A constant refrain in the citizen control movement is that we don’t needed firearms, because we have law enforcement to protect us when bad things happen. I strongly suspect that no one who takes that position has ever called 911 under fear of imminent attack.

A family in Port Richey, Florida experienced that trauma first-hand when four armed men broke into their home looking for prescription drugs and savagely beat them. As soon as they left a male at the home armed himself called 911… only to get voicemail as the robbers returned:

A home invasion and robbery in Pasco County is exposing some problems in the 911 dispatch system.

It happened earlier this week on Gwain Road in Port Richey. A man called 911 after four robbers with guns broke into his home, demanded money and prescription drugs.

The dispatcher tried to transfer the call from the fire department to law enforcement side of things – but he got a voicemail just as the crooks returned to the home.

Chaos ensues. The man takes matters into his own hands and shoot one of the robbers.

He then tells the dispatcher that he’s been robbed, and two women in the home were physically hurt.

A fire department dispatcher comes in over the voicemail message and quickly ascertained the situation, and had police rolling to the home three and a half minutes after the call was made.

Read that again. Officers didn’t arrive three minutes and thirty seconds after the 911 call was made, they were finally dispatched at that time.

People need to realize that police agencies are not typically flush with cash. They put as few officers as they can afford to on each shift, and these individual officers are typically responsible for responding to crimes across a very geographic area where their response times may be measured in tens of minutes in even the best of times, and if there is another high-priority incident that the officer is already engaged in, they may not arrive for a very long time, if at all.

In the end, you are your own first responder.

Be trained. Be ready. Be capable.