Guns and ammo - separate storage

[SnakesCatLady]

I commend all of you who lock up your firearms and teach your children firearm safety. I never want what happened to Josh and his family to happen to another child and family.

[KarlGauss]

@Lynwood Slim

3. I have a gun collection – guns and ammo stored separately, except for the two weapons in my bedroom for self defense. The shotgun is loaded but with a gunlock, the key is nearby but hidden. The .45 is unloaded, but the magazines are hidden nearby. At night, I unlock the box in which I store the .45, and in the morning I relock it. The magazines are never in sight.

As the OPer, I’ll say that this comes closest to answering my question. Makes a lotta sense (if you remember to lock/unlock).

[BlakeTyner]

@groman

I want to call for a cite. I have never, ever in my entire life met a person who would not back down from a legitimate threat. No matter how illogical, inebriated, retarded, drugged out or whatever the person is, they don’t want to truly suffer. It’s true that a lot of people won’t back down to cops, but that is a point of contrarian pride - something that simply doesn’t exist against non-institutional opponents. I mean somebody who is drunk might take their chances with a bigger individual, but no opiate or stimulant withdrawal is going to make somebody take their chances with a gun or even a baseball bat from an unknown opponent.

Statistically, I think you’re right. The vast, overwhelming majority of people will back down. It’s the one that won’t that I’m prepared for.

I’ve been trying to track down a cite for you for days, which is rather difficult because, as we agree, it doesn’t happen often at all. I did find the following:

"As his back door was kicked in Monday afternoon, a South End homeowner - confined to his bed because of a disability - called 911 with one hand and grabbed his 9 mm Glock handgun with the other.

Within seconds, a burglar was in the bedroom and inching closer.

“He didn’t stop coming toward me until he was looking down the barrel of a 9 mm,” said the 64-year-old homeowner, who didn’t want to be identified out of fear for his safety.

The burglar, disguising his face with a handkerchief, backed off several steps and called out to someone else.

“I thought he was going to take off, but he turned back around and he said, ‘I’m going to get you,’” the homeowner said. “That’s when I shot him.”

The homeowner said he has kept a gun in his home for years for protection. He had not fired it outside of the range before Monday.

“I didn’t shoot him to kill him,” said the homeowner Monday evening as he lay on his side in bed. “I’m thoroughly convinced this guy would have killed me.”

Got that from someone’s blog: Link

Unfortunately, the source he was quoting, tribnet.com, has apparently taken the story off their website.

Here’s the text of a Houston Chronicle article dated May 4, 2002 (also, unfortunately, unavailable on their website, although I haven’t tried the Wayback machine)

2 Intruders Killed in Morning Home Invasion
by Mike Glenn, Staff Writer

HOUSTON, TEXAS – Gunfire erupted this morning inside a northeast Harris County home. By the time it was over, two men were dead and a third was being sought by sheriff’s deputies.

The shooting occurred about 5 a.m. at the house in the 4200 block of Glenchase Lane.

Precinct 4 deputy constables went to the scene after the homeowner called to report a break-in at the residence.

When they arrived, the constables found one man dead and another shot, but still alive. He was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital where he later died from his injuries, officials said.

Harris County Sheriff’s detectives were called to the scene to investigate.

The homeowner, who has not been identified, told investigators he and his brother-in-law were asleep upstairs when the front door was kicked in.

Three men entered and ran upstairs armed with shotguns. They exchanged gunfire with the homeowner after forcing open the bedroom doors. Two of the intruders were shot during the gunfight, officials said. A third intruder who fled may be wounded.

Detectives said the third man he could be driving a blue or green Cadillac Escalade with a California license plate 4ABU25.

The shooting is being referred to the Harris County Grand Jury without any recommendation for charges.

The motive behind the home invasion was still unknown later today.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS

Here’s a story from the Albuquerque Journal, dated April 19, 2002:

Woman Shoots Intruder Dead
by Jeremy Pawloski, Staff Writer

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – A 42-year-old Santa Fe woman on Wednesday night shot and killed a man who had intruded onto her Maclovia Street property and was stacking a pile of bricks underneath her bedroom window when she found him, the woman has told police.

The woman, Lisa Pelland, is not accused or charged with any crime, Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Beverly Lennen said Thursday. In a brief interview at the front door of her Maclovia Street home, a visibly distraught Pelland said, “It was completely horrible, my life was in danger.”

Pelland declined to comment further.

Lennen said police were dispatched to Pelland’s Maclovia Street address around 11 p.m. Wednesday on a report of shots fired.

When police arrived, Jay P. Medina, 42, of James Street was found shot and killed outside Pelland’s home, Lennen said.

Pelland told police that before the shooting, she heard noises outside her window, armed herself and went outside. When Pelland saw Medina stacking bricks outside her window, she yelled out three times for him to stay away, but he advanced toward her, she told police.

Pelland also said she told Medina she had a gun, Lennen added. Instead of retreating, Medina continued to advance on Pelland and said something that caused her to be in fear, Pelland told police. Lennen would not say what Medina allegedly told Pelland. Pelland said she then shot Medina, according to Lennen.

The case is still under investigation, and an autopsy on Medina is still pending, Lennen said.

The 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office or a grand jury likely will make a determination on any possible criminal charges once the police investigation is complete, Lennen said.

“It’s still very early,” she said. Medina has no prior criminal record, Lennen said. There is nothing to indicate that Pelland knew or had any kind of relationship with Medina, she added.

Medina’s estranged wife, Dena Ashley-Medina, filed a protective order against him on April 15 in 1st Judicial District Court. Ashley-Medina alleges in the protective order that Medina had pushed her into walls and furniture.

Medina also allegedly threatened his estranged wife, and Ashley-Medina claimed, “If I leave him he will burn down my house, truck, destroy everything, then kill me.”

Ted Peña, a neighbor of Pelland’s, said Thursday outside his home that he heard two gunshots Wednesday night before he drifted off to sleep.

Peña added that the neighborhood also has had peeping Toms over the years. Priscilla Quintana, whose mother lives a couple of doors down from Pelland, said there have been a couple of break-ins in the neighborhood in the past month. “I don’t blame her for what she (Pelland) did. Who knows, the guy could have been trying to get in her bedroom,” Quintana said. “I wouldn’t want anyone looking in my window.”

Bolding mine.

I don’t like being unable to give more than that, but that’s about as good as it got during my search.

For Karl, my gun collection is mostly locked in a safe (all of my rifles, and all but one of my shotguns is in the safe.) One over-under 12 guage is loaded with 00 Buck and kept in a closet in the living room. My pistols are all locked away, except for my carry gun, a Walther P99 in .40 S&W, which is either always on me, or on the nightstand while I sleep. Magazine loaded, round chambered, spare magazine in the carrier beside it. Being striker-fired, there’s no hammer, but the gun is effectively in “double action” all the time.

It should be noted, though, that children are only here once every 5 years or so, and in those (rare) situations, ALL firearms are locked in the safe, with the exception of my P99, which is either on me, or locked in my bedroom with me.

And to echo an earlier poster, I don’t see my CHL (or 2A right, for that matter) as a license to kill. I just remember the big shooting at Luby’s in Killeen a few years back, which was the reason Texas passed a CHL law, and shudder to think that it could have been me and my family.