Question: Lets say your at home and someone is outside trying to break down your door and get in to either rob or hurt you. Yes, you can and should dial 911 (assuming your phone is working) but you need protection NOW.
What would you do since you dont own a firearm?
I’m not anti-gun, but ‘run away’ strikes me as a viable alternative in most circumstances. This could be as easy as ‘walk to a neighbors house’. Certainly you can think of myriad exceptions to this, but one of the things that they always teach in armed intruder type classes is evade as a primary goal, if possible. If not possible, then hide or barricade and wait for the police. Fight is usually the last resort. As for fighting without a gun, well, most houses have some weapon potential…you could throw a frying pan at them, or maybe concoct a bomb out of basic house hold items and a microwave…
I own a firearm but I would leave by another door or go into the garage and lock myself in the car - while calling 911. Both faster options than getting the gun unlocked.
What do you mean by “anti-gun”? I’m a gun owner and I generally support the Democratic/liberal/progressive view of gun control and gun rights (with some nuance).
Generally, I believe the “run/hide/fight” model of dealing with armed invaders is wisest, no matter how one is armed – flee (with family) when possible; if fleeing is impossible, then hide (while preparing to fight if found); if hiding is impossible (or if one is found), then fight. Aside from family, there’s nothing in my home that I wouldn’t gladly trade away to avoid the chance of having to kill someone (or, obviously, being killed).
There might be circumstances in which this is not the wisest model to follow, but this would be my initial thinking.
I can fuck somebody up with a baseball bat. Bonus, it also won’t accidentally go off and kill my 5 year old.
This. Definitely start off evading – run out the back door while calling 911. If that’s not possible, barricade the door to the bedroom and wait for the cops to arrive. If that’s not possible, grab a baseball bat – in the close confines of most homes, you’re going to be much better off with a bat anyways.
Of course, in my case, any potential burglar will be scared off when our two huskies run over and start scratching at the door or window he’s trying to get through.
Even if I was stupid enough to own a gun (and I’d have to be pretty dumb, since it’s far more likely to kill me or my wife than a burglar) I wouldn’t try to use it. I can’t think of a better way to ensure escalation to serious injury or death, and I can’t guarantee that it will be THEIR injury or death, not mine. It’s like pulling a knife during a bar brawl – you just took a serious situation and made it deadly.
I would barricade the front door and either exit out the back door or hide in a locked bedroom until the police arrive.
My dogs would be barking up a storm, so I’d let them go handle it while I got out of the house.
In the moment you describe, I would certainly wish to have a gun. However, such an event has not yet happened to me and may never happen. So to be ready, I would have had to have a gun in the house for decades since it could happen at any time. But that would mean dealing with all the potential negative consequences like accidental discharge, children finding it, someone using it out of anger, someone using it out of depression, accidentally shooting a resident that I though was a burglar, etc.
I think the chance of positive and negative outcomes of a gun in my house would be low in either case. But since the negative consequences can be so devastating, I don’t want to take a chance on them happening. If a burglar breaks in so quickly that I don’t have time to get out before he attacks me, then likely I wouldn’t have time to get my gun either.
The chances that an unintended bad thing would happen with the gun are significantly higher than a good thing would happen with the gun. No matter the answer to this question, it’s irrelevant to the calculus of gun control.
I have lived in a wide variety of residences over 57 years. No bad person has ever tried to come in while I was home. You might as well ask “people who go outside without lightening rods, how do you protect yourself from being struck?”
Can you? Do you have the will to close to blood-spatter range with your opponent and use that bat to inflict serious, possibly lethal, injury on hir? Have you practiced its use indoors? Or, do you just have a bat somewhere as kind of a woobie to hold if you hear a noise that scares you? Impact weapons require strength, skill, and courage to use effectively against an unknown, possibly armed, opponent. Do you qualify?
Since I’m not trying to murder the burglar in cold blood, but defend myself with appropriate and proportional force*, then yeah, I should be fine.
*I don’t live in one of the states where the second an intruder sets a single toe on my front lawn I have the legal right and moral obligation to ventilate his organs, so my definition of “appropriate and proportional force” may vary from yours, and thank God for that.
Trying to steal my stuff?
Have at it. I don’t own anything that is worth my taking a human life over.
**
Trying to hurt me?**
Why would they want to do so? I don’t have any enemies. If there are people out there who have a desire to do you harm (say you’re a drug dealer, or a accountant for the mob, or the last in an ancient line do demon hunters), then I agree that you should own a gun. But for the rest of us? Not so much.
I’m in a similar position. With each school/mall/theater/etc shooting I move further into the “anti-gun” camp, and yet I own several firearms.
After calling 911 I might be waiting 30 minutes or more for response. I’d probably position myself in a room where I have a clear line of fire, take some deep breaths, and prepare to possibly kill another human being if forced to.
How do you distinguish between an intruder that is trying to steal your stuff vs one that is trying to hurt you?
Are you kidding? Are you expecting this benchmark of mental preparedness from a gun owner as well? Is the woobie dig the gun owners reason to have their weapon under the bed?
I’m 40 and average size and fitness for my age. I can and would hurt a home invader.
I have two dogs. What more security does a gun offer me?
I believe it should make you feel more secure with the size of your penis.
Baseball bat(wooden), baseball bat(aluminum), small frying pan, medium frying pan, large frying pan, eight dining room chairs, one of several dozen kitchen knives of various sizes, untold dozens of other utensils, a strategically swung cat, the other strategically swung cat, two table lamps, one standing lamp, My Beloved’s sharp pointy thing collection, the toaster, the blender, whips, chains, hairspray-with-a-lighter, a fire extinguisher, a marble bust of a nude Ronald McDonald, a complete 1957 set of Funk & Wagnalls(including the Yearbook)…and a back door to calmly walk through while waiting for the police.
Only a psychopath wouldn’t hesitate to use deadly force in a situation they could avoid. Swinging a baseball bat is easier.