That's how amateurs respond, it's called panic. It forces a situation, that otherwise, may not have escalated.
Agreed and it's not practical. You can't carry a gun in every part of the country at any time you want. I actually told ppl I was unemployed too, my wife is, and that backed them down. I like the OP's advice on asking them for money before they can ask you. As I stated I feel bad for them, I did social work in a past work life, but opening your wallet to desperate ppl is damn stupid. The idea of a good self defense class like Krava Maga is much more practical. On that note since crime will increase stop being so damn cordial and opening your door to ppl. you don't know until you verify. It's customary in most of the US to open your door and greet ppl. including strangers. I did it for the longest time. I am big, strong, and can handle myself. But what happens if the guy look like he is selling magazines in my yuppie neighborhood pulls a gun on me. Now he can home invasion rob me. It was hard at first because I live in such a good neighborhood, but occasionally we get some seedy folks trying to sell magazine subscriptions. As the say crime is a matter of opportunity.
Was coming out of an Italian restaurant a few weeks back in San Fran. Saw a homeless guy and went to give him my take-out. He said "What is it?" I said "Manicotti." He took it and asked, "You got any woman-a-cotti?" True story. I had a good laugh.
What else do you expect? This is the result of 8 years of rule by a USA military oil junta regime: 2 former oil men who made war and took over countries. Just imagine: if 30% of the war-making cost was spent to food, house, and provide medical care for the starving peasants of this junta?
I worked in a food giveaway program for a church. What I learned is that nine out of ten that got food were living a freebie lifestyle and would not work no matter what... I see these guys with little tables collecting money for the homeless... there is no way to know where that money goes. I always tell them I'm homeless and they should give me a twenty, they really don't think that's funny and I never got a penny out of them yet. One old guy was doing that, he had a pretty good story for why and seemed honest, I put in a five... Beggars pull tricks on people. I had one pretend he was talking on a payphone but had to hang up when he asked me for money. He said I owed him money for the call !! I came pretty close to just banging the little bastard out....
No, no harsh words or 9mms were used in the confrontation. I did end up giving him a bottle of NSI (vitacost.com brand) daily multi-vitamins that I had in my gym bag and some chopped up apples and carrots. I was tempted to buy him some fish-n-chips and a Guinness but he wouldn't appreciate such a fine meal.
Just imagine: if the U.S. was still operating under the small, limited-government and the philosophy of self-responsibility put in place by its Founding Fathers...maybe the unproductive would not look to government to solve their every need, and the productive would be less burdened and have greater capacity for charitable giving for those in need of a helping hand.
We can all joke about this or recognize it as a growing problem. The homeless and poor will always exist, for reasons of mental illness, economic cycles, etc. But we should strive to do better in this country to efficiently and effectively solve this problem. Just throwing our hands up and saying 'oh well' is not the American Way.
I think it's more the result of decade after decade of Big Government, regardless of President or party affiliation. Anywho, the threat of crime mentioned in this thread is real. If people don't have some kind of gun in their home, they might want to consider getting one and making sure everyone knows how to use it and what it's capable of. A 12 or even 20-gauge shotgun is a good all-purpose gun. If getting a handgun, I wouldn't bother getting less powerful than a 9mm most of the time. If someone needs a reminder of what "civilized" people are capable of, check out the old L.A. Riot videos on youtube with people getting dragged out of their cars at stoplights and getting hit in the head with bricks, etc. I don't get some of the people in the story on page one. I know it's possible for someone with a pretty good job to be homeless soon after losing it due to big medical bills or something, but I do wonder how many of the "two paychecks away" people get in that spot from their own bad spending habits. I've known so many people who, after paying their bills, have $100 left over, they then have to figure out some way to spend it on stupid crap. Known others who are routinely behind on their house payment and risk foreclosure, have two kids they can't afford, etc, but they have nice cars, expensive cell phone plans, and pay $100 a month for cable TV with all movie channels. My paper ran a story years ago about a local homeless guy. Turned out he made something ridiculous, like 40 or 70k a year, panhandling.