Gun use for home defense?

[David]

I couldn't imagine using one myself but I just found out a coworker recently found a burglar in his house in the middle of the day. Don't know the whole story but I do know my coworker put two bullets in the burglar's chest and killed him. No charges were filed against my coworker.

[t-tom]

It's kinda like a fire extinguisher, I'd rather have one and not need it, then need it and not have it. I have two little girls if you come in my house you will be met with resistance. Our house is a side by side split with the bedrooms upstairs so I have a great little defensive position I can take at the top of the stairs with a clear field of fire. I also keep the pistol in the closet away from the bed so I can get my wits about me before I do anything

[vash]

I had to cover the front door when I was in my 20's. Glad nothing escalated.
Now? I'm armed to the gills. No kids so I have a few stashed.

Most of my stuff is sporting in nature. I received some training. The actions are not that easy. I'll just cover my escape now. They can have my stuff.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

[Tobra]

I would pity the fool that attempted to enter my house. I don't think they would get the opportunity for my wife to shoot them if I were not home. If you are not quite comfortable with guns, you are perhaps better off with a dog, a phone and a good stout walking stick. I don't know how they do it, but dogs seem to be able to smell evil intent. That said, I think a shotgun is a better choice than a handgun for home defense.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Have any gun owning/carrying Pelicans actually needed or used your gun for home defense? I understand that it may provide a sense of security, but that's not the question. Have any Pelicans been threatened by a break-in while at home and used your gun to diffuse the situation? Interested in your own experience, not news or blog stories. Thanks.

No.

I'm pretty new to owning firearms though I was raised with them as a kid. For the most part all of mine are locked away but I do have a wheel gun stashed. As a family we have gone through the invasion response - barricade in bedroom with phone, flashlights, and wheel gun. If bad people try to enter before cops arrive (likely) then we use what we have. If the(y) are happy grabbing stuff from the other part of the house then we'll cool our jets for the cops and call State Farm in the morning.

[J P Stein]

So0n after we moved into this house (1975), I had occasion to talk to talk to a county sheriff deputy.

I asked him what was the typical response time at 2AM should someone is kicking down my door. He said that, at that hour, only 2 cops were on duty for the whole freakin' county........figure on, at best, 30 to 45 minutes. At that time, about 125K people lived in the county....now, it's close to a half million....I suppose there are now more cops.....also. No matter, I got the message 40 years ago.

I have picked up the shot gun from along side my bed once in the middle of the night in the intervening years. Did a recon and put it away, thankfully.

[techweenie]

Too emotional an issue to get a bead on.

Stats imply that it's far more dangerous to have a gun in the house than not. But stats on the negative side include all the children/girlfriends/neighbors/random people shot by fearful gun weilding folks. On the positive side, it's all anecdotes.

My philosophy - having gone 20 years with a gun in the house, and now 3 without - is that the consequences of that (unlikely) hasty decision to shoot are too substantial. If I had kids in the house, I'd never remotely consider having a gun.

[Rikao4]

he's looking great T..
and after what you and your Lady have done for him..
I pity the fool..

have 3 big boys myself..
and one in particular goes from day care capable..
to Cujo mode when he feels you mean to harm his 'Mom'..


Rika

[Taz's Master]

Originally Posted by techweenie

Too emotional an issue to get a bead on.

Stats imply that it's far more dangerous to have a gun in the house than not. But stats on the negative side include all the children/girlfriends/neighbors/random people shot by fearful gun weilding folks. On the positive side, it's all anecdotes.

My philosophy - having gone 20 years with a gun in the house, and now 3 without - is that the consequences of that (unlikely) hasty decision to shoot are too substantial. If I had kids in the house, I'd never remotely consider having a gun.

I'm confused. Is your philosophy that the consequences of having a firearm with you when you confront an intruder are too substantial? As opposed to the substantiality of the consequences of not having a firearm when you confront an intruder? The way you wrote it, you don't seem concerned about safety, but rather a poor decision in an act of self-defense. If so, that's interesting to me, and not the way I think at all. (Which to be honest is why I read this forum, other people's thought processes tend to highlight my flaws.) I try to weigh the safety factor against the likelihood of a situation that would require me to defend myself.

[flatbutt]

A long time ago in my old hometown I wielded my .22LR revolver to defend my grandmother. She lived on the second floor of our house. I had my room in the attic. I was up there late one night when I heard someone come in the entrance I shared with her. My parents' room was on the other side of the house and they heard nothing. I knew grandma was in for the night so I grabbed the revolver and went down the stairs. There was a burglar making his way to Grams door so I cocked the revolver, he looked up, saw me and split. I thank heaven I didn't need to fire. Months after that while I was away my father used it to defend against another burglar. He fired a few off, missed every time and the dude split.

[Christien]

Originally Posted by t-tom

It's kinda like a fire extinguisher, I'd rather have one and not need it, then need it and not have it.

I don't buy the fire extinguisher analogy. Fire extinguishers don't accidentally injure or kill thousands of people a year. Putting gun ownership in such cavalier terms just encourages irresponsible ownership and handling, IMO.

[SilberUrS6]

I grew up on a farm in an area with lots of duck hunting. Even though the property was posted "no hunting", clearly, from every reasonable access point, still we'd get folks in the fields with shotguns. (Sidebar: at first, Dad didn't care about hunters, until someone dug a blind and didn't fill it back in. He had to fix some farm equipment because of that.) It was my task, as a 16-year-old, to walk out and ask the hunters to pack up and leave. Yes, we could have called the sheriff. But we didn't. I always carried my 16ga over/under with me when I went and asked folks to leave. And I always carried at high port, with rounds chambered. Never had to do more than ask. Since we were rural, we also had folks who would wander up from the road. Seeing them coming from a way off, we could get a rifle ready for carry. I answered the door on more than one occasion with rifle in-hand, asking what the person needed. Never had any issues there, either. Currently, I own a rifle, but it spends it's non-range time broken down. I use cell phone and locked doors as home invasion defense.

[tadd]

What ever happened to the classic rock salt in a shotgun? Stuff hurts like an SOB (ask me how I know ...and that was at range. Can not imagine what it would be like close range), but it won't kill you...and it does not go thru walls.

Since fire extinguishers are metaphor, salt in a shotgun is like CO2. I'm a huge fan of CO2 over the dry powder cause it doesn't leave a mess. You'd think it wouldn't matter, but people delay in using a dry powder type cause its a mess. Those seconds can be the difference between getting it put out and it growing to uncontrollable.

If your truly worried, back the salt up with a few shells with shot.

KNOWING I can be aggressive without killing someone outright makes a very big difference in my attitude towards confrontation.

[gacook]

For home defense, I'd recommend a shotgun. A bullet fired from most handguns can/will go right through the typical home construction material and end up elsewhere (if you miss your target). A shotgun won't do that.

[black_falcon]

If someone is intent on breaking into your home, there's a good chance they won't hesitate to commit great body harm or worse to the occupants inside. If your lucky it will only be someone looking for pain pills, they're typically the most timid and will scatter when confronted.

I'm not of the "guns will solve all problems" mentality but always cringe when I read these news stories that go like "wife and daughter raped, husband beat, home robbed", wondering how a firearm would have changed the outcome?

One great alternative is keeping a can of wasp spray next to your bed. Its potent stuff that sprays over 20 ft and will temporarily blind an intruder until they receive the antidote from a hospital.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by Christien

I don't buy the fire extinguisher analogy. Fire extinguishers don't accidentally injure or kill thousands of people a year. Putting gun ownership in such cavalier terms just encourages irresponsible ownership and handling, IMO.

Are you sure, at apartments & hotels, kids take fire extinguishers and use them on each other, possible blindness can occur, or fall off a balcony, or any others scenarios.
Just because liberals aren't responsible parents and don't raise their kids to obey them or respect others and don't teach them about the 2nd Amendment and how to properly handle (and not to) weapons doesn't mean mean everyone is as irresponsible as them.
We had guns in my house growing up, and they weren't locked or hidden from me when I was a kid, but I knew better than to mess with them. More people are hurt or killed by knives each year and more kids die in swimming pools than by gun accidents.
Now, back to the topic, if you do decide on buying a weapon, do as others have said, learn how to use it and then make the time to practice & be proficient & comfortable with it.
I have handguns(wheel & auto), shotguns & rifles and more, but I also take the time to stay proficient.
This is a great 357, but kinda pricy, but shoots like a dream and is an 8 shot

But if you don't want to spend that much, this is a very reasonably priced weapon with a lot of take down power, I just picked this up, less than $500

Guns don't go off when dropped. Not good guns.

Not the 1st time he has lied.

[varmint]

los angeles 2005


3 a.m. and i hear pounding on my door. i open it to see my neighbor standing there with blood coming from his mouth and nose. he pushes in before i can ask what happened, saying something about needing a phone

i had lived in the building about a year. and barely knew they guy. he was just the elderly queen who wandered around the court yard in a kimono. i was aware he was going through some drama with a shirtless skin head boyfriend. looking across the way i could see the skinhead silhouetted against the window, storming around the apartment, throwing furniture.

came back a minute later to peek through the drapes. saw not one but three shirtless skin heads pour out of the apartment, and turn and look at me. they were sweating in the cool night air. and moved with a jerkiness that indicated meth. i went to the bedroom to grab a gun. they were pounding on my door, window, and wall by the time i came back. the neighbor was now in the couch sobbing hysterically and incoherently with a police dispatcher.

i opened the door about second ahead of it getting kicked in. "where is he" the boyfriend asked.

"he ain't here" i replied. not a particularly good response since they could see him behind me. but at this point they also noticed the gun in my hand.

there was an eerily quiet stand off for about a minute. then a bunch of them screaming "mother****er" at me standing there still holding the gun. and then they left.

fifteen-twenty minutes later some of the most bored disinterested cops i've ever seen showed up. they got the neighbor an ambulance. and thankfully never interviewed me. a few days later he was out of the hospital. and a few weeks after that had a new gangbanger boyfriend, mexican this time.



this never made it into any statistical database on the defensive use of guns. the cops barely cared enough to show up. much less take down a full detailed story.

[varmint]

and for those of you who expect me to rely on the cops, i watched the LAPD tuck tale and abandon my neighborhood for three days during the rodney king riots.

[scottmandue]

Los Angeles born and raised (now 58 years old).
Grew up in a nice neighborhood and my family did not own guns, never any problems.
My first house was in a (really) bad neighborhood, kids selling drugs on the corner(s) gun shots heard in the night several times a week and no police response. Bought a shotgun to sleep better, but never used it or even got it out of it's case.
Now live in a nice neighborhood, still have a shotgun and a 9mm I picked up decades ago when I bought the hype that "they are coming to take our guns away." (that obviously never happened).
9mm has only been fired at the range, shotgun has still never been fired.
Worked in some pretty sketchy areas of L.A. (Compton, Watts, East L.A., etc.) heck the last 17 years I still work in a "nice" part of South Central... but never carried.

So no, never needed a gun.

[fred cook]

Call 911 and the police will (should) be there in minutes. Of course this is when seconds count, not minutes. By the time the law shows up, the whole thing will be decided one way or the other! My wife and I choose to use the layered security, strong doors, good locks, a big dog (150 lbs!) and last but not least, firearms. Someone might break down a door and/or kill my dog, but he/they will not harm my family! When I was in the service, Uncle Sam did a good job of teaching me how to either defend or attack. I prefer attack!