First off, I am a Canuck. I have never held a gun and the closest I have ever been to one is when I am standing beside an armed police officer.
I am seeing a preponderance of people here say that, beyond hunting, having a gun in your home for self defense or home defense is perfectly reasonable.
So, here’s my question. Let’s say for a moment that someone breaks into your home with the intention of stealing something/hurting you. Let’s also say that you have a loaded weapon in your hand pointed at them (and that you have some idea how to use it).
Could you actually shoot them? Could you kill them? Would you? (Have you?)
I know that I couldn’t. I could scratch, bite and punch them but kill them? Not something I could ever bring myself to do. So, what would be the point of having the gun in the first place?
I was just thinking about this. My father has a handgun in the house, presumably for defense.* Of course he says he hopes never to have to shoot someone but he’s been coached on how to handle it. (Get on the phone with 911, crouch behind your bed and announce that you are armed and will shoot. If they keep coming, be sure to kill and not wound them.)
So anyhow, I’m thinking about whether I would/could shoot someone if they intrude, and whether I would keep the gun if he dies before me. I really don’t think I could do it or would want to. I think I will need to get rid of the gun when the time comes.
*very weird when I went for my annual checkup and they asked about guns in the house. I’ve always said of course not but now that I live with him I had to declare it.
Some could, some couldn’t. I couldn’t. A man’s gotta know his limitations. There are other people I trust, absolutely and implicitly, to use their gun properly.
There’s a whole lot of people in the middle, who might freeze, or might goof, or might shoot the mailman, or who might miss and hit a neighbor’s car, or who might leave the gun where their kids can find it, etc.
Laws are based on averages, not on statistical outliers. If everybody were a gun expert, well-trained and knowledgeable, ethical, at all times sober and responsible – there wouldn’t be a debate.
A good friend of mine was stabbed to death by a guy who stole $30 worth of tools from his house. If I were in that situation, knowing how it could easily turn out, I would have absolutely no problem pulling the trigger. It’s not going to be me, my wife, or my kids lying dead on the floor so some idiot can buy some crack.
FWIW, the guy who killed my friend did eventually get caught and is currently behind bars. Doesn’t bring my friend back.
It’s hard to say without being put to the test, but I think so. That is, I can’t say with absolute certainty that I wouldn’t freeze up, but that’s a comment on my fortitude, not my ethics.
If someone invades our apartment and I have my handgun in hand, then my wife, child, and I have obviously retreated to the master bedroom and are behind a heavy locked door. The stuff worth stealing is in one of the other rooms. Intruders trying to batter get in the bedroom mean us ill. If they break down that door, or manage to chase us down, I may shoot them with a clear conscience. They’re asking to die.
No really, it’s that simple. If you have a gun for defense, you have to be willing to shoot to kill. Trying to threaten someone with it or “shoot to maim” will just get you killed/your weapon taken/whatever. So you have to be ready and willing to do that. If you aren’t, then you aren’t.
My husband has a rifle-barreled shotgun with deer slugs for deer hunting, but he’d use it to defend us. I’m not trained in it, so I barely even know where it and the shells are located. It’d be dumb for me to try to handle it in an emergency.
I would have no problem killing someone as a last resort if I believed that the choice was them or one of my family. Whether by gun, knife, blunt object or bare hands I would use every effort to protect my loved ones. But should that situation ever arise, I’d rather have a gun.
If you think the possibility of a home invasion is a weak reason to possess a firearm, I think the situation you just described is a weak reason not to. If your assailant has come near enough to disarm you, it’s long past the point where you should have pulled the trigger. If you can’t pull the trigger when necessary, then don’t have a firearm.
It doesn’t have to be a confrontation with a criminal; someone can take your gun and hurt themselves or others with it if you aren’t there, or be a friends/relative who gets hold of it. Or the criminal could have simply shot you because he saw your gun and taken it off your body.
Which is why Athena gave us gun safes. (Obviously Ares doesn’t want them around.) I’m the only or be a friends/relative who gets hold of it. Or the criminal could have simply shot you because he saw your gun and taken it off your body.
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Which is why I have a gun safe. I’m the only person with the combination, because my wife doesn’t shoot and thus doesn’t need to know it. The gun comes out of the safe immediately before I am ready to clean it or take it to the range; it goes back in the safe as soon as I’m done cleaning or return home. It’s in the most secure room in the apartment (i.e., the master bedroom), and in the event of intruders, the plan is to get to that room, lock the door, retrieve the gun from the safe, and place myself in a secure position while calling 911. Keeping it in any other room would be stupid, as the purpose of the gun is not to protect my PROPERTY; it’s to protect our lives. If criminals want to ransack the apartment while we’re barricaded in the bedroom, fine. Gun in hand, I’ll call the cops and wait the crooks out. I’m not forcing a confrontation because life is sweet and I am not Spider-Man.
As for a crook seeing my gun and shooting me for it: seems unlikely. I don’t carry it any more, but when I was a salesman and traveling in bad neighborhoods, I did. I kept it concealed for obvious reasons, but in my judgment crooks are likely to seek easier game. And, of course, the guy who’d shoot me for my gun already HAS a gun, obviously.
Absolutely. I wouldn’t – couldn’t shoot someone who was stealing something. But I would absolutely shoot someone who could hurt me, my wife, or my son.
I have not, but I am absolutely confident I could.
So it would seem you are a poor candidate for having a gun. I am not.
For those who say they could easily shoot someone in their home:
I’m curious. How do you think you would feel afterward? Not a gotcha … honestly curious. And in transparency, what makes me wonder is even soldiers who kill sworn enemies can suffer from PTSD when they kill.
Something else. The tv-thing of a married couple hearing a noise in the middle of the night and going to confront the intruder is stupid, particularly in the era of cell phones. What you do is this:
If you live alone, get up, close and lock the bedroom door, grab available weapon, and await developments. If you hear more sounds indicating that an intrusion, call 911 and await help; do not attract intruder’s attention. If the intruder tries to come into the bedroom, loudly inform them that you are armed and willing to use it, and that you have called for help. If the intruder persists, move to most defensible position and await developments. If they seem to have left, wait till the cops arrive to go outside your bedroom.
If you don’t live alone, but everyone in the house in in the bedroom with you, do the same as above except that also rouse your bedmate.
If you don’t live alone, and there is someone in another bedroom, get weapon quietly, rouse that person, retreat to most defensible room, and proceed as in (1).
If you don’t live alone, but it is conceivable that it’s another resident trying to move stealthily to keep from waiting you, secure bedroom, have gun in head, and call that person’s cell phone before calling 911. Presumably they’ll answer and say, “Yeah, it’s just me, sorry I woke you up,” or “No, I’m still at my boyfriend’s house, stepdad.” In the latter case, call 911, etc.
Confrontation is the dead last option unless you are Spider-Man. If you are Spider-Man then your sense has already informed you whether the noise is Mary Jane coming home from her Esquire shoot or a burglar, and anyway you’ve already broken the intruder’s jaw for scaring Aunt May.
