Anecdotally, my camera system alerted me and I witnessed someone enter my neighbors vehicle. I got my neighbor and we got the dude out of the car and I asked him unkindly what the hell he was doing and if he had stolen anything.
When police arrived much later the perp actually showed back up down the street and I pointed him out. It was a struggle to get them to go see who he was and investigate, even though I had photo and video evidence of the crime.
Later that night, that same guy broke into another neighbor's house and they came in much hotter, with shotguns to clear the house and they were able to arrest him not far down the street.
> If I'm always giving the mugger my gun, why carry it?
That's just your perspective and talking point. Parent was clearly trying to say that there may be a situation where you DO need it to protect yourself or family from being killed/raped/etc.
Haha I think that's true. I wouldn't say HN is toxic but the pedantic nature of so many comments is exhausting.
And there are a lot of strongly opinionated engineers that can't imagine that tech they dislike or they aren't familiar with may actually be better at solving many other problems.
Everyone gets caught up in trying to be right, but some people have not yet realized how damaging that can be to their relationships. It may seem like it's not a big deal online, but that will carry over to your personal life.
Neil deGrasse Tyson said his father stressed to him that it wasn't enough to be right, one must be effective.
That stuck with me as a powerful reminder to try and focus on the effective part. It will preserve and build relationships and often surprise you in making you realize that when you try to explain something instead of insisting on it, you are either wrong or could be wrong.
When police arrived much later the perp actually showed back up down the street and I pointed him out. It was a struggle to get them to go see who he was and investigate, even though I had photo and video evidence of the crime.
Later that night, that same guy broke into another neighbor's house and they came in much hotter, with shotguns to clear the house and they were able to arrest him not far down the street.