# This is what "Defending your Home" with guns looks like **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872 "2020-11-06T00:49:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/61 "2020-11-12T01:05:28Z")
You wouldn’t necessarily be feeling to sense shape or clothes. You might just reach out and tap to see if a body is there in the bed. If you were touching over the covers, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between bedclothes and fur. Also, people really aren’t good at predicting how they or someone else would behave under stress. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/62 "2020-11-12T01:15:52Z")
Which suggests one shouldn’t have a loaded gun, handy for use in the middle of the night. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/63 "2020-11-12T01:42:31Z")
I think firing randomly in the dark and killing someone should be the legal equivalent of pre-meditated murder. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/64 "2020-11-12T02:43:21Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Which suggests one shouldn’t have a loaded gun, handy for use in the middle of the night. Yep. Absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/65 "2020-11-12T11:59:48Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > The more I think about it, the odder it is. If I was confronted with a dark shape in the house and I had a gun, I would aim for center of mass - the person’s torso. Heads are relatively small, and can move. I agree this whole scenario stinks, but you are assuming he hit what he aimed it (and that he was taking careful aim). ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2020, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/66 "2020-11-13T07:49:44Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > Huh? Did the guy try to do something to you later? I did see him another time two weeks later and that was pretty creepy too. I had driven to a town some 10 miles away for a job interview. The interview went as expected and I left the building to walk to my car. As I did, I heard a voice shouting from inside a car parked across the street. It was him, shouting out from the passenger window of a parked car calling out to me! “Hey… Mundane…! Some coincidence, huh? Give me your cellphone number so I won’t have to chase you down like this!” He had a really creepy vibe and an odd smile underneath super thick coke-bottle lens glasses. I half waved but kept walking, got in my car. and I got out of there. Guess what… he started to follow me. Again, he hadn’t broken any laws so there wasn’t too much I could do. I saw a traffic light ahead so I slowed down. It turned orange and I let it. When it turned red, I gunned it through the light and drove quickly to a cross street and turned off (he was still stuck at the light). I made a series of lefts and rights and took a different highway home to get out of there. Again, he hadn’t broken any laws, so a gun wouldn’t have solved anything… and had I done something (anything), I’d have gone to jail. Sure, it’s fun to think about doing something, but really there wasn’t anything a law abiding citizen could do. Creeps like that guy have been creeps all their lives. I’m positive that I wasn’t the first person he had decided to stalk and I’m sure I wasn’t the last. He had the game down and polished. He knew how to game the system and the limits of what he could get away with and still keep out of jail. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2020, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/67 "2020-11-13T15:03:24Z")
YOW! 😮 I hope you never saw him again after that! ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/68 "2020-11-20T00:41:06Z")
This was a premeditated murder. Sometime in the future, it we be revealed that he did not want a baby, probably has a girlfriend and wanted OUT. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/69 "2020-11-20T01:00:04Z")
Do you, or anyone else, have further updates on this story? Has an ulterior motive been revealed? How is the baby doing? Etc. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/70 "2020-11-20T01:31:32Z")
I’m afraid that the baby died. > **[Baby of pregnant Florida woman accidentally shot by husband dies](https://weartv.com/news/local/baby-of-pregnant-florida-woman-accidentally-shot-by-husband-dies)** > > STUART, Fla. (CBS12) — The baby of a woman accidentally shot and killed by her husband has died. The shooting happened last week in Stuart. The Martin County Sheriff's Office said a man said he mistook his pregnant wife for an intruder and shot her... ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/71 "2020-11-20T03:43:44Z")
I wonder why the people involved haven’t been named. (Prominent in the community, perhaps?) ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/72 "2020-11-20T15:24:58Z")
Because, right now, this is just a tragic accident and no one is required to, and most people think it’s in bad taste, bring that kind of potentially negative attention to it’s victims. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/73 "2020-11-20T15:29:22Z")
Hardly an accident. The most charitable interpretation is that it’s an act of negligence. The charitable part is leaving out the word egregious, which is the way I’d describe it. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/74 "2020-11-20T15:36:29Z")
🙄 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/75 "2020-11-20T17:05:09Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I wonder why the people involved haven’t been named. (Prominent in the community, perhaps?) Stuart has some wealthy neighborhoods on the water. The pic of the home in @DMC’s link is anything but. I see a typical mid-1960s vintage FL tract house with a carport, no garage, and scruffy duplex apartments across the street. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/76 "2020-11-20T23:58:34Z")
[Florida husband fatally shoots pregnant wife thinking she was an intruder, sheriff says](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-husband-fatally-shoots-pregnant-wife-thinking-she-was-intruder-n1246651) > The names of the couple have not been released due to Marsy’s Law, which protects the identities of victims of a crime, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/77 "2020-11-21T13:17:31Z")
In general FL is very much an “open records” state. Marsy’s law is a very specific exception. In fact a lot of why Florida Man (and Woman) seem to get up to so much more hijinks than say, Arkansas (Wo)Man is mostly down to easier online access to these stories due to the open records. Although having 7x the population of Arkansas is a big help in the dumbass sweepstakes too. A quick Google says nothing new has been reported since the baby died. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/78 "2020-11-21T13:35:24Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Hardly an accident. The most charitable interpretation is that it’s an act of negligence. The charitable part is leaving out the word egregious, which is the way I’d describe it The fact is, if this guy and acted just as irresponsibly but had shot and had killed an actual intruder, he would have been praised over in the “Pro Gun” thread. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/79 "2020-11-21T14:38:25Z")
And you would be warned for trolling if you pointed that out, because conservative snowflakes ❄ need their safe spaces ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872/80 "2020-11-21T14:53:47Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The fact is, if this guy and acted just as irresponsibly but had shot and had killed an actual intruder, he would have been praised over in the “Pro Gun” thread. Absolutely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-defending-your-home-with-guns-looks-like/924872.md?page=5)