In the course of my life, I have found that I perform as I practice. So I shoot the guns.
I always grab my bedside gun if I get up for ANYTHING besides the bathroom. Or, if she says, “Did you hear that?”
I am out in the country, no help near; to wander in the dark unarmed is stupid.
My homes been invaded more than once in my life. ( me present and not )
I have been struck by lightning twice in my life. ( yeah, for real )
I laugh at folks that depend on ‘odds’ to keep them safe.
The best thing for self protection is a constant state of awareness such as smart women do when crossing a big parking lot, old pilots do when flying, victims who have survived, old motorcycle riders, and any student of human nature. Good habits are so easy, not as easy as perpetuating silly fears, but still easy to learn so that, for me at least, I can walk the world without too much fear.
One Border Collie who is meaner than he looks. One Karelian Bear Dog, who is not as mean as he looks. Two Pomeranians who live behind us and are the yippest fucking dogs on the face of the earth, and that middle part of the T-bone, which my dogs insist on leaving in the middle of the floor and which crawl under your feet no matter where they are left, and which have edges only slightly sharper than a scalpel.
S&W .357 magnum in a gunvault beside my bed. I figure the chances I’ll ever need it for home defence are so small as to be nearly zero. On the other hand I have it so I may as well have it available for that nearly zero chance day.
Hey Ringo, nice gun. That’s my very next purchase. Excellent choice that’ll take you wayyy beyond just home defense and into the realm of a serious shooter.
Living in the U.K. I have never even seen a gun let alone held/shot/owned one and i’m pretty amazed at the arsenals of weapons some of you seem to own. I know that gun ownership across the duck pond is common place but I had always thought that it was limited one ‘moderate’ handgun per household rather than the collections on display in this thread.
Still, I feel perfectly safe at home despite having nothing in the way of protection, prevention is better than the cure I guess and any thief would have to be seriously stupid to choose my house to break into over those of the neighbours. It takes me long enough to get in and I have the keys.
I’m pretty much in this camp, but it wasn’t always so. Over the years, I’ve alternately used:
Colt Peacekeeper in .357, various loads;
Ruger P-89 9mm, various loads;
Taurus PT-99 9mm, various loads;
Springfield V-10 .45, loaded w/230gr. JHP
Howver, since movig back to the St. Louis area, I’ve had various nieces and nephews crash with me for a while (for family reasons I won’t get into here), and so I’ve developed a tendency to keep the guns locked up in the gun safe.
So my ready defense weapon is a wall of steel, with various pieces, like this,this,, or this.
I feel that it’s my duty to get guns off the streets, so I’m buying as many as I can.
Personally, most of my guns aren’t set up for defense - a hunting rifle is a terrible choice for home use, as are AR-15s and old cowboy revolvers. Shooting and collecting are hobbies for many of us, and “defense” is sometimes just an excuse to buy an cool new toy. But if one was to own several dozen firearms, and those firearms were capable of being used to protect ones self or property, why not do so?
To me, it’s like having a car collection and riding the bus all the time. Sure, I don’t want to drive around London so I’d ride the Underground to work. Just like I don’t carry at my job or anywhere alcohol is served (or in big jostling crowds, or…). But touring the country? Give me a gun and a Maybach Zeppelin.
You speak for yourself. Having been burgled several times, it seems vastly sensible. My weapon is a good set of legs and a shout that would do a sergeant-major proud. I’ve got some antique swords, but the house is too small to really use them, and if I were to try anyway, the hilt would probably break and take my fingers off. I’d much rather have a small pistol.
BTW a common MO round here is for the intruder to go to the kitchen and pick up a large knife.
I love the idea of a hair-trigger guinea pig as a home defense system.
Mine is my husband, I guess. And two cats, one of whom freaks out about things that aren’t moving, and will probably defend us from under the bed.
To clarify- my husband the insane martial-arts enthusiast, and his thousands of assorted non-gun weapons. Swords, chen, tonfa, staves, kali, sai, bokkan, and some things I’m certainly missing. I don’t think there’s anything worse around here than the occasional bit of graffiti.
What I have for protection in my house (in order of importance):
[ol]
[li]ADT[/li][li]Border Collie/Springer mix. Very house-protective…likely to alert us. Don’t care if he bites…just wakes me up.[/li][li]Chipping wedge by my bed. Short enough to swing in most any room of the house.[/li][li]Fire ladder rolled up by our window for my wife to leave if we determine there is someone in the house.[/li][li]A personality formed from years of playing sweeper in competitive soccer leagues. No compunctions about going for the knees and/or head (or arm, if he’s got a gun).[/li][li]Static shocks in winter, from furious foot-shuffling on our bedroom carpet.[/li][/ol]
Also, a nice neighborhood, and lving on a frequently-patrolled street.
If I lived in the boonies, I would probably get a shotgun (and tell my anti-gun wife I use it for skeet and trap).
Bobotheoptimist
I’m curious why you think an AR-15 would not be suitable for home defense? (I guess you would also rule out the “closely-related” Ruger Mini-14 which is also a semi-auto .223 rifle).
I really should have said “in my opinion, it’s a terrible choice for self defense”, but I’ll defend the amended statement thus -
Rifle rounds seem to me to be a generally overpowered for a target that’s probably less than 10 meters away and is usually not wearing body armor, I don’t trust FMJ bullets against people, I’m worried about overpenetration and stopping power (unwarranted or not, I’ve just not seen stats on the round), the gun (possibly including the M4) is too clumsy for the tight stairs and halls of my house, even carbine barrels are too long for close work, it has too many things to fumble with because, and most importantly, all my training has been with pistols.
All of those apply to every other rifle I own, so it’s not that I dislike the AR, I just don’t feel that it’s the best choice in my situation, and I have no “tactical” (I hate using that word) experience with it.
I honestly view my AR as a plinking gun, an expensive and noisy .22 - that’s why I own it, I’m not saying anything about the rifle in other peoples hands. It may be great for fighting hordes of zombies, looters, or commies, but I can’t see using it against a single intruder when I have so many other options available. If I do grab a long gun it’s gonna be a Win. Defender.
Good lord, I just thought of the noise that a compensated AR would make in an enclosed space! Gadzooks, that’s gotta be painful!
I should throw in some more weasel words - “IMHO”, “YMMV”, “IANA_”, “possibly”, “could”, “might”. Please use these any time I make a blanket statement or other inanities. Thank you
Bobotheoptimist
Thanks for the quick reply. As I said on a previous page, I prefer a Ruger 10-.22 rifle. Yes, it is only a .22* and it’s a rifle but it does have its advantages. (My opinions of course).
• A .22 rifle will not seriously destroy your eardrums from being fired indoors.
• If you want to keep a firearm easily accessible and loaded, I think a rifle is the best choice. As you probably know (there’s one in every crowd), there is always 1 dipshit that likes to pick up a pistol and wave it around and who (much too often) later appears on the evening news saying “I didn’t know it was loaded”, “I didn’t mean to shoot it”, etc.
With rifles, people tend to be less frivolus about doing such idiocy.
Only a .22 - I wonder how many injuries or deaths that nugget of “wisdom” has caused. :rolleyes:
If you have a lot of experience and shooting handguns, and have a lot of experience in CQB training, then a handgun is what you should use. Why? Maneuverability and fast target acquisition. In very close-quarters situations, a person with a handgun who is highly trained in CQB can always out-maneuver a less-trained person with a shotgun or rifle.
But… 99.9% of us do not fall into this category (including me). So for the rest of us, the shotgun is best. Why? A shotgun has better stopping power over very short distances vs. a rifle. It is also a more intimidating weapon vs. a rifle. (The sound of a shotgun racking is a sound that means business.) And unlike a rifle, firing a shotgun won’t put your neighbors at risk.
