I sometimes think I must be naive, but my life experience does not lead me to believe that I want or need to have guns around the house for protection (or any other purpose). There seem to be plenty of people on this board, and in real life I guess, who disagree. I would like to get a sense of your attitudes towards guns in the home, and the reasons for those attitudes.
The poll is multiple choice, so please check all that are applicable. But I’m hoping for more than just poll responses. Please write about your attitude towards guns in the home, and why.
I’m 61 and have lived in cities all my life, sometimes in rather sketchy areas, and I have never had anyone enter my home without being invited. But I have lived either alone or with one other adult, and I have never had children. Maybe other circumstances would have changed my views. I was mugged on the street once (in one of those sketchy areas) and after that I took a class and carried Mace for a while.
I would appreciate it if the discussion could focus on guns in the home, not on open carry or hunting or 2nd amendment or other gun-related issues. Thanks.
Roddy
Your first section doesn’t quite leave me an option. Sure, I haven’t had an unauthorized entry, but that’s because I stopped one with one of my guns.
I use them for a lot of things, but I believe that it is a requirement that my husband and I protect our family with any means possible. Our children are quite educated on the matter.
I live in a fairly small town. I had my home burgled twice while I was at work. Probably just some punk-ass kids, they came in through a somewhat hidden-from-view window and took piddly stuff like a Walkman we had laying around and an old video game system. Both times when the police came to make a report on it, they asked if I had any firearms in the house, and both times I felt relieved to say no. I was pissed off about the burglaries, but I would have been beside myself if I’d had a gun stolen, worried to death about where it would have wound up. I don’t have kids, so if I did have a gun, it would likely not be locked up in a safe.
I’ve never been one to begrudge any law abiding citizen the right to own guns. I figure that making it illegal would be pretty stupid, and we’d just have a whole new set of criminals. But I’m also not one who is convinced that there is really any value in having a gun for home protection. Look, that means that it would have to be loaded and ready and at my side pretty much at all times. If it were anywhere else, it might just as easily be used against me by a burglar who didn’t have a weapon to begin with.
And short of an aggressive home invasion by armed intruder(s) - which seems unlikely in the extreme where I live - when would I use it? To keep some punk from walking out the door with my DVD player? Really? Somehow I think I’d rather just write off almost any of my material possessions than live with the grief of having killed someone over some stuff.
And if I ever lived in a place where an armed home invasion seemed like a reasonably likely scenario, my first reaction wouldn’t be to buy a gun. It would be to relocate.
My home has never had unauthorized entry.
Suburbs.
No firearms.
Minors/children.
I fully expect that I will never need to protect my home and family with firearms.
But
The ability to protect my home and family with firearms is important to me.
I don’t want any guns, thanks, but was raised in a very pro-gun ownership family and nearly all of my family are carrying when they visit my home. Doesn’t bother me in the slightest, as they’re all responsible owners. I don’t consider gun rights a critical issue, but neither do I like the idea of creating more laws to restrict rights of law-abiding folks. I don’t think eroding the rights of regular hunters and sportsmen to own legal guns is going to make much of a dent in gun-related crime. Accidental gun damage, kids getting ahold of stuff they shouldn’t for instance, is a concern, but doesn’t trump the personal rights issue for me.
My home has never had an unauthorized entry. I own several working (and loaded) guns. I’ve lived in the suburbs almost all my life. I have a two year old. The ability to keep firearms in my home is critical to me.
I’ve seen what can happen to people who didn’t have a way to protect themselves during a break in. I’m a single mom who spends about 75% of my “nights” (I work graves) alone (when the boyfriend is elsewhere). My primary firearm is in a drawer right by my bed. The only change I’ve made in the way I store my gun as my son has gotten older is that I now separate the gun and the mag. I can slam a magazine in and rack a round into the chamber in a handful of seconds, while the process would be lost on the baby even if he could work the mechanism. I only started doing that when my son started playing with my old Airsoft guns.
Once I’ve purchased a new one, my secondary handgun will stay in my purse at all times.
Shotgun in the closet.
One of the things I love the most about my boyfriend: with him, my gun collection grows exponentially.
I have a rifle in my basement, but it is essentially a collection piece. I haven’t been shooting in far to long these days…
But I do have one, and it is essentially unusable. Lived in suburbs, had my house burgled when I was away, and I have children in the house. And it may some day be important, but right now… not so much.
My wife and I live in a large city. We’ve had an intruder in our home: ran past my wife who was gardening into the back door, grabbed her purse that was laying in plain view, ran out again. I was in a back bedroom and had no idea what was happening until I heard the back porch door slam and thought to look out the window and saw him running away. My wife didn’t let out a peep of warning, ran to the neighbors. Our two terriers are worse than useless as guard dogs because they bark at anything and everything. F- on the situational awareness quiz.
This convinced me to bolt my handgun’s lock box to the inside of a two-hundred pound cabinet in my bedroom so a burglar couldn’t just walk off with it and crack it at leisure. I also put batteries in so I could use the quick-open combination buttons instead of the key, and practiced punching the combination by feel so I wouldn’t need light in an emergency. I also started keeping the magazine loaded (but without a round chambered). It also convinced me to get tactical training and a carry permit. No kids but if I did have any they would never find an unsecured gun in my house.
Primary purpose of my gun is (hypothetically) defense.
I have no kids.
I had a bum break in and clean my living room.:dubious:
I have an SKS(I’m between handguns)
I own guns for protection, and because they are wicked cool to shoot.
When I was around 13 or so, the second-story apartment I lived in was broken into by someone who scaled a bush and the wall outside. No one was home at the time. Some electronics were stolen and the place was generally ransacked.
Although I have absolutely nothing against responsible gun ownership (and one of my dearest friends, a former law enforcement officer, has herself quite the collection), I don’t really want anything to do with guns personally. I’ve been to an indoor range once where I had the opportunity to fire a handgun. It’s the only time in my life I’ve ever used a handgun, and I hope it stays that way. In my mind, the risk of me doing something foolish accidentally with a gun is higher than the risk of me needing a gun and not having it. That does NOT mean I think there’s no chance of me ever having a use for a lethal weapon of that nature. It just means I don’t trust myself that much with that sort of power, so I choose not to make use of it.
I am male, and I’ve spent about 2/3 of my 35 years living in the urban part of Los Angeles, and the other 1/3 in the suburbs. I have never had children.
We have three children under the age of 12. I have many guns, and have never kept them hidden away or locked up. I have long guns in every room of the house, propped up near a door or whatever. They are primarily tools for self protection.
I picked the Home Invasion option for the same reason. Five attempts to break into my house in Minneapolis (over 11 years) when they KNEW I was there, all ended by a display of a firearm. The last time calling 911 while holding a large butcher knife had no effect on his attempts to break down my door, so I had to go get my .357, which send him fleeing over the fence rather than through the gate.
I’m 25, have more than two working firearms in the home and I have lived in both urban and rural areas. I have no children but would be comfortable having loaded guns in the house with kids - along with some additional precautions, of course. My home has never been invaded by a criminal.
The guns I use I use for target shooting, but some of them are just part of the collection (I have about 20 altogether :D). Although I am prepared for such an eventuality, I never expect to need my firearms for defensive purposes.
