why one should ALWAYS carry your weapon

[kf4uda]

WOW!!

Sounds like the homeowners bought the guns...but weren't really ready to use them.

I agree but at least they had a backup plan (wife). Even though she was shot sounds like she got one of them and most likely caused them to leave. My guess is if she was not armed the headlines might have read "everybody in the house killed".

 

[dmccarty]

Amazing! Husband answers knock on door with pistol, is shot. Wife also has pistol, is shot. Attackers have weapons, one likely shot. This stuff goes down, in real life, in a relative instant. Makes you wonder if one should keep a shotgun over every doorway, just in case Likely lots to the story, but bad stuff does happen.

Interesting turn on this thread. TBN makes me wonder some time if we have not be imbedded with a Borg like chip....

There was home invasion in my county recently. Four teenagers went into an old man's home. For the first couple of days there was not much information on what happened. We have a privately owned website for discussions about the county and the home invasion was being discussed. The oldest of the thugs was 19. Turns out the old man was selling pot and the four invaded the home to rob him. How do we know this? A friend of the four jumped into the website conversation telling everyone they were idiots and did not know what happened. That it did not matter they tried to rob the old man because he was selling drugs and was mean. His attitude was addressed by the website community.

When I first moved out of the house I was living in an apartment in a not nice area. One day there was a knock on the door. I looked through the peephole and did not see anyone but I kept looking. Then, around the corner, I see a deputy peak at the door. Now, I knew I was in a bad neighborhood but gracious it is bad when the POlice have to take cover when knocking on the door. :laughing: By the way, he had the wrong address.

This was back in the mid/late 80's and in south FLA. South FLA back then was swimming in drugs, drug money, and drug violence. The Jamaican Drug Gangs were rolling in and they were more violent than others. Next door to my apartment I had a Jamaican. He liked to play LOUD music. WE did NOT get along. :laughing: I brought my dads double barrel shotgun to keep in the apartment. The shotgun moved with me from room to room. Not a great way to live but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Eventually I got a new job and my lease was up. Woo Hoo!

In the linked home invasion story, I am trying to figure out why the man opened the door? When we lived in the city and someone knocked, if I did not know them I did not answer. Not out of fear, well ok, I was afraid they were selling something, and I did not want to be bothered.

Later,
Dan

 

[RoyJackson]

In the linked home invasion story, I am trying to figure out why the man opened the door? When we lived in the city and someone knocked, if I did not know them I did not answer. Not out of fear, well ok, I was afraid they were selling something, and I did not want to be bothered.

Later,
Dan

I don't open the door unless I can see the person knocking (or using the door bell) day or night.
Home invasions used to be pretty rare...seems like they're increasing all over the country.

 

[Brake Weight]

I once worked with a man that grew up in the inner city of Houston. As a preteen child, his older cousins would make him go on 'kick ins' with them. This is where you get the biggest of the group to simply run down the door: IE kick in. Then the other 4-5 in the group would ransack the house and jump back in the getaway car. The whole thing would last maybe 1.5 minutes. By just kicking in the door and then running into the house, they would do like the SWAT would do on that show Cops and sweep for 'trouble' and neutralize it. It's brutal, it's real, and it's still happening.

I've also read were larger gangs would send a member through the military. Do their few years and then come back to the streets. Back in the gangs they would teach their first hand training of urban combat tactics. Now that's scary.

Home invasions can happen very fast and if the invaders have the mindset, it can get real ugly, real fast.

 

[2manyrocks]

well, thought this thread needed a list of topics covered so far....feel free to add to it.:laughing:

bodies
pistols
rifles
shopping centeres
concealed carry/permits
local crime stories
LEO stories from real life
castle doctrine
legal shoot considerations
fantasies
silencers
spotted dick food
international crime perceptions
history lessons
geography lessons
illegal immigration, deportation
taxi driving experiences
lessons in logical arguments
protection against dog bites
ammo recommendations
actions to take while being mugged
thread hijacking
panthers and other varmints
accidental discharges
undercover cops
pistol stance
axis deer
motorcycles and speed

I'll never, ever, have another thread with so many replies or views

I'm not sure of the appropriate word, but how are you doing? It would have to be difficult to have had this experience.

 

[jonyyuma]

Its alive, and still running...headed to the "outer limits"?This thread that is??

 

[dmccarty]

...

I have often come across burglars who will knock on the door to see if anyone is home before breaking in. If someone comes to the door they ask for directions, wrong house etc.

Our house is on a private road. We own the end of the road and put up a gate. The only time the gate is open is during the day if we are coming and going. At night the gate is locked.

Someone knocking on our door at night SHOULD not happen. We have light switches in the bedroom with which I can turn on the exterior flood lights. We have glass doors. This is good. This is bad. They might see us but we will certainly see how many people are at the front door, what they have in hand, and their body language.

One day my wife left the house and I was home alone. As she left she saw a strange minivan in the neighborhood so she called me to let me know. A few minutes later I hear the van driving down the road...

At the time Kelly my GSD was still alive. Great dog. Really miss her. The van pulls up with two women and a man. One woman gets out leaving the door open while the other two stay in the van. They parked so they could get away quickly.

Kelly is already barking at them since she heard them driving up the road before I did. :thumbsup: Good Puppy. :laughing: I could see the woman and she could see me through the door but she could see the dog which was better.

I designed the house with a little feature. We have a front porch but we did not want railings on the porch. If the porch is a certain distance, 28 inches?, above grade you have to have a railing so I designed the porch to be below that code required level. This means our porch is about a foot below the floor of the house. Anyone standing on the porch is BELOW us while we look down on them from the house. Height has its advantages both physically and mentally. We also have easy to open casement windows...

So the woman is on the front porch looking at me, and most importantly, a GSD that is barking at her chest level. :thumbsup: I am not inclined to open the door anyway but I really cannot open the door with Kelly disagreeing with this woman being on Kelly's porch. Nor do I wish to open the door because she has a spray bottle with what I take to be a house hold cleaner. Quick squirt in the eyes and you would be blinded.

I cracked open the window and asked what she wanted. I was not really polite since she was trespassing. To get to the house she has to pass a gate. First Clue. Second Clue is the POSTED SIGNS at the gate. She don't get a third clue to strike out. She mumbles something about selling cleaning fluid and do I want a demonstration while she watches the GSD barking at her only three feet away with nothing holding Kelly back but some glass. :laughing: Ah No. I said a few words about trespassing at which point she got a bit mouthy with me. I can't remember what I said but she quickly got back in the van and left.

The wifey returned shortly there after and saw them exiting the neighborhood quickly. Many of my neighbors are getting up there in years and are vulnerable to either cons or violence. Either way, these three were up to no good.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

The people that burglarized our house would drop someone off who then came up to the house on foot to knock on the door after sitting in the bushes to observe for a while. Once it was determined that no one was home they would leave the vehicle elsewhere, walk through the woods and kick the door in. Three would then enter, two men and a woman and start stacking stuff by a door way and then down at a predetermined location. They would then go get their van and load up while the others were still going through the house gathering stuff.

My son was home on leave and had been visiting his girl friend when he came back to the house and surprised them leaving stuff still stacked by a door and down by the barn. He happened to have his deer rifle with him, but had a lot of training in clearing buildings etc. and managed to get to the safe and get a couple of .45's out as we had left a Sig 229 on my bedside and a Weatherby rifle by the safe as my other son was going to come by and pick it up. They had already been snagged, so he knew they had weapons. Fortunately when they heard him chamber rounds in the guns, they alll three hot footed it out the back door into the woods leaving a trail of stuff behind them.

I wonder if I have repeated this story on this thread....

A few years ago a neighbor of a friend of ours had the back door kicked in and they were robbed. This was not in our neighborhood but only a few minutes away by car.

One day the wifey stopped at the gas station near the house and there was a truck load of young men filling up. They made her nervous for some reason. They left before she did. The wifely finished filling up and drove on home. As she pulled into our road, she could see the truck was dropping off the men at the houses. One guy ran up to the back door of one house. The first two houses have elderly people living in them. The house were the man ran to the back door has one older man living alone since his wife just died.

The wifey called 911 and left the neighborhood for awhile. The SO's main building is only a few minutes away and when the wifey drove back in the neighborhood there were several patrol cars talking to the men. They may have been looking for work but they certainly went about it in a very suspicious way.

Your son should not have cleared the house by himself. Too risky. I had a training officer years ago in FLA and there was a call for a rape in progress and he responded. The victim was outside of the house but my friend went inside without backup. He should have stayed with the victim, established a perimeter, waited for more officers and then went inside. Yes, the rapist might have gotten away but that was better than what happened.

My friend went inside looking for the rapist. The rapist found my friend first and shot him in the head with a .38. Luckily the round did not go deep into his brain and kill him but it messed him up a bit.

Later,
Dan

 

[texasjohn]

2manyrocks, I'm doing fine. Finding the body was just one more event in the life of a rancher. Fortunately, I had a good friend with me at the time so there was never any concern about what LEO might think.

It has not affected me dramatically except, sadly, to provide a discussion topic. Death is part of ranching life...I've come up on dead horses, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs...animals that I knew well as individuals and was personally saddened and affected by their passing. I have also had to euthanize animals.

All the above is difficult to handle, but so is drought, floods, range fires, busted equipment, personal and family injuries on the ranch, etc. Never fun, but you either find a way to cope and prevail.... or get out of ranching.

dmccarty, I had not heard your story before...thanks for sharing....clearly we owe our good LEO's a big debt for their daily risks to keep us safe. Surely one of these days we'll have the technology to maintain an effective neighborhood watch and support/communicate with LEO's when they come to stop bad things from happening.

I noted that this thread now has over 30,000 views...

 

[two_bit_score]

Another interesting case out of Williamson County:

Former district attorney should face inquiry in Morton prosecution, judge says



.

 

[Big Bri]

Just happened down the road form me this weekend

GONZALES, LA (WAFB) - Two people have been killed and one is seriously injured in an apparent home invasion on Babin Rd. in Gonzales.
The home invasion happened late Saturday night in the 39000 block of Babin Road. The Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office was called to the home after family members were unable to get in touch with the people living in the home.
Once they got there, no one answered the door and they had to force their way in.
Robert Irwin Marchand, 74, and step-son Douglas Dooley, 50, were found dead in the home. Shirley Marchland, 72, was still alive when deputies found her and was taken to a hospital where she is undergoing emergency surgery.
Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley says the quiet Christian couple are not ideal victims. All were found with their throats slit and their bodies showed signs of blunt trauma. There were no signs of forced entry.
According to Sheriff Wiley, an entire safe containing gold coins was stolen. The estimated value of all four coin sets is valued around $500,000.
"We think that they knew that there were valuables in the house and yes we think they knew something about the Marchands," says Sheriff Wiley.
The Ascension Parish Sheriff says the victims are well known and respected citizens and they were viciously attacked in their homes. Sheriff Wiley also says the department is working non stop to identify and capture the killers.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office at 225-621-INFO(4636) or Crime Stoppers at 225-344-STOP(7867).
We will bring you more information as it becomes available.

2 killed in Gonzales home invasion - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports

 

[2manyrocks]

I came into this thread late after having read most of what's posted, and frankly, it's rather shocking to see what others have been through or experienced. The State of Tennessee passed a concealed carry law a few years ago, and I keeping asking myself what we have come to as a society when people feel the need to carry guns to protect themselves, and our state officials evidently agree because they passed the concealed carry law.

I was sitting the vet's office waiting to pick up my cat, and this guy comes in with a ruger strapped to his hip. I was sitting in our local McDonalds, and another guy comes in with some kind of auto strapped to his hip. I don't know either of them. I don't know if either guy is a nut waiting to go off, but it could happen, and there's nothing I can do about it. Not exactly comforting.

It reminds me of Clint Eastwood's view of gun control: "If there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it."

 

[dex3361]

I never feel threatened by the law abiding citizen carrying a weapon Its the criminal I worry about.

 

[RoyJackson]

I came into this thread late after having read most of what's posted, and frankly, it's rather shocking to see what others have been through or experienced. The State of Tennessee passed a concealed carry law a few years ago, and I keeping asking myself what we have come to as a society when people feel the need to carry guns to protect themselves, and our state officials evidently agree because they passed the concealed carry law.

I was sitting the vet's office waiting to pick up my cat, and this guy comes in with a ruger strapped to his hip. I was sitting in our local McDonalds, and another guy comes in with some kind of auto strapped to his hip. I don't know either of them. I don't know if either guy is a nut waiting to go off, but it could happen, and there's nothing I can do about it. Not exactly comforting.

It reminds me of Clint Eastwood's view of gun control: "If there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it."

The citizens carrying handguns should be the least of your fears. And, people have always carried firearms...most states just recognize that is a good thing now.
If you're uncomfortable with that...maybe you should consider why. If just a fear of firearms, that's unnatural.

 

[2manyrocks]

There's no way to tell if they are law abiding citizens or not just by looking at them, and there's no state permit stapled to their forehead, either. So at what point should a reasonable person start to be concerned?

Suppose your son or daughter just got a job at McDonalds and in walks a guy carrying a gun in a holster. Do you only start to worry when he pulls it out?

 

[RoyJackson]

There's no way to tell if they are law abiding citizens or not just by looking at them, and there's no state permit stapled to their forehead, either. So at what point should a reasonable person start to be concerned?

Suppose your son or daughter just got a job at McDonalds and in walks a guy carrying a gun in a holster. Do you only start to worry when he pulls it out?

People who carry openly are straight up citizens. It, for years, was those who concealed their weapons who were the criminals.
Concealed carry for citizens (via permits) has been around a long time in some states...just recent in other states. Open carry (such as the guys you saw) has been legal in many states since this country was founded.
If you're nervous, it's not because of citizens who exercise their rights of self protection...it's because of the shifty politicians who demonize firearms.

 

[TripleR]

I am reminded of a term coined or at least popularized by Jeff Cooper Hoplophobia, an irrational fear of firearms. Growing up, we carried rifles through the middle of town, to school and guns on someone's hip were no big deal as there was no such thing as a concealed carry permit.

 

[Big Bri]

I am reminded of a term coined or at least popularized by Jeff Cooper Hoplophobia, an irrational fear of firearms. Growing up, we carried rifles through the middle of town, to school and guns on someone's hip were no big deal as there was no such thing as a concealed carry permit.

my dad was on his high schools rifle team, and when he went to LSU he was on their pistol team.

i even remember in the early 90's kids having shot guns in the gun racks of their trucks at school.

 

[2manyrocks]

I remember a classmate opening up the trunk of his car during hunting season in the 1970's and it looked like an arsenal. No one gave it a thought until Columbine and more recently, the Virginia Tech shootings.

Responsible people probably haven't changed, but there seem to be more nut cases to worry about. Just look at the bad personal experiences ordinary people have had with nuts posted in this thread.

It's pretty sad when texasjohn or anybody finds a murder victim on his own property. I'm a long way from Texas, but it bothers me, and I think it should concern any reasonable person that this happened not to mention all the other events that have happened to others that have been posted.

 

[RoyJackson]

Responsible people probably haven't changed, but there seem to be more nut cases to worry about. Just look at the bad personal experiences ordinary people have had with nuts posted in this thread.

Probably not more nutcases...just more extensive reporting on the national news (for better or worse).