Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Armed Citizen Report: Texas 1980

Armed citizens use their legally owned firearms to stop crimes every day.  Sometimes it's a property crime and sometimes it's a direct threat to life and limb.  No matter what the crime, an armed citizen is a criminal's worst nightmare.  That's especially true in Texas.

A young Carrolton, Tex., mother was awakened by early morning pounding on her apartment door. As she answered the door, a youth kicked it open and began choking and beating her. A neighbor, hearing her screams, responded to find the attacker starting after the woman's four-year-old child. He held the intruder at shotgun point for police. Officers identified the youth as a previously arrested suspect in a gang rape who had been released pending a hearing in that case. (The Daily Times, Carrolton, TX, 08/6/80)

A young Bayton, Tex., mother awoke to find a man clad only in a baseball cap and socks exposing himself to her 7-year-old daughter. Grabbing her handgun and daughter, the woman fled to the living room, the intruder pursuing. The mother then turned and shot him three times. Police later apprehended the twice-convicted child molester nearby. (The Houston Post, Houston, TX 08/22/80)

After repeated burglaries at his Pleasant Grove, Tex., used goods store, owner Ernest Graf and his 15-year-old son started sleeping in the office. Awakened by noises on the roof, Graf armed himself with his shotgun and waited. When the would-be burglar was half way down a rope he had secured to the skylight, Graf switched on the lights and held him at bay while his son called police. The intruder, it turned out, was wanted for three Dallas-area murders.  (The Times Herald, Dallas, TX 07/01/80)

Startled by a noise at the front door of her apartment, a Lubbock, Tex., woman got a pistol and investigated. As she entered the living room, she was attacked by a knife-wielding intruder who stabbed her in the shoulder. When the housewife started shooting, the assailant fled, apparently uninjured.  (The Avalanche-Journal, Lubbock, TX, 2/15/80)

When Tod McCray failed to answer a knock at the back door of his Beaumont, Tex., home around mid-morning, four youths opened the unlocked door and walked inside. Hearing the commotion, McCray armed himself with a shotgun, captured three of the young prowlers, and held them at bay until police arrived. Police found the fourth intruder hiding under a bed.  (The Enterprise, Beaumont, TX, 01/17/80)

Awakened by the cries of her 6-year-old daughter, a Baytown, Tex., woman spied a male intruder hiding beside her bed. The woman grabbed a pistol she kept under her pillow, took the child in her arms, and ran into the next room. When the intruder followed, she shot him. The wounded man fled, but police found him hiding in some nearby bushes and wearing only a pair of socks.  (The Chronicle, Houston, TX 04/01/80)

When 89-year-old Fred Green saw a man leaving one of his vacant San Antonio, Tex., rental houses, he called police, found his pistol, and confronted the intruder, who started toward him in a threatening manner. When his warnings to halt were ignored, Green fired a shot near the would-be burglar's legs and thus persuaded him to wait peaceably until police arrived. (The Daily News, Amarillo, TX 04/01/80)

Texans understand that we all need to stand up and assert our right to keep and bear arms or face losing it. Help protect your rights by joining the NRA. The NRA fights to keep your right to keep and bear arms intact.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Join A Travel Club To Save Money On Travel

If you like to travel you may have noticed some changes over the past several years. It used to be that if you wanted to book a trip you could find a travel agent on every corner. You could go in to the travel agent's comfortable office, paid for with your commissions, and have them look into each and every detail of your trip. The travel agent would do the research, make the phone calls, and put the tickets in a nice little folder. Then the internet revolution came and the capability to do it yourself and save money was upon us - supposedly. Now, the latest evolution for the travel industry is here...Travel Clubs.

Travel clubs aren't necessarily anything new. Early versions of travel clubs were groups of friends that saved a little bit of money by sharing expenses on a vacation trip. These early clubs were fine but they suffered from a few problems. First, they often booked travel through a travel agent, paying full commission. Second, if everyone in the club didn't agree to the club's travel plans, the other members might not have the ability to achieve the savings they might otherwise get. Finally, if you didn't know enough people to form a travel club, or you didn't like an existing club's travel choices, you were out of luck. That was then.

Now, travel clubs have combined the power of the internet with the bulk buying power of warehouse stores to bring flexibility and huge savings to members across the country and around the world. By using the internet the newer travel clubs can recruit membership from all over. Large internet-based travel clubs can have many thousand members and that's a really good thing for travelers. Why? Well, as more members join it means more choices of travel and more buying power. Yes, buying power. The new breed of internet-based travel club uses the buying power of thousands of members in the same way big-box warehouse stores do except they don't bulk buy toilet paper, they bulk buy vacation travel. For instance, a travel club's members want to go on a cruise so the travel club goes to the cruise line and negotiates a great price by buying 200-300 cabins on the ship. Or, maybe the members want to go to an all-inclusive 5-star resort in Cancun so the club buys up half the resort's rooms to get a fantastic price. Simple.

Travel clubs are a great deal but before you join one keep a few things in mind. First, all clubs will charge a membership fee. That's ok as it is one of the ways the club gets enough money to make the deals, but it shouldn't be a huge fee and it should be one-time only not an annual fee. Avoid clubs that charge thousands of dollars to join, they're seldom worth it. Second, pretty much all clubs will charge a monthly membership fee. Again, that's ok since the money is used to fund the club's operations and make the great deals happen but, make sure there's a way your monthly fees can be waived. Lastly, make sure there isn't any type of long-term contract or cancellation fee. For that matter the best clubs don't have a contract at all nor a cancellation fee so look for them.

Travel clubs are the future of vacation travel and they help the traveler save loads of money on the travel they're going to do anyway. Join a travel club today and see the world without spending a fortune.

Author Resource:

Ben Crabtree is an avid traveler and fan of getting a really great deal on dream vacations. Ben recommends joining a great travel club like World Ventures to get dream travel at dream prices. Also, be sure to see the DreamTrips Schedule so you can take your DreamTrip soon!