But since I know that’s not what the OP is asking, I’d probably barricade my bedroom door and look for something to defend myself if someone smashed in the door. After all, I am extremely confident that the police would be at my home extremely quickly; because when I’ve called them for nuisance crimes they have responded with incredible alacrity.
ETA: I’m also saying this with the knowledge that I live in Washington, DC, not some Syria-like rural area where Hobbes would be scared stiff at raising a family, where libertarians insist that public safety services are only for the rich and crazy-ass murderers roam the woods and farms.
If you live in an apartment, you have the option of calling for help – people are literally a door away.
I don’t trust you or your mother with a deadly weapon, so I have no problem making that choice “for” you, just like we as a society made the choice to prevent your mother from keeping a tiger in her apartment for protection.
Are you trying to make a legal distinction here? Lots of people survive being shot at. Some don’t. Lots of people survive being hit with a baseball bat. Some don’t. In both cases, you might face legal peril if you use the object in a manner / time that does not enjoy approval by the government.
Babale, you _______ ______, this isn’t a hypothetical. It happened. Hollering did not help. Her building was not a nice building with basell bat wielding meanly men awaiting a cry for help 24/ 7.
Removing every firearm from every citizen in the United States was exactly what I wanted to do today. Damn it. Guess I’ll go to a movie or something instead.
One thing I’d be much more comfortable with is only allowing guns to people who have had extensive training and continue that training. So police, military, etc. would be okay. But Joe Citizen often has very little training, and typically no training at situations involving close-quarters, high-stress, low-light, high-confusion, etc. A random person in an apartment is probably pretty likely to shoot at random noises, miss their target and shoot something else, shoot at someone they think is a burglar but is a maintenance worker, etc. With everyone being able to purchase a gun, you end up with people shooting because of road rage, shooting because a strange car turned into their driveway, shooting because they’re mad their sports team lost, etc.
Look at this story recently in the news: Fire chief charged with pulling gun on Boy Scout placing flyers on homes That guy used pretty poor judgement even though he’s a first responder who presumably has been in high-stress environments. I’m not faulting him for trying to figure out what was going on, but dude! observe for a while before pointing a gun at a 12-year-old!
I would surmise that there was a chance that of a violent confrontation if the intruder was armed…but this dances around the question I actually asked.
Good point. Okay, even they don’t get to have guns! The only people who can have personal weapons are those who regularly engage in close-quarters combat training, like SWAT, SEAL teams, etc.
I was in the military. I did not ONCE touch a firearm with a bore less than five inches.
I did do a lot of backyard and country shooting with my father, mother, brothers, cousins. One of those firearms we used is the one my mother had. Still has.
‘probably pretty likely to shoot at’
It was someone coming in a window. Your imagination and excuses mean little to me, and the idiot fire chief is an idiot.
The only people who can have personal weapons are those who regularly engage in close-quarters combat training, like SWAT, SEAL teams, etc.