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MrsAJL
member
s/o Guns & Self Defense (long, pos. flameful)
MrsAJL
member
In Rosie's posts, a lot of comments mentioned having guns in the house but locked in a gun safe. I have lots of questions here about this and how actually using your gun to defend yourself would work.
If an intruder comes in the middle of the night, what happens if you don't hear it and the intruder takes you by surprise? Is your gun some place where you can get to it quickly? If the intruder has already found you, can you really get to your gun?
If that same intruder comes in the middle of the night and you hear the break-in but they have not discovered you, are you confident that you can get to the safe, unlock it, load your weapon, and secure yourself before the intruder comes to you?
What if they take you by surprise? You're awake (say in the living room watching TV) and they enter through a back location. What if they're between you and your weapon?
When you get licensed to own a handgun, do you get training on how to deal with these scenarios?
Do you have a back up plan to protect yourself (i.e. self-defense training, Krav Maga, a baseball bat, anything?)
I'm not discouraging anyone from owning a gun or even criticizing that ownership. I'm just wondering about all the what-ifs and how gun owners handle them. Police officers, millitary personnel who carry weapons are trained continually to handle these scenarios, but Bob and Kathy GunOwners aren't. Or are they?
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Re: s/o Guns & Self Defense (long, pos. flameful)
Those are exactly the things I've told Jay about when he mentions wanting to get a gun. You can't prepare for some stuff and being asleep and taken by surprise is the major reason I'd want a gun (like if some rapist is standing at the foot of my bed--a big fear) and there'd be no access to a locked gun when that happens.
So I sleep with a leatherman with the serrated blade out and at the ready.
ETA: only when Jay's out of town do I sleep w/ the knife. Not like, when he's home and the only danger is him wanting to have sex while all I want to do is sleep.
I asked my friend this question, she's home alone with her two daughters and her husband works out of country for months at a time.
She said, their bedrooms are upstairs. She keeps the gun in a safe in her closet. She feels confident that if the house alarm were to go off, she would have time to get the gun before an intruder made it upstairs and to her bedroom.
I have a baseball bat next to my bed. My mom is worried DH will come to bed late, scare the bajeebus out me and I'll brain him.
But I run these scenarios in my head all the time (especially when DH is out of town). I tend to sleep with the lights on and lots of noise; make our house unattractive to intruders.
And if an intruder comes in to my house? I plan to go apesh!t crazy primal on his a$$. Just start screaming and running with my hands in the air and throwing stuff at him. Taking that bat and start swinging as hard as I can. At the very least, it won't be worth the hassle dealing with the whacko and he'll take off. lol!
fwiw - DH and I want to get a gun but not for protection. I don't worry about someone breaking into our house. And if they did, chances are they are going for the tv and the PS3. I'm not about to shoot somebody over some electronics.
We want one simply for the sport of shooting it. And to exercise our right under the 2nd Amendment
We do want a concealed weapons. I don't know exactly how the law works and it varies by state. But say someday I'm driving across country with the kids. The gun is in the trunk, I'm not worried about being hijaked at a traffic light. But if the car breaks down somewhere in Arkansas - the scariest place I've even been! - then I'm waiting for a tow truck with the gun on my lap.
I can support this.
I love that you're from Detroit (right?) and Arkansas is the scariest place you've been. :-) I know that backwoods anywhere is scary, but this cracked me up.
OP - These are the exact questions I think about with guns, too.
What we have isn't for self defense in the event of an intruder. Your point is absolutely correct that there's no way we could get it unlocked from it's bag or the bullets out of the safe in time (they're both in separate places for additional security).
DH's reasoning for having it is a) it was a gift from his dad (meh) and b) it's his constitutional right and c) for zombies/revolution/civil war (none likely to happen, but whatever).
As I mentioned in my previous post, I go shooting at a range with friends every now and then. The first time I went, I wanted to make sure that G-d forbid, if I ever found myself with a gun in my hand and needing to shoot someone/something that I would know what to do/how to do it and safely. I have since found it somewhat cathartic. While I never took a class, I was trained by friends in the military and know gun safety - both in handling loaded and not. That said, I've been thinking about taking a class to make sure my bases are covered. What I know now is hearsay, but you can never be too safe around weapons which is why I'd consider taking a class from a professional/licensed teacher.
ETA - I forgot to mention - For self defense when DH isn't home at night I sleep with a knitting needle between my mattress and boxspring
Thought you might appreciate that...
lol - I feel safer in any city ghetto than I do out in the middle of nowhere! There's no one to hear you scream and how long does it take the cops to get out there? Surrounded by cornfields...creepy! Who knows what's lurking out there?
Dude! A 14" aluminum pike?? Just stab that sumabitch right in the eye.
Who recently attacked her DH in the middle of the night, thinking he was an intruder stealing the baby?
I keep thinking of that story and cracking up, good thing she didn't have a bat or knitting needle handy!
A #8 in purple. That's the plan
All very good questions, IMO. Generally, no, I wouldn't guess that Bob and Kathy GunOwners are trained that way. And, FWIW, Texans are not required to hold a concealed weapons license for weapons inside their homes - it's only if you intend to carry the weapons on your person or (technically, although there are loopholes for this) in your car. So there are plenty of gun owners who have not been through the concealed handgun class. Unless they continually run through possible scenarios and solve those problems in their heads, I would be inclined to say that Joe Blow Citizen would in most instances not be able to retrieve and load their weapon from the safe if they needed to. Before having kids, I never locked up my handgun and kept it in my nightstand when I wasn't working. Now, we just have to take the chance that we can get to it and defend our family. Or else I can start kicking the robber's ass while DH goes and gets the gun!
When 3 Became 4
The expression, "Don't bring a knife to a gun fight" comes to mind. I am going to assume that anyone breaking into my house is already armed with a gun.
Also, if I were to swing a bat, knife, or tazor at a man trying to attack me, that weapon would be used against me. He could simply grab my arm and take it out of my hands. I could maybe hurt a man with one, but could not disengage him. I am not going to kid myself that I have any defense against a man. I doubt there's a man in the world that isn't stronger than me.
And if he manages to surprise me in my sleep ... survival of the fittest, I guess
. He just got past 2 giant loud attack dogs (I mean that ... break into my house, you will have greyhound teeth imbedded in your skin), a squeaky ass house, a baby monitor, a paranoid husband, and my light sleeping.
I would wager a guess that even if most people just happened to be holding a loaded handgun when an intruder came in their home they still wouldn't be able to get a bullet near them, never mind if they had to retrieve and load the darn thing.
My mom used to teach gun safety classes of all kinds, and one of the things they always taught was that unless you have advanced training (military, police, etc), and nobody with that kind of training would have been in her class, then your best best for home protection was a shotgun. Just point that sucker in the general direction, close your eyes, and pull the trigger.
Michelleaxo. I laugh every time I think about it, too!
Ya, that was me. LOL I still laugh when I think about my crazy a$$ that night. DH is damn lucky I didn't have a weapon nearby!
If that same intruder comes in the middle of the night and you hear the break-in but they have not discovered you, are you confident that you can get to the safe, unlock it, load your weapon, and secure yourself before the intruder comes to you? Yes.
What if they take you by surprise? You're awake (say in the living room watching TV) and they enter through a back location. What if they're between you and your weapon? That would be a problem.
When you get licensed to own a handgun, do you get training on how to deal with these scenarios? Yes, in our case. And we have discussed what to do in certain situations.
Do you have a back up plan to protect yourself (i.e. self-defense training, Krav Maga, a baseball bat, anything?) Yes, but I also rely on DH to be the first line of defense while the kids and I get the eff out of there.
Ditto. I am totally freaked out about being out in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, that's where most of our vacations are, so I end up getting freaked out a lot. Well, pre-baby anyway. I don't see us camping in the Serengeti in Tanzania any time soon.
We do not have guns for protection. I don't think we would ever have guns for protection. We have guns for recreational hunting. That is all.
Even when living in Queens and walking down a dark street at 3 or 4 in the morning, I have never been scared and wished I had a weapon. I don't keep something by my bed. I don't get worried that someone is going to come into my house. I just don't. I didn't realize so many women on here worry about that and keep some kind of weapon by their bed--be it a gun, a bat, or a knitting needle.
I suppose if zombies ever infested my house, I would get eaten and become one myself ;-P
And to sort of answer the orig. ?s... I don't think that I would be able to get my gun, load it, and shoot anything if someone did come in the house. In fact, it would probably be the last thing on my mind.
Only when I'm alone in the house. When I was a kid we had our house broken in to twice. The second time, I came home to find the intruders still there (in the middle of the day, no less). It's totally freaked my shiz out. When DH is home, I'm fine. But when I'm all alone, my mind wanders.
My dad recently got a concealed handgun license in Houston, pretty much just because he could. He doesn't actually carry a handgun. He really really liked the classes, but he already knew a lot about gun safety and operation, which was the focus. His instructor was some kind of badass former Marine. My dad told me there were several spazzes in the class who asked the most stupid questions about guns. As in, one woman actually asked the instructor, "Are guns dangerous?". For a lot of the questions, the instructor would just say, "This is not a self-defense class. May I suggest getting an alarm and a dog instead?". Let's just hope that woman failed her shooting accuracy test.
Anyway, my point is that I think a lot of what you are asking depends on training and temperament. IMO if you are not able to stay focused under pressure, then you probably shouldn't rely on a gun for protection. FWIW, my mother will never have a concealed handgun license, nor would she ever use a gun. She's too scared of them, doesn't like shooting, and is just too jumpy and anxious. As my dad said, if she flips out about a bug in the house or a possum in the yard, she's pretty unlikely to handle a gun safely in a high pressure situation.
As a PSA, UT offers FREE self-defense classes to faculty, staff, and students.
https://www.utexas.edu/police/rad/
Right now here is how I do it....
I'm at home alone A LOT! Like 20+ days a month. Every night before I go to bed the gun comes out and I load it. In the morning, I unload it and put it back in the safe.