I have a terrier dog that sounds like three ferocious rabid animals. She's great. We had some people walking around in our yard---well away from the house and she heard them somehow and fired off quite an alarm. And my husband has his gun ---but can't remember what he uses.
I am a political theorist and public servant in a peaceful capacity - not a cop, private security guard, gun enthusiast, or someone with any experience with weapons outside of the context of hunting game in the Rocky Mountain West. If you have any insights to offer on criminals from a psychological or sociological perspective as it pertains to the matter at hand I would be glad to hear it. Otherwise I don't know why you feel compelled to give me any grief about this. Either it works or it doesn't. The odds of doing it my way sound significantly better than any of the alternatives I've got coming to mind at the moment. If someone has a better idea that isn't going to put me at higher risk of being shot and/or spending serious money on a line of credit as a precaution for scenarios I will probably never be forced into I'll gladly take it into serious consideration. This is meant with no disrespect, of course. I am merely responding to what is being said to me. Why does using a low-caliber rifle give me no chance? The bloke in question might not even have a gun. Or I might shoot first, hit, and have time to reload as he flinches, is caught off guard, trying to figure out where it came from, etc. Or he may see someone is both at home and armed with something when he was expecting there to be nobody all and flee. There are all sorts of things that could happen. I'm not claiming to be an expert or even that my plan is anything even remotely close to ideal but it is better than nothing and without practical advise being provided here it may be a wee bit unreasonable to expect me to deduce on my own something better at a moment's notice after receiving negative feedback. Aside from that, how am I brainwashed? I don't think I know what you think I'm thinking right now. Except I cannot take a gun to work, therefore cannot walk to or from work in town with a gun, meaning I would continue to be without defense at the times I am most at risk of encountering criminals. At home, meanwhile, it is probably worthwhile to weigh the potential benefits and risks of doing so. As mentioned twice before though I still cannot financially afford that option and more likely than not will not be able to for at least a year or two's time. You are right, I don't! I've never been in the armed forces, and my father taught me about conservation, hunting game, and responsible gun ownership but not how to be a warrior. I don't have the skill sets you are talking about and am not entirely sure I even want to if it is going to be of much inconvenience. I understand why many people consider it important, and have no intention of trying to dissuade them from doing so, but I'm not sure it's for me. They could, hypothetically, but I'm not going to post floor plans with diagrams drawn out to show why that course of action would seem pretty unlikely. You imply a good point insofar as there should ideally be a security plan in place for every conceivable contingency. This is something I've done for threats of fire, carbon monoxide, earthquake, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, or failure of the local dam, but not for home invasion. For better or worse, home invasion is not a threat I take as seriously as any of those things. Apparently the odds of someone in my town suffering a burglary in any given year are about 0.31% now and 0.0048% for being murdered. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that average is dragged up by the people who live within city limits (especially in some neighborhoods that have much worse reputations for crime than others) as opposed to way out in the hinterlands on farms, and in the foothills. It could still happen of course but the amount of risk I'm at right now really doesn't make me nervous. Of course I am, and I was never trying to make a case for anybody else not owning a gun. Buy and bear any weapon system, ammunition, and set of related accessories you like so long as it does not require a multi-person crew to use, does not involve any surface-to-air missiles or WMDs, and is lightweight enough to be carried about by one man. It is a right, politically, but still a luxury, financially. I have no intention of imposing my views on you, incidentally. Instead, I was reacting before to what seemed to be attempts by Crue Crab to force his on me. I'm not looking for any trouble and have no interest in taking away your 2nd Amendment rights. I cannot tell the difference in intent but can try to intuitively guess since my default attitude is not one of shoot first, ask questions later. If another person seemed to be in danger I would be less considerate of the criminal's wellbeing.
Why yes I do have an insight....it deals with criminal behavior, human behavior, and a general lack of understanding of both. No one response to a given situation will fit. A well rounded ability to respond to any given situation is the best response, especially if you have all the tools necessary to provide this response. Personally I don't care what course of action anyone takes....as long as it doesn't interfere with my choices in responding. None taken, you'll excuse me if I had taken offense to the numerous other responses that seem to want me to abide by their thinking and maybe inappropriately applied them to a poster who I thought was insinuating our ways are archaic and there is only one reasonable response. You'll excuse me if I didn't make my point better, I was responding to this in particular. Tactically speaking, if one were to truly desire to provide for self defense of self or family then the weapon would be on them. I am truly sorry you can't, I can and do and I believe everyone should be able to do exactly that. Good call, each person should be able to weigh the potential benefits eh? I am sorry you cannot afford it, guess it comes down to a cost analysis of benefits verses risk. This is your right and I might add thanks for not attempting to dissuade me. Your call and I respect it but home invasion is a much more serious threat for me than many of your afore mentioned items. I am glad for you however I like having the tools and abilities to negate or respond to all possible sufferings in a robust manner, just so you know I am not of a singular focus eh LOL Thanks....really that made my day!!! Well it is an inalienable right but why quibble eh? Thanks for your response and I appreciate the conversation. Also you have the right to believe as you will and I will defend that. I can't either actually and I am not a fan of shoot first as well, I just want the ability to do so if it is necessary.
My silly dog is way to erratic to trust. Sometimes he will bark up a storm others he will wag his tail and want to love you long time. I think if any intruder tried to escape the police would just have to look for someone covered in slobber lol
Ah...so now we are talking about my Golden Retriever....an absolutely worthless security dog. He may bark hearing a noise but once he sees it is a burgler he'd wag his tail and give him kisses. My terrier isn't like that. She will possibily get comfortable with a house guest after a full day...but then we start all over when the house guest is wearing a new set of clothes on day two.
It is illegal to have a gun for self defense here in Germany, but it is pretty safe. Of course, the houses are all built of concrete and the locals roll down steel shutters over all of their windows every night, so everyone here basically sleeps in secure bunkers. Maybe that is why most of them feel safe. . .
I have 3 fire arms i will use given the situation. First off my father and i own houses right next to each other and we will protect each others property. I always have my glock 22 with me. Wether im traveling to or from the east or just going to walmart. If i am at home i have my mossberg 500 that has a for grip and a gen 2 knoxx stock for recoil reduction. This shotty i have also put a 700 lumen strobe flashlite. If i have need to protect my dads house, i will go in with my ak47 chambered in the 7.62x39 with 2 30 rd mags. I dont know how many or in there or how many its going to take to take them down. D not get my wrong, i will always give the option to surrender first. If they want to leave they can as long as they leave me their photo ID i can give to the local PD when they choose to arrive 2 hrs later. That or option b is to get on the floor and wait for PD to arrive. Any other choice i will view as a potential threat and handle it as such.
I agree. It depends on your situation. I prefer a handgun, because the entranceway to my bedroom is narrow. Much easier to maneuver the handgun. Now, after a hurricane, when I slept in my living room (cooler without a/c), I had my shotgun.
You are fortunate that you live in a remote location far from the violent urban areas that welfare state has created in so many cities. Mindset---your mental state and your will to use a gun during a crisis is more important than the type of gun hanging on the wall nearby. Looks like you have only yourself to worry about---and that isn't much of a priority. Instead of trying to wound intruders, I would suggest finding a good place to hide.
I agree, I do miss the US. The gun laws here are pretty crazy. To buy a gun or ammunition, you have to be an active member of a gun club for at least six months, and shoot at least once a month. You have to store your ammunition and gun separately in a safe that is bolted to the wall. When transporting your gun, the ammunition and gun have to be in two completely separate compartments - so if you have a hatchback you can only carry a gun or ammunition, not both. On the other hand, to hunt you have to take a 100 hour training course that can cost well over 1,000 euro. This gets you the permit you need to then apprentice under another hunter for a year. Only after all of that do you get to test for the chance to get your own licence and permission to buy a firearm. Hunters are a less restricted on firearms after that. They do have to store them in a safe, but the safe doesn't have to be bolted down. They can transport their firearms and ammunition in the same box, but the gun has to be unloaded. There is no way to get permission to keep a gun for home defense and firearm storage is subject to inspection. I miss the US where you don't have to get permission from anyone to buy a gun and what you do with your property is your business - unless you infringe on someone else.
can you believe there are some over here that want to live like that? I feel for you, Liberty is always a loud cry!
*The weapons I do not keep locked in my safes are four Springfield eXtreme Duty (XD) sidearms in 9mm and .357 SIG, a Saiga-12 AK47 shotgun with 50 round magazine, and a Mossberg riot control shotgun. * I have seven bulldogs, and an ADT alarm system with cellular backup. * My local sheriff knows I am an FFL and keep 75+ weapons and 20K+ rounds of ammo. He would respond quickly to any call from ADT. * Of note is that I *NEVER* use my CCW to carry weapons off my property. I am perfectly fine with living in a small town and letting the local PD handle all local issues requiring the use of deadly force.
So you are willing to let the PD get there after you have been killed to write the report of your demise.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that statement is called a "straw man". In reality, I am not banking on the PD being needed at all. I protect my home using my right to keep and bear arms (and castle doctrine of course), but I feel that the odds of me ever needing a firearm to protect myself in public is so miniscule that it is almost non-existent. I feel pretty darn safe driving to Walmart, Agway, the local pizzeria, or CVS. I also figure if the fickle finger of fate wanted me gone, it had perfect opportunities in Iraq and West Germany. The odds of me dying from anything besides old age at this point are slim-to-none and Slim left town. More people probably die from lightning strikes than mass shooters, and I am not putting a lightning rod up my butt when I go outside either.
That sounds a lot like America, actually. To get a hunting permit in NY, GA or CT, you have to take an NRA class on hunter safety. To get a pistol permit in NY, GA or CT you have to take an NRA class on pistol safety. Those are weekend classes - about 20 hours. I'm kind of blown away about the $1,000 Euros though. In USA that class is more like $100 USD. OTOH, we went on a 1 month vacation in Italy, Spain, and France last year and found everything to be extremely expensive over there. To buy weapons from the ODCMP (Uncle Sam, effectively) you have to join the Garand Club, a hunting club, or show your DD214's which proves you were trained by the US Military. They are just trying to make sure they are selling to people that will be safe with the weapons. We also do the same thing with background checks. Even private sales now require that the seller believes beyond a reasonable doubt that the buyer "could" pass a background check. In America FFL's have to sell even used guns with trigger locks; though most people put their weapons in gun safes. I keep mine bolted to the floor though, not a wall. It seemed safer, and the safes over here from Winchester and Browning have holes in the bottom for just that purpose. I think holes in the back would reduce the amount of time the safe could hold a low temperature in the event of a fire. While we don't require people to have an apprenticeship period for hunting; it is a good idea. And candidly, I have never met a hunter in my life that went out hunting for the first few times without some very senior hunters in attendance. People aren't born knowing how to field dress a deer, and only a fool goes out hunting before spending a year or two hunting with a more seasoned hunter. I own a few hundred acres and even I never hunt alone. I always bring a friend and they have to be well seasoned hunters that know how to track wounded animals and how to field dress deer. The interstate weapons transport laws in USA also address separating the weapons from the ammunition. Most people transport the weapon in the trunk and the ammo in the glove box. That's the safest way and complies with transport laws in pretty much all of the states. They call that three degrees of separation.
Good for you that you feel that safe. But plenty of guys came back from Iraq and Afganistan and all the way back to VietNam. Only to be killed on the streets of the US.
O.K., cell phone people, how long do you think it would take the police to respond to a break in from the time you call to the time they get there?? 2 minutes?? 3?? try between 10 and 15 minutes IF your lucky. So, from the time you call till they get there what are you going to do to protect yourselves?? Believe me, harsh words don't work.
Mister, I boxed for 8 years, have a couple of years of karate under my belt and NONE of it will do me a bit of good if they stand off at 10 feet and start shooting.
beenthere, we all have to die someday and if its your time, no matter how much armament your carrying, you can try to improve the odds all you want to, but there's nothing you can do to stop the inevitable.
Glade you have never been shot at but there are a lot of us that have and didn't have anything at the moment to shot back with. Kind of a helpless feeling.
