[Patty55]

Back in the late 1960's my father was robbed at gunpoint by a 13 year-old "child". After giving the "child" his money he was told to turn around, face the wall and the child smacked him across the back of his head with the gun knocking him out. My father layed on the floor unconscious for hours, the police caught the child immediately because he was stupid enough to drop his ID bracelet. They treated the child with leniency because he might grow to be a pillar of society.

The child, sadly, never became a pillar, instead he became a rapist. Before he was 18 he went on stealing and raped a toddler.

We got a gun (prior to that we had a baseball bat) and were taught how to use it. We were taught you might only have one shot, make it count. We were taught to keep it loaded because you won't have time to fiddle with loading it. That gun never shot anyone.

For a while in the late 70's early 80's I worked at the Probation Dept. The "child" was one of our best customers, his offenses read like a road map.

Unlike the narrative posted by the OP, mine is true.