Except for that it might open holes into adjacent apartments, I don’t see why a shotgun couldn’t be used in close quarters. I don’t own guns, but an open choke pump action would be my choice for home protection if I did.
This was discussed here about a year ago. One thing that was mentioned at that time was that a pump action would allow someone to shoot through doors or walls to get at an aggressive intruder. If the rap-rap didn’t scare them off, they could be shot before they entered the room.
Some very good advice here. Here in Texas, the laws are pretty clear. I’d still want to make certain that it wasn’t Uncle Bubba or some 12-year-old before firing. I’d also be mindful of the fact that a .357 might look real scary, but the downside is that the round can easily go through a couple of sheets of drywall and still hit your kid/spouse/granny/neighbor and do some nasty damage. A similar caveat for the 12-gauge, depending on what kind of rounds you’d use. For home protection, I’d settle for a nice, reliable .38 with 15 rounds in the clip. I’d certainly keep the ammo at home, but invest in a good gun safe.
First of all, thank you! If only there were more gun owners like you rather. You’ve taken the most important step in gun ownership, from the perspective of self defense, and that is deciding if it is a responsibility you want to have. You have, at least for the time being, decided no. There is no right or wrong answer only what it is in your heart. Studies who shown that people who kill, even in self defense, often suffer numerous psychological and physical problems such as insomnia and the “Mark of Cain” complex (the notion that other people see you as a killer). These are serious issues and anybody who is thinking about needing to defend themselves needs to decide for themselves how far they’re willing to go, keeping in mind that any limitation you impose on yourself deminishes your chance to succeed.
Second, you are also going about the process of self defense in a very effective manner! Too often people focus on the technique of self defense, but it is the mind that rules all. In order to be effective at defending yourself you must develop the Defensive Mindset. One of the first steps is pre-visualization, which is what you are doing, although it is important to do so in a realistic manner, and perhaps here is your only weakness and even there it is minor. Information is important in order to pre-visualize so I suggest checking out the books at the end of this post.
Now forget about the realism of the scenario for the moment. We’ll just assume that it transpired exactly as you dictate. There’s nothing wrong with looking at any scenario because such thinking rub neurons together and ultimately leads to the Defensive Mindset (hooray! :)).
The truth is you probably already know the answer to your own question. You couldn’t have helped it. What thinking about the scenario you would have already though about what you would have done. This is what your instincts, personality and perspective would dictate to do when put in that situation. It is pretty much impossible to deny yourself although with training you can adjust what you’d do to another answer, but this changes pespective and instincts and so really changes you. This is a good thing!
So the only thing you really need to ask yourself is “Is my answer effective self defense?”
Purpose of self defense. To survive sustaining as little injury as possible. Does your answer lead to this? Example, suppose that you order the criminal out of the house at gunpoint. Some would object to this and say, why not call the police? Is it your job to arrest him? Are you trained to do it? Is it worth your life to have him be arrested? Will he come back someday to harm you? Would you come back to a house where you knew there was somebody with a gun and they didn’t see to be afraid to use it? Look at your answer and ask yourself meaningful questions based on what it is. If you like, post what you would do and I’ll ask you some meaningful questions to think about.
Am I bullshitting myself? Be mindful of being delusional. Am I being realistic in what my reaction will and what the criminal’s reaction will be?
Does my answer fulfill the requirements for good self defense? Simple, Effective, Fast, Overwhelming.
Legal self defense. It is better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6 is great until your facing a massive civil lawsuit for wrongful death, or injury. Legal bills (no free lawyers in civil court) have forced you into or near bankruptcy. And this ignores possible criminal action. No, I’m not suggesting getting killed in order to avoid a lawsuit. That would be idiotic, BUT be mindful of legal ramifications of your actions, they CAN and WILL ruin your life as effectively as surviving an encounter disabled or disfigured.
Some other points:
What to do if somebody breaks into your house? We get all flustered about this when the answer is really very simple. Consider this. What do you do if a fire breaks out in your house? If you answered “get out”, your only halfway there. First you need to know where the fire is, and then follow an effective escape plan. So, lets say you live in a two story house. A fire (burglar) breaks out (breaks in) in the living room on the main floor. What do you do? The answer is knowing the layout of your house what is the best way to avoid the fire. If you cannot go downstairs without going through the living room, then you’d better go out a window. Can you, your wife and kids safely evacuate from the 2nd story of a house? Probably not, so it might be a good idea to have a rope ladder. Now some of you are thinking “Glitch is a idiot, he wants us to have a rope ladder laying around in case a burglar breaks into our house”. And the answer is no I want you to have a rope ladder so you can escape your house in case of a fire! I mean think about it, how would you get out of your house from the 2nd or 3rd story safely without one??? And it just so happens to be an effective for of escape for any number of emergencies, like a burglar.
I hinted at realism initially. Consider this. 50% of all criminals who are told to “freeze” by police turn and aim at the officer. Consider he know the officer is armed, and he knows the officer is trained how to use that weapon, and they still turn on them. What do you think he is going to do to you? Somebody he does not fear, otherwise he would not be in your house. Somebody he does not know is armed. Somebody he does not know is trained and willing to use a weapon even if they have it. The answer is, he’s not likely to just give up. He’s likely to turn on you. So, should you shoot him in the back? Depends on your local jurisidiction. Here in Canada, you’d be in deep doo doo. Is this fair? Probably not, but it is the law. A lifetime, or even several years, in prison is no joke (see Legal Self Defense above). The “best” answer, and your personal opinion will vary, is to order the crook to surrender from a covered position, that way if he doesn’t surrender you have a huge advantage in the ensuing battle.
Trying to scare a crook by cocking a shotgun is not a very good idea. I suggest reading some of the material below for reasons why because I’m getting tired of writing, maybe I’ll post more on it later either that or I’ll leave it for the reader to figure out why. A cookie for anybody who figures it out and posts it… no fair if you’ve already read the books below.
Some good books on the subject:
Massad Ayoob’s “The Truth About Self Protection”
Massad Ayoob’s “Stressfire”
Sam Strong’s “Strong on Defense”
one thing to think about is getting an alarm system or a big dog so you don’t wake up surprised by a robber (or worse) in your house. even if the bad guy doesn’t go away you’ll have more time to wake up/load your gun/call 911/gather your kids etc. you can consider all kinds of possibilities, but you just can’t be sure of what will happen once the guns come out. and i’m not as sure as some posters that killing an unarmed intruder will be treated casually in any state.
Why do I get the feeling that your “heros” would deny on a stack of Bibles that they said any such thing if something went wrong with their advice and you had to go to court?
You want to find out the consequences of, and directions for, stopping someone with a gun, I suggest calling your local police department firsthand and finding out.
Well. I’m not into the whole violence and gun thingie, so I would probably try to escape without getting hurt. After all, I will probably never own a gun, and I’m not comfortable with the idea of having to make a life or death decision with someone else’s life. If the other person has a gun, and they start to point it at you, YOU PULL THE TRIGGER. Real life isn’t the movies - you can’t have two people standing each other down with a gun. Whoever shoots first wins, and there isn’t anything the slower one can do unless the first one misses.
Things aren’t so tense if the intruder doesn’t have a gun, but someone with a baseball bat or knife can be pretty damn dangerous. All the same, it’s for these reasons that I personally do not want the responsibility of having a gun for home defense. I’ll just get the hell out and let the police take care of it.
Fortunately, the chances of having an armed and dangerous intruder in your home are very low, which I think is due less to firearm ownership than probably any other factor.
If you do happen to not have a gun, and an armed intruder is threatening you, what do you do? EXACTLY what they tell you to, unless there is no question that you are dead if you do not act. It’s not worth getting your head blown off, which is why I, an avowed pacifist, would pull the trigger in situations like this. No thank you. I’d rather not have a gun.
I think states vary on whether one is required to retreat from one’s own house if possible. That’s the castle doctrine thingie, I think. Anyway, you’re really not the one making the decision. If a suitably warned intruder continues to put you in danger, he’s the one making the decision, not you. At least, that’s how it seems to me–FWIW.
I don’t consider myself an expert, but I highly doubt they make a .38 caliber self-loading pistol. Maybe you meant 9mm, which in the original versions like Glock’s, came with a 15 round “magazine”, not clip. Some useful definitions" here.
You never shoot to kill; you shoot to stop. Any death is incidental. If (after a shooting) you say your intent was to “kill” and not merely “stop,” the jury will look at you quite suspiciously.
Never fire warning shots. Why? Because it will send a mixed signal to the jury. Your lawyer will be working hard trying to convince the jury that your life was in danger, thereby justifying the shooting. But the opposition will use the fact that you fired warning shots to prove that your life was not in that much danger. The opposing lawyer will argue that a person “does not fire warning shots when they believe their life is truly in danger.”
Your goal is to permanently stop the threat. Purposefully shooting someone in the leg for any reason looks very bad in front of a jury. Why? Because the jury is getting a mixed message: 1) You are telling them you were scared for your life, 2) You shoot the perpetrator in the leg. See the contradiction? “If you were scared for your life, why did you shoot him in the leg?”
You’re also making a mountain out of a molehill. Keep it simple. When someone is threatening your life, you have a right to stop them with force. It is also not the time for games or “bluffing.” We’re talking life-or-death stuff here.
For maximum reliability you should first aim for the body’s energy center (heart/lung shot). If that doesn’t work (he’s high on PCP, for example) you should aim for the head. Always cheat, and always change a losing game.
I echo and repeat advice given previously in this thread, and which I have given in another thread. Get in touch with your local branch of the NRA. Take their personal protection course. It is free (or next best – for cost of materials — it varies based on how rich the local branch is.) You don’t have to be committed to using a firearm to take the course. Really. They will be up to date on the local laws.
The first thing they will tell you is to designate a room in your house as a safe room, equip it with a lock and a telephone, and retreat there, and lock it. This has nothing to do with local laws. It is for your safety. Any time you confront an intruder, there is a chance you will wind up dead, regardless of how you are armed. Let the police do it. They are trained to. That is where you keep your gun safe. Keep your firearm there, locked in the safe.
There is too much valuable material in that course for me to go through it here, but it really, really is worth the time. Take it. It may save your life.
