So small town it's sick.

My in-laws are a trip. OK, I have to note three exceptions, and those would be all my brothers-in-law. Even though one of the three lives in a small town, he doesn't act like it for some reason. The other two live in a big city, so obviously it's not them.

The others, though... it seriously cracks me up. They're all freaking out because there was a break-in at a house two blocks away from this one cousin's house. Really? Two blocks away? That's not even close! If I paid attention to what went on blocks and blocks away from me, I'd be worried sick 24/7. I know what directions to walk in and what directions not to. I know what streets to avoid, and which are good. It's really not much different than it was in Hinesville. Sometimes stuff happens, and when it does, you do what everyone else does. You pull out your gun and hope the bastard goes away. If not, you have a bit of a standoff while someone else calls the police. If that doesn't work (and it just about never gets to that point) you shoot the bastard in the leg and wait for the cops. I know people who have been in every one of these situations. I guess I just take for granted that people think about home defense because I've spent most of my adult life in places where it was wise to know exactly what you'd do in that situation. I will say, in all these years, we have pulled our gun ONCE in home defense, and that's as far as it went. 9.9 times out of 10, anyone who tries to get into your home will run the minute they see that you're prepared to deal with them.

This really freaks out the small town in-laws, but I wonder why. They have more guns per capita than we do! They just use them only for hunting. What's the difference, though? Why would anyone who lives in any town at all not think they'd need to protect their home at some point? I'm not originally from a big city. I'm from a small town (granted, it's about 20x the size of their town) and I can tell you that people back home are not ignorant of home defense. I guess I just don't know why my small town in-laws don't get this. For being such rednecks they surely are afraid to defend what's theirs! OK, so I'm like half joking on that, but really, it is strange.