in public unless you need to as it's considered 'brandishing' and that's a no-no. Same goes for non-conceiled weapons. When in polite company in public, keep it holstered.
With freedom comes responsibility, maturity, and a good dash of common sense. People here know that guns are not a toy (or they learn real fast) and you simply own them responsibly. Anti-gun propaganda and Hollywood silliness aside (Hollywood has the entire world thinking that Americans are all irresponsible trigger happy nutcases with Uzis), America loses more kids to accidental drownings in buckets and wading pools than to kids being accidently shot with firearms. Much of the 'youth' killings with guns are not really 'kids' but teenage gang members who just happen to be under the age of 18. All in all, even if you include gang shootings (and they mainly shoot each other) statistically you are still 10 times more likely to die in the USA from a doctor's mistake than by someone's bullet, which isn't bad for a nation with more guns than people (over 300 million privately owned firearms).
Most of the population in Arizona is in the Phoenix metro area and the surrounding desert valley (a lot of Arizona is actually mountains and forests, not just desert), with the rest being in Tucson and a few other medium and small towns around the state, such as Flagstaff. This makes for a whole lot of open space in a state that is 400 miles wide and a great deal of it is public land.
Most of the crime is in Phoenix (much of it drug related) and a significant percentage of that is Mexican illegal immigrants. About 74% of the murders in Phoenix go unsloved and almost all of the unsolved murders (over 90%) are Mexican illegals. Much of this involves drug trafficing. I also avoid many of the poorer areas of Indian reservations as some of the crime they inflict upon each other can be surprising.
Most of the public lands (State and National forests) are free and open, but often there are some some fees and rules at established campgrounds, fishing and hunting licenses, and there are some extra rules and restrictions on Indian reservations (those are covered by State law, Federal law, and Reservation laws) and National Parks (like the Grand Canyon).
