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Comment by shiftpgdn | Hacker News Reader

I had this with a stolen iphone in Houston, Texas. I called the local police and they said they couldn't help, I told the operator that's okay, I have a gun and I'll go retrieve it myself. An officer was standing in front of me 10 minutes later. We got the phone back.

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And that didn't get you in any trouble?

C'mon it was in Texas

Still, you’re implying the use of a deadly weapon on someone else’s property. That’s going to get you in trouble.

Well, I considered warning the WM police that I was going to rock up at the thieves' front door, and ask them nicely to give me back my property. And warning the cops that I expected a breach of the peace to occur, becauase I thought it was likely they would beat me up.

Failing to take measures to prevent a breach of the peace that they had been warned about would be bad publicity, at best.

But I'm not inclined to take on cops and robbers at the same time. Like a circular gunfight, except with me in the middle.

How hard would it be be to get a gun (even a hunting rifle) or other weapons in the UK?

If you did tell the police that you were going to take the law into your own hands, what would happen?

It's never hard to get a gun, you can make a slam fire shotgun at any local hardware store with minimal tools involved. Ammo is another story

1) takes about 3 months and an interview with a police officer, than you can buy whatever you want(handguns are not allowed under any circumstances though)

2) you'd be arrasted, or at the very least told that if you do that, you will be in trouble.

Why should it? You can conceal carry (or open carry, for that matter) in Texas, and you'd be a lunatic to follow a criminal anywhere to get your property back. Heck I conceal carried when I got my last used car, because there's no way I'm bringing ten grand to get a car from a guy I met on craigslist with no backup

Why shouldn't it? If I rang the police and said "I'm about to commit violence against someone else" you can bet I'd be arrested. Why doesn't the same rule apply here? Carrying a weapon being or not being legal has no bearing on this at all.

Why violence. He just announced he's going to pick up his property that got misplaced. Gun is just for his protection. Nothing out of ordinary here.

It's heavily implied, and to pretend it's not is dishonest at best.

(not a fan of US gun laws)

Not necessarily. I think just carrying a weapon might make the other party more likely to cooperate. Even if you don't take it out.

Sure, but imagine calling the police and saying "I'm carrying a massive knife and I'm going to my ex to get my things back". There is no threat here. It's legal to own and carry a knife(in most places). It's legal to go to your ex and go grab your things.

But I bet that if you did that police would show up as there is an implied threat of violence. I mean, clearly it applies even in OP's case, since police did show up - I'm just surprised he didn't get in trouble for basically using the police as his personal bodyguards by implying things will get violent.

I wonder if you could slightly limit your exposure here by noting that you were legally carrying a gun, but for self protection. So there was less of an implied threat, but still maybe enough to spark a bit of police support?

As a Texan, that doesn't surprise me. In some places, saying that kind of thing could maybe violate the letter of the law. Texas is the kind of place where it doesn't violate the letter of the law, because you can concealed carry, kind of doesn't violate the spirit of the law, which is quite permissive in allowing the use of force in defense of property ( https://www.dougmurphylaw.com/defense-of-property ) (not to say that it does permit you to use force after it's stolen and you want to go get it back, just that doing so is closer to the spirit of the law than it would be in many places), and even if it did violate the law, the general ethos of the state is such that unless something actually comes of it, shooting your mouth off like that would just kind of be like jaywalking. If technically a crime, if nothing came of it, it's just a freewheeling culture in terms of weapons, defending property with force, freedom of speech, and egotistical violent grandstanding, and it'll probably be ignored as an insignificant minor technical violation not worth prosecuting, again, as long as nothing really comes of it.

It's hard to put into words, but as a Texan, I can see how police would react exactly like they did. No guarantees, especially for minorities, it could go very badly, but the whole situation isn't surprising to me at all as a Texas native.

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