No guns for us. I have two little boys. I’ve know two people who were raised with guns, taught proper gun safety, lived in houses where the guns were kept in secured places, who used the guns to commit suicide (they were both teenagers at the time). I’ve never known anyone personally who needed a gun to protect himself from an intruder.
I have no problem with anyone else wanting to have a gun, but it’s probably not something I’d ever consider.
Suburban/Urban Southern CA
Female
No childer.
We had our house broken into when I was little, by a man who tried to rape my mom. He had a knife, she fought him off. I was away visiting my grandparents at the time.
As stated above, the proper reaction to living in perpetual fear of a break-in is to MOVE.
We own this replica; that’s as close as I will ever come to having a gun in the house.
I value human life above material goods and would probably never shoot a person just because s/he tried to take my possessions. Life is irreplaceable, stuff is replaceable. My insurance will cover a new stereo set or whatever a burglar might choose to take from us.
That’s why my guns are kept in a burglar-proof safe (yeah, I know, give’em enough time and they’ll break it) whenever they’re not used for hunting or shooting. And since I have children living in my house (and they bring their friends sometimes), I would never, ever leave a fully functional gun lying around. Not to mention a loaded one :eek:
While burglaries do happen, home invasions are virtually unheard of in my part of the world. If I were living in a part of the world with a significant (not imaginary) risk that my family could be in physical danger in our own home (and with significantly more lenient laws on the use of potential deadly force for self defense), I might reevaluate my decision to not have a gun for self defense. But in my part of the world, never.
I would stand directly behind the gun, or as far away as possible.
I’m 47, raised in the midwest, Libertarian, white, male.
I grew up with guns, hunting and sport. Firearms instructor is one of my hats I wear.
My home has been burglarized.
My car has been burglarized.
My home has been vandalized.
I have been attacked walking down a street.
I have had someone try to rob me on a couple of occasions. (unsuccessfully)
I have witnessed robberies and assaults.
At 13 or so, I was given a .22 rifle for my own use, and kept it and ammo in my room.
I was allowed to take it anytime and go to the woods and shoot, and did so responsibly.
At 22 I became a cop for 5 years. I’ve seen a lot of things that most of you never will.
That’s the filter I see life through, and perhaps because of that, I can’t understand the “I would never have a gun/take a life” crowd.
Certainly I understand we are all different, and many of you are far more gentle souls than I, but I truly don’t understand ignoring the truth of our environment, and that environment often includes bad people who do bad things, from stealing your laptop to rape and murder.
Many of us are lucky enough to go through a month, a year, or more without encountering an attack or crime of some kind. Many people live their whole lives without becoming a victim at all.
The same holds true for your car. I read above a woman who doesn’t trust herself with the awsome power of a gun, and yet I suspect she drives a car every day. Talk about dangerous power in your hands…
We drive cars, hoping to never have an accident, but knowing that we very well might, and so we purchase insurance. Like a gun, we all hope we don’t have to use it, but it’s a damn good thing we have it when the right (wrong?) situation presents itself.
I happen to be an emergency preparedness kind of person. In addition to being my job, my home, cars, and person are all equipped with something to mitigate or deal with emergencies, from having a whole-house generator and stockpiles of food for the occasional weather-related power outage, to first-aid, SAR, and FF equipment in my truck at all times. I’m just prepared for stuff to happen, and I do the best I can when it does.
I do have firearms readily accessible in my home, yet secure from children and thieves.
I feel that being a responsible gun owner includes never letting a child or unauthorized person get possession of a gun.
For those who wish to have quick access, yet safe storage of a weapon, I recommend a Gunvaultor similar product.
My closet shotgun is secured in something similar to this.
I apologize for the rant. The “eeewwww, guns” thing just gets me so mad I could shoot something!
I have plenty of guns. I have rifles, pistols, shotguns, and blackpowder guns. They’re useful for self-defense, for hunting, and for fun at the target range. None of those reasons are the primary reason I own any of them. No, the main reason I own them, especially the military and military-style weapons is specifically that they piss off anti-gun people. Every time I read a post on an internet board, or a post to a blog, or a letter to a periodical bitching about such weapons being in civilian hands, I get a warm feeling of satisfaction. I own some I’ve never even fired just because I enjoy contributing to *more *of them being in the civilian pool.
An AR-15 or AK-47 may or may not be more fun to fire at the range than Grandpa’s lever action .30-30, but the AR/AK is definitely more fun to simply own because it agitates the antis and their congresscritters for me to have it.
I own a .357 that I bought for protection while doing back country hiking and fishing. It’s more intended as protection from animals then people. I do keep it loaded and near my bed but I doubt I’ll ever use it in my house.
In the up coming year I plan on buying a .308 rifle and a shotgun both of which will be kept in a locked gun safe while not in use. I have no children in the house and about the only thing I’d change if I did would be the handgun would be secured in some way as opposed to lying in the open.
I’m like that with handguns. Over 9 different calibers in the collection, and I still want another one. I might just treat myself to a new .38 snubbie for Christmas.
My home has never had unauthorized entry.
I have lived mostly in rural areas.
I have no firearms in the house.
I fully expect that I will never need to protect my home and family with firearms.
I have minors/children living with me.
Not much need for guns in my part of the world.
I have never had a break in. I live in small towns or the suburbs. I have a small kid living with me. I hate guns in general, but specifically hand guns.
My younger brother used to shoot at me, first with a pellet gun (which hurt BTW) and then with a .22 pistol. The pellet guns were given to him by my parents. He stole the .22 from a friend’s home where it was not secured. I still have nightmares. I am lucky that he never hit me with the .22.
This experience with my brother, and knowing that other people can be short-tempered assholes, makes me uncomfortable around guns and the people who seem to like them so much.
The only guns I will allow are long guns for hunting; I don’t care for them either, but accept the utility they offer. Hand guns are for killing people and I would support the dissappearance of all of them immediately.
Why do you think you’re such a target for criminals? Seriously, I’m not trying to be sarcastic or snarky. I have lived in upper middle class neighborhoods, seriously bad neighborhoods, cities, and suburbs. I’ve known people from all walks of life and from many places throughout the world. You seem to have extraordinarily bad luck.
I agree wholeheartedly. And it is completely up to the criminal to decide if my stuff is worth his life.
Yes, guns in the house. Kids too. Grew up that way, never had a problem with it.
Wow. That’s incredibly sad.
For the record, I was trying to make this thread as neutral as possible on the issue in question, although I’m not sure I succeeded completely. **Ducati **seems to be perceiving an anti-gun sentiment that I am not seeing.
I, too, would like to ask some of the respondents (ducati, chimera) why they think they have been the victims of so many crimes or attempted crimes? 5 attempted home invasions in 11 years? Is this a high-crime area?
Sidebar question for chimera: from your description of the last attempt, do you think a realistic replica would have been enough to scare off that guy (assuming you are a good enough actor to convince him that it was real)?
Sidebar question for Really Not All That Bright: I’m guessing that doesn’t really work. I would think that the hot sauce would congeal and become non-squirtable in a fairly short space of time, and that cleaning and re-loading of hot sauce would end up costing a lot of time and money. Or was that just a whoosh?
Roddy
I have six rifles of various calibers and uses and one handgun which is always loaded and sitting on top of the computer under my desk for easy access. None of the guns are kept secured in any way.
I have never had any problems with crime, although I do tend to meet an unexpected visitor at my door with gun in hand. Scam artists and door-to-door salemen don’t tend to stay long.
Whoosh. See Airheads.
I have never had a home intrusion of any kind
I have always lived in an urban setting
I have numerous working firearms in my house
I mainly use those firearms in target shooting
The ability to protect my home and family with firearms is critical to me
I do not have minor children living with me.
Unlisted category:
I have a license to legally carry a concealed firearm
39/F:
[ul][li]My home has never had unauthorized entry[/li][li]Suburbs[/li][li]No firearms[/li][li]No minors/children[/li][li]I fully expect that I will never need to protect my home and family with firearms[/ul]No guns allowed in my house unless my SO is a LEO or in the military (are there other professions that require firearms?).[/li]
I shouldn’t, but I kind of love this. 
There is no point in my home that’s more than 10 feet from a loaded firearm and, unless I’m watching TV in my PJ, I usually have one on my belt.
I believe home defense is critical for several reasons:
Your money and your property are, quite literally, expressions of your life. If you make $10 an hour and buy a $100 watch, that watch equals 10 hours of your life. I’m not letting anyone take that.
You can’t know an intruder’s intentions. He or she may be there to take your stereo or to take your life, and giving the benefit of the doubt can get you killed.
If you have the potential to stop the criminal who’s acting against you, and you fail to make a valid attempt, you’re complicit in the next crime s/he commits.
I live in Phoenix, the home invasion capital of the U.S. Fortunately, a great number of attempted home invasions here are thwarted here because of very gun-owner friendly legislation and homeowners’ willingness to take advantage of them.
I fully expect to probably never have another break-in. I’m not involved in any illegal activities and my neighborhood is fairly low-crime and central middle class. That said, it’s always better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it.
When I was living in a sketchier neighborhood about 10 years ago we had a burglar. I only had 2 guns at the time and wasn’t near either of them when he came in. Luckily for the burglar and myself, my dog got to him before I could get into the next room and grab my pistol. Lucky for me the dog bought me time to get my gun. Lucky for him because his bite wounds healed better than the bullet wounds would have. I kept the dog at my side and the pistol in my hand while I called the police, letting the dispatcher know my description and that I was armed. I had the bad guy lay on the floor spread eagle and facing 90 degrees away from me until the police arrived. When the cops came through the door I put my hands up, told them I was putting the pistol on the counter and backing away, then did exactly that.
Everything worked out and the guy later copped a deal for a 4 year sentence, since he was only armed with a knife and not a gun. I mopped up the blood from his dog bites, gave the dog half a steak, had a drink and went to bed. I’ve made sure there’s a firearm close by ever since.
Realistic replicas (1.) Are a bluff; you’re screwed if someone calls your bluff. And (2.) Replicas only scare people because there are real guns out there and people willing to use them.