Dunh Dunhh, Duh-uh Duh Duh-uh Dunhhhhhh....

So Jim brought it up in his post awhile back, and I've been thinking about Law & Order ever since.
Awhile back I talked with some people who would bring a tear to the eye of any good card holding NRA member. The number one reason they had for "needing" a gun was for personal protection. They're under the impression that a serial killer lurks around every corner, knife in hand, face painted clown-white; that every bus is filled with rapists, ready to pounce on the next unarmed woman who happens to walk by; that every chat room is populated solely with pedophiles, intent on doing unthinkable things to their children.
And I'm convinced it's Law & Order's fault.
And right behind is CSI.
These shows seek to completely saturate the airwaves. This coming week 34 episodes of the original Law and Order will air on cable television. 24 for SVU, and 48 for CI. At an hour apiece, that's 106 hours of TV. That's almost four and a half days of crime each week. And then there's the twice monthly marathon of one flavor or another.
It gets easier and easier, I think, to believe in a world dominated by rapists, murderers and pedophiles.
Then throw in the Criminal Minds of the world, and you now we're entering the world of Serial Killers. It can be scary for some.
I'm just worried that some (before I had this conversation I would have said rational) people would think the answer to this problem is to carry a gun so that they, too, could partake in the taking of a life, should the need arise. Now, don't get me wrong, I believe I would do whatever it took to save myself, or the life of a loved one in the event of a violent, potentially deadly situation. But I think that the last way to go about it is to strap a gun on my hip like Hollywood's version of the cowboy and go about my day.

So I just did a bunch of researching on Serial Killers. I'm sure I'll sleep really well tonight...
But I found a statistic that claimed there are, at any given time, 35 active, uncaptured, serial killers in America. Now lets, for example sake, say that there's a 1/3 turnover rate every year; 12 of the killers are caught, or end their career for one reason or another, but another 12 start their careers. At 22 episodes per season, that's just under three seasons before they get rid of all of the active serial killers. And then what? They'll only have half the business they did before. They're going to run themselves out of a job! That's not good for anyone.

This also reminds me of the time we were in an Improv show and Rocky Vaughan was a Cereal Killer, out to murder "that bastard, Captain Crunch."