Look, I didn’t come in here hoping or expecting to gain sympathy for or from anyone. I came in just to point out that from my own experience, people could quite easily avoid having their homes broken into and having to face killing someone in your living room( which wouldn’t do the ambience of your happy little castle much good in the long run. Unless you intend leaving every house you kill a perp in?).
As for the cite asked for above, I should have included an IMO in my post.
You might consider that there are also a good many thieves who wouldn’t have spent years incarcerated or got their thieving asses shot if they hadn’t thought it a good idea to take other people’s stuff.
You are still trying to make it somebody else’s fault. What you should have written was “If only I had never stolen from other people, I might never have developed a taste for it and ended up a convicted criminal.” Your post above is just another variation on the song of the jailbird.
I disagree–I like sleeping with the windows open. My right to sleep comfortably trumps the thief’s “right” to burgle my house without getting shot in the face.
If your sense of justice is so out of proportion that you’d kill over something as inconsequential as a stereo component, we are indeed witnessing the decline of civilization. It doesn’t matter that the thief is a piece of that decline. The fact that you feel it is just to kill him is just beyond comprehension. How do you handle sidewalk spitters and jaywalkers? Just kick the shit out of 'em? How do you feel about waterboarding?
I was looking for the right quote to make my point, and here it is. Grumman, Scumpup and others are basically advocating firearm ownership and use not as a manner to protect your property or family, but rather as a manner of vigilante justice, or “teaching [criminals] that crime does [not] pay.”
ivan is trying to get the point across that if you’re really serious about protecting your stuff, locking your doors and windows, an alarm, or even basic homeowners insurance is probably a much better strategy than hoping to hear something in the dark and run downstairs with a sidearm. I’ve said multiple times that people serious about protecting their families are better off taking a defensive position and waiting for the cavalry, and nobody seems to dispute that.
What we have here is several people who really seem to advocate and take JOY in the thought of catching a crook red handed and teaching him a lesson. That’s what gets my goat. You admit that you never know if you’re being robbed by a petty thief or a drug-addled psycopath, so why you’d want to try and confront this person to make your point and/or teach a lesson is beyond me. Be safe, lock your shit up, and let some other chump risk his life to try and teach a lesson or preserve order.
Oh, please. “So easily kill?” We’re talking about shooting someone, which may or may not kill, but it’s not like we’re talking about “taser the guy, tie him up and then proceed to go Hostel on him until he stops twitching.”
Please let Ivan know where you live, so he can go all superninja on your valuables.
The decline of civilization? My, that is melodramatic. Tell you what, hon, if you read a little history you’ll find that thieves are treated far more gently now than they were in the past. I’m not even talking ancient history. I’m talking about within the last couple generations.
Sidewalk spitters and jaywalkers aren’t my responsibility. Spit on the floor in my house…that’s a different matter; especially if you did it just to prove that you have some “right” to spit on my floor. Yeah, you probably would end up getting the shit kicked out you.
Nice job of missing everybody’s point. I don’t want to shoot anybody. What I *want * is to be left alone so my family can enjoy our home and possessions unmolested by criminals. One of the things I am willing to do is shoot any shitbag who finds that he just can’t let us do that. His getting maimed or killed is entirely his own doing just as much as if he had pressed a gun to his own face and pulled the trigger.
Well, if you have a window screen the burgular won’t burgle you.
Because thats a polite sign that says to him : please don’t burgle me, I do not wish to be burgled. Nor do I wish to harm you, as I know in my heart of hearts that you intend me no harm. Please see Mr. Jones down the street. He doesnt mind if he gets burgled because he is old and feeble and even leaves some of his valuable shit outside. Its a literal invitation to help yourself! He wont harm you, because he’s taken an oath dont cha know. Be careful though, he has a mixed breed ninja/rotwieller/clown tied up out back. Why the hell he has one of those things I have no idea. Those things “tells” are hard to read and they have a hard time reading a burgulars “tells”. Personally, I think that mix of breeds should be outlawed. Talk about violating the social contract and a lack of personal responsibility! But thats just me…
Seriously, just get a window screen, its all there in the British Burgulars Union Code of conduct.
Get a copy, read it, and rest easy my dear friend.
I had a ninja/rotweller/clown once; but it was a teacup ninja/rotweiller/clown. I lived in an apartment at the time and just didn’t have room for a standard ninja/rotweiller/clown.
So you’d take your handgun and go confront the noise in the living room? Why would you put yourself at risk like that? You shouldn’t ever get a CHANCE to shoot a guy holding a Tivo, because you should be concentrating on keeping yourself and your family safe. And that doesn’t involve running into an unknown situation like a cowboy.
I don’t care if you’re willing to do it, you should try everything you can to avoid the situation altogether.