Originally posted by john9001
on the subject:
some years ago in florida, rental cars had a tag that was different from a regular car tag, also rental cars had bumper stickers for the rental company.
The criminals knowing a florida resident MIGHT be armed and a tourist would NOT BE ARMED were attacking rental cars. Many tourists were car jacked,robbed , raped, killed. Of course this hurt our tourist industry.
The state passed laws making rental cars use regular tags and no rental company bumper stickers, so now a rental car looks like a normal car.
The attacks on tourists have dropped to nothing because the criminals have lost a easy target, the criminals don't know who has a gun.
Not everyone has to be armed, the criminals only have to know that SOME are armed to be detered.
I remember one such incident involving an elderly British couple who had just arrived in Miami. They'd had a long flight, were probably tired, and ended up driving into a bad neighbourhood, where they fell prey to an armed gang that drove up behind them. At least one and possibly both Britons were shot. Their assailant was a 17 year old girl.
So yes, now the rental cars have that bar code sticker on the door jamb, or somewhere else where it can't normally be seen. I remember being asked to open my door at the exit barrier for the guy to scan it when I rented a car in the US, shortly after that incident.
OK, so now the criminals can't identify the tourists. It was much easier to apply this quickfix than to face up to the real problem, which is the violent gangs, and the fact that a 17 year old girl belonging to one such gang was able to get hold of a handgun.
Originally posted by lazs2
With revolvers... back when they were standard... the average gunfite lasted 2.7 rounds. Now it is about 7 or 8 depending on what study you read. In police shootings or non gang related shootings the chance of someone being hit by stray rounds is small. Gang shootings and drivebys which are a copy of much older gang shootings, often cause people to be injured by stray bullets..
I'm glad I don't live in a society like that. When Britain becomes like that, I shall be on the phone to CyranoAH/Daniel to enlist his help in finding me a nice quiet villa in Spain that I can retire to.
By the way, John9001, I've driven round cities like Madrid in a rental car that was emblazoned with big orange signs on the back and sides that said "EasyCar.Com", advertising the company and clearly identifying the vehicle as a rental car. See the photo to see how much these signs stand out. Fumbling my way around Madrid in a car which had the steering wheel on the wrong side, and where people drive on the right, and with the road signs in kilometres and Spanish, I might as well have had a big flashing neon sign which said "TOURIST". Shortly after the photo of this car was taken near the Spanish city of Réus, I drove it right into the heart of Barcelona to return it. At no time was I shot at, and at no time was I approached by armed criminals trying to rob me. At no time did I feel I was taking a risk by driving this car. Why do you think that was? Daniel already knows the answer.
Oh yeah, and before anyone says I was "just lucky", EasyCar has literally thousands of these cars driving around in various European countries with those orange signs on them. Indeed, there's a clause in the rental contract forbidding the hirer from removing the signs. There hasn't been a single incident of an armed gang targeting these cars. Why's that then?
