There's nothing like waking up and having the subject of a blog post staring you in the face.

Right now I'm listening to helicopters for the second morning in a row. Twenty minutes ago, I went into my yard, pointed the camera skyward, and took this picture:

There's a huge manhunt here (and even some national attention) because a "prowler" shot at the cops recently, and he's believed to be hiding somewhere. Neighbors are terrified as they're not used to stuff like this, so the media have obliged by blaming guns for crime:

...the growing problem of gun violence has everyone from legislators to community activists wringing their hands, looking for answers.

"This shows that legislators in Harrisburg are missing the point," said Bryan Miller, executive director of CeaseFire New Jersey. "Gun violence can affect anyone, anywhere. There are just too many guns out there."

Sometimes pure landscape makes a huge difference in the response. Radnor's aggressive reaction reflects how difficult it is for suburban police to collar fleeing thugs who find escape eased by trees and bushes, maze-like streets and other hideaways suburban design offers, one expert said.

"Bad guys don't hide in the bushes in Frankford," said Ralph Taylor, a criminal-justice professor at Temple University. "Simply because of the way land use is set up in a suburban place like Villanova or Radnor, it's real easy to disappear."

In Radnor, the drama began when a resident called 911 just before 3:15 a.m. to report a prowler in his backyard, police said. Responding officers tried to question the man near Browning Lane and Meadowood Road, but instead of answers, they got bullets when the prowler drew a handgun and began blasting.

The gunman fled on foot, and no one was injured. But police cordoned off the neighborhood to hunt for the thug.

The Federal Aviation Administration restricted airspace in the area to accommodate state police helicopters hunting the shooter from overhead.

Area schools mobilized.

Radnor Township School District, Villanova University, and Agnes Irwin School delayed classes. Villanova and the Radnor district locked down their facilities, barring anyone from entering or leaving. At Villanova, that affected 1,300 students - mostly freshmen - who live in four dorms on the south campus, spokeswoman Barbara Clement said.

Amusingly, leading local Philadelphia anti-gun wag (and mayoral candidate) Dwight Evans thinks the presence of an armed criminal in a low-crime suburb is an argument for disarming the neighborhood! Again, the Daily News:

State Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, said both shootings illustrate a need for tighter gun control.

"I've always said there are too many illegal handguns out there on the street," he said. "Unfortunately, the streets are not safe even for our police officers."

Radnor police are seeking help in collaring the shooter. He is described as a dark-skinned man, about 5 feet 11, with a stocky build. He wore a blue sweat shirt and tan knit cap with writing or an insignia on the front, and carried a light-colored knapsack or satchel.

The dynamics are nothing new. Whether by design or otherwise, Philadelphia youth gang members come into the neighborhood regularly, ostensibly to use the local gym near the train station. I've seen more and more thuggish behavior at the station and in the area near the gym, and recently, for the first time, I've seen graffiti tagging at the station.

Hoping it was still there, I went to take a picture, but it's been freshly painted over:

I don't know whether the paint-over is a response to crime, but what was there was typical gang tagging, not urban art. (Yes, I know the difference.)

Not that the problem is graffiti, any more than it's "the guns" or youth basketball. (Although the nearby Saudi madrassa is another issue....)

The problem is that some people are criminals. This particular criminal has only attracted so much attention because he shot at the cops in a nice neighborhood.

I can remember when the focus was on crime, and on criminals. Now, violent crime has been rebadged rhetorically, with a meme called "gun violence." Fearful people are being misled and manipulated into thinking that their response to crime should be to give up their first -- and primary -- line of defense against it. I touched on this the other day, and I think it's worth repeating the words of John Longenecker:

'Governance' over guns and people who rise to meet their responsibility is a ruse to disarm individuals to pave the way to grow crime to the advantage of officials. In a very obvious way, the anti-gun crowd uses the crowd who refuse this burden to increase numbers of anti-gun voters. Minions. Minions by the millions.

As I say often - very often - personal disarmament is a trap for the American household and a payday for officials.

While it's tough for me to believe that people would be gullible enough to imagine the government is going to protect their homes and families (especially during emergencies), denial is a very powerful phenomenon.

And fear is what it's all about. The following is a typical example of the fear-based reporting I try to address in this blog:

Unlike the Philadelphia Daily News report, the above doesn't even have a description of the gunman. But they have an ominous picture of a gun!

The idea is to take the natural fear people have of the gunman, and transform that into fear of guns. The logic, of course, is give up your guns and you'll be safer.

Saying guns are the culprit makes about as much sense as saying it's graffiti. Or even athletics. Criminals can be expected to engage in activities of interest to them, which may include owning guns, graffiti tagging, or even basketball or football. Some of these activities are engaged in by the law abiding, but the distinction between guns and things like athletics or spray paint is that guns provide protection against crime. It's bad enough that anyone would think they cause crime. But to take them away from the law abiding in the name of "stopping crime," why, that's just too much. Might as well stop the sale of all paint to prevent "paint crime."

That way, law abiding paint owners would never be able to paint it over, and they'd have to call the coverup authorities for "help."

UPDATE: Today's Inquirer has more, including an interesting detail about the rather lopsided relationship in numbers of shots fired:

After the first shots were fired, officers began closing in again on the gunman, Rutty said. Then Lower Merion police coming up Meadowood near South Ithan spotted him again.

"He opened fire on Lower Merion and Radnor officers," Rutty said. "Lower Merion returned fire."

Lt. Frank Higgins, Lower Merion Investigations Unit commander, said: "My understanding is the bad guy fired five at them, and they fired two at him."

As officers took cover, Rutty said, the shooter fled again.

Doesn't sound like police overkill to me, although I think a little overkill then might have spared two days worth of overkill -- and overtime.

MORE: As a commenter seems to be misunderstanding me, I should make it clear that I do not approve of graffiti, nor do I "equate graffiti-tagging to gun ownership." (I meant to compare the sale of paint with the sale of guns by way of argument ad absurdum. If it failed, my apologies.)

The problem is criminals, and the reason I mentioned the graffiti is that it provided evidence of a criminal presence before the shooting occurred. Painting it over conceals a very unpleasant issue -- what are these young thugs doing there in the first place?

UPDATE: Not all neighbors share my opinion that the criminal is the problem:

Robin Valicenti, a director of CeaseFire PA, the Commonwealth's leading organization working to prevent gun violence, who coincidentally lives in the neighborhood, said, "This morning all our lives were turned upside down, even if just for a few hours. Children were scared, and felt unsafe all day long. We are all very lucky that no children in their beds were touched by the gunfire. I can only imagine how terrible it is in communities where shootings are commonplace, and where innocent lives are indeed lost in the crossfire. We must learn from this event, and work together with all people to address the rising tide of gun violence in our state and nation."

As to the claim that "all our lives were turned upside down," I live here too, and my life was not turned upside down. Had the gunman come into my yard and started shooting, I'd have considered it my individual and civic responsibility to defend myself. I wish more people felt that way.

MORE: My thanks to Pajamas Media for linking this post!