Gun use for home defense?

[scottmandue]

RE: Shotgun for home defense... sounds like a good idea but, very difficult to handle inside a house. As a test when no one was home I unloaded my 18" barrel 870 and tried walking through the house as if I heard a bad guy break in in the middle of the night. As I said very difficult to maneuver down hallways and through doorways and almost impossible to "keep on point".
RE: Shotgun and penetration, most people will probably be using 00 for home defense which I believe (someone will correct me if I am wrong I'm sure) is equivalent to a handful of .32 caliber bullets.

[varmint]

Originally Posted by 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.

recurring theme in your post. you think because you didn't need it so it is not an issue. "they" never came to take your guns because a lot of people worked very hard to prevent it. you've never personally been attacked, this affects the rest of us how?

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by varmint

recurring theme in your post. you think because you didn't need it so it is not an issue. "they" never came to take your guns because a lot of people worked very hard to prevent it. you've never personally been attacked, this affects the rest of us how?

A quick search show that 60% of Americans don't own a gun... so I guess for them it is a "non-issue".

[varmint]

in some west l.a. schools 60% of the kids aren't vaccinated. this doesn't make it a "non-issue".

Wealthy L.A. Schools' Vaccination Rates Are as Low as South Sudan's - The Atlantic

[patz]

Hell yes, snake shot/blue tip rounds, .357, flash and laser equipped.

[VaSteve]

Nobody has a home alarm?

[jyl]

Glock G19 in the bedside touchpad pistol safe with 16 rd hollowpoint. My little friend since 1985. Takes about 5 sec to get to it. Since I have kids, and they have friends, and said friends come over, having a gun laying around loose is not an option.

Also a loaded 38 revolver in the safe. Shotgun and some long guns elsewhere, but they aren't kept loaded.

[vash]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

RE: Shotgun for home defense... sounds like a good idea but, very difficult to handle inside a house. As a test when no one was home I unloaded my 18" barrel 870 and tried walking through the house as if I heard a bad guy break in in the middle of the night. As I said very difficult to maneuver down hallways and through doorways and almost impossible to "keep on point".
RE: Shotgun and penetration, most people will probably be using 00 for home defense which I believe (someone will correct me if I am wrong I'm sure) is equivalent to a handful of .32 caliber bullets.

i'm not delusional. i know i'm not Delta force..i am not gonna go and clear my home.

i'm calling 911 and guarding my position. i go looking for someone, i'm just gonna get the thing taken away from me, when i absent mindedly go poking it past some door threadhold first.

clearing a house is an artform..and i'm simply drawing stick figures. it is so difficult.

[Por_sha911]

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.

No problem. Don't buy because no one is selling. You call 911 and wait 45 minutes. I'll defend myself.

[Chocaholic]

I think we'll stick with our 3 dogs and cell phones. Read through every message and not one case where a mid-upscale residential home was protected from vandalism because a firearm was handy. We don't hunt or have any other reason to live with that wild card in the night stand. I have no issue with others owning guns (most everyone I know has at least one), but most also collect, hunt, etc. Appreciate the comments and experience of this board.

Stay safe!

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

I've been told that the odds of actually needing/using a gun successfully for home defense are far lower than the odds of having a terrible accident with one.

That is actually one of the most often quoted falsehoods in the entire gun rights debate.

The "statistics" used to make that claim include our inner city homies shooting one another, quite often "family". Just as the inconvenient truth that the vast majority of gun crime in the United States is perpetrated between inner city black gang bangers goes unmentioned in the great gun rights debate, so goes the fact that most "family" gun "tragedies" occur in the same population remains almost completely unmentioned. Discount the black gang member component, and "intra-family" gun violence/tragedy shrinks into irrelevance.

This is much like when HCI purchased advertising years ago to decry the number of "children" killed by handguns every year. Their billboards and print ads showed about a dozen children, ages maybe four or six to 12 or 13. Pretty heart wrenching stuff. The truth of the matter, however, turned out that over 90% of their "children" were 18-21 year old black gangstas. Not quite as heart-wrenching to see their tattooed and pierced, defiant faces on the billboards or in the print ads. So they did't use them...

Be careful with these statistics. They are meant to mislead.

[Nostril Cheese]

All you need for home defense.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by vash

i'm not delusional. i know i'm not Delta force..i am not gonna go and clear my home.

This, cops don't use shotguns for clearing houses either.

#6 shot, not 00, you are not going to miss with a shotgun. 20 ga for the little woman.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by vash

i'm not delusional. i know i'm not Delta force..i am not gonna go and clear my home.

Total agreement... I only keep the shotgun in the event of civil unrest I figure me sitting on the front porch with a black 870 will discourage any neer-do-wells from approaching.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Have any Pelicans been threatened by a break-in while at home and used your gun to diffuse the situation?

I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with these.


press releases Archive - Peak Beam Systems, Inc.



Is a really bright flashlight or strobe light a better deterrent than any type of gun?

Peak Beam Systems, Inc. is a leader in the design and manufacture of high-intensity searchlights. Peak Beam’s Maxa Beam Searchlight is integrated onto computer-controlled security and surveillance platforms and users include DHS, federal law enforcement, and the US military.

It can be hooked into a home security network, so you don't even have to get out of bed and make yourself a target.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by kach22i

Is a really bright flashlight or strobe light a better deterrent than any type of gun?

There are spotlights so bright that if you get the beam in your eyes, you'll be temporarily blinded. Then a Taser, or OC spray. Would ideally be combined in one device, since that's a lot of stuff to juggle. Not as definitive as a gun, but also won't accidentally kill a family member.

I guess I'd like one of those spotlights combined with a gun. Something with two triggers, like some double barreled shotguns have. Pulling the first trigger turns on a broad beam, to locate your intruder (maybe this is a red light to preserve your night vision), then pull it more and turn on a 2000 lumen spot with a 2 foot beam at 30 feet, temporarily blinding him. The light also allows you to verify that it isn't your teenager sneaking home at night. Pulling the second trigger fires the gun.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Well, perhaps true, but you're still talking about a high velocity rifle round. It has massive penetration. Do you really want to get dragged into court by an overzealous prosecutor, or the civil attorney representing some dirtball you shot, and have them hold up a .223 with laser sights and a tactical light on it?

Skip to the 1:30 mark.

(penetration test)

I think you'll find this a bit more comprehensive test. The close spacing on the you-tube video is not real world.

.223 Drywall Penetration: Introduction

[gogriz91]

Smart thieves rob houses when no one is home greatly decreasing the likelihood something out of their span of control will happen which may eventually result in more jail time if they're caught.

Dumb thieves or thugs won't care and are prepared on some level for an encounter when they enter your house knowing someone is inside. If you live in suburbia the average response time is about 10 minutes if you're able to make the call. I like having a firearm in the house while I'm waiting for law enforcement and use a pistol I am familiar with not only when it is functioning but when it fails to function. Training is the key to owning a firearm because when you need one you need it really bad and you're operating on a lot of adrenaline which is where good training in firearms handling will pay off. I recommend a Glock 19 and hollowpoints if you decide to get a gun, they're abuse friendly and very reliable...don't do what many gun owners do though and take one class then shove it under the bed, you should go to a range once a month and shoot just to reacquaint yourself with what it is like to shoot and ensure it's still functioning.

I recommend this to read before you consider buying a gun. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0936279001?keywords=in%20the%20gravest%20extreme&qid=1444691006&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Mas Ayoob has a ton of experience in law enforcement and teaching firearms safety and handling. His observations may help steer you one way or another.

[Cajundaddy]

Yep, I agree with many here that choose layers of security.
- Gated property
- Dog for early warning and location
- Motion sensor outdoor lighting to eliminate surprise
- Motion sensor cameras to identify intruder
- Big-azz lock hardware
- One can bear spray
- 12GA w Duck load (absolute last defense)

This place is a pretty hardened target and buys a lot of time between 1st detection and the possibility of home invasion. My wife would really rather I not use the 12GA because it will surely make a mess all over her lovely furnishings so I agreed to use it as a last resort. If someone gets through the rest of this, I will be very awake, in position, and very ready to deliver the final payload.

Hopefully the cops will have enough time to show up before that is necessary. Cops love to catch a bad guy in the act but hate paperwork. This plan at least gives them a reasonable response time and fair chance to do their fun cop thing.

[72doug2,2S]

I've had smoke detectors in every house I've owned. Turns out, no, I've never needed them.