What do you carry for protection?

Goldencrazy wrote:

rfryer wrote:
I have quite a few options but I usually carry a 45 handgun. While a shot gun is the ultimate deterrent, at the range someone would be a threat it would make an awful mess. After a lifetime of camping and working in some relatively rough and wild areas I found you rarely ever are confronted with one perp, typically it’s three. So I consider bats, tazers and such as useless. And a long gun is awkward in tight quarters or sitting around the campfire.

I’ve never had to draw one in 50 years of camping. But on at least three occasions my well developed sense of a threat was deafening and I was glad I had it. On the other hand, at home in the city I’ve had four occasions I recall where someone was trying to break in and once I came home early from work and had a burglar at gunpoint in the bedroom. So I think msmith1199,s post is right on the money.

My youngest son is in his early thirties and likes to shoot occasionally but isn’t into guns like I am. So I was a little surprised years ago when he asked me for a handgun to keep at the house. And not long ago he reminded me of an incident when he was young where someone was working on a kitchen window to break in. He was scared to death and it made a big impression on him that I was calmly sitting in the darkened kitchen with my handgun on the table waiting. And he realized he shouldn’t be scared, the guy outside should be.

So my thought is if someone has the means and temperament to protect themselves they have that right. And if they are willing to trust in faith it won’t happen to them they also have that right.

So don't keep us guessing. Did you should him when he got the window open?

No, he wasn’t able to get the window open. I have no desire to shoot anyone at all, but he’s the aggressor and it’s his choice how the situation ends. Of the break-ins I mentioned only once did one actually get in the house, very late at night. I was waiting for him behind the door at the top of the basement stairs and heard him coming up. Then DW #1 came out and put her hand on my shoulder. Big mistake, I decked her and he heard it and got back out the basement window before I could get down there.

And I neglected to mention the incident where I left the house one night and two drunks tried to beat down the kitchen door. The DW, understandably, isn’t as aggressive as I am but our two kids were in bed and she wasn’t going to let them come in. So she called 911 and stood in the kitchen with my shotgun pointed at the door. Fortunately for them they were apparently so drunk or stupid they didn’t realize it was a solid core door and opened out, not in. But then those sorts of people aren’t too high on the intellectual scale anyway.

They finally exhausted themselves and left before the police officer got there. He told her I couldn’t do it, but as a woman protecting her kids she could have shot them through the door. I told her I didn’t think that was a good idea, Give them an opportunity to weight the risk and reward first and then shoot if they came within about 10’ of her.