Post
by timmy » Wed Aug 05, 2009 10:46 am
I think his idea of staying put is a sound one, both from the perspective of what happens when the police arrive and also from the point that the person who tries to "clear" the house has to put themselves in jeopardy at each turn of entering a room or turning a corner. Waiting keeps the burden in the invader.
A lot of this depends on who is invading the house. If they are petty thieves who make noise and such, that's one thing. However, an invader whose skills are fairly well honed may not be detected until it is too late. That's what's always bothered me about having loaded weapons laying about.
I have known a variety of people in my days. One person, who knew "lots of things," told me of one fellow whose specialty was robbing safes in supermarkets. It used to be common in the USA years back to put the safe right in the front, next to the big storefront windows, under the assumption that nobody could get near it and crack it when it was in such a public place and in clear view. This fellow looked for those safes and got into them -- despite the public exposure.
There are folks who can creep into a house and never be heard. Then what good is a handgun in a nightstand, on the floor next to the bed, or whatever? What good is a gun that doesn't have a magazine in it or a round ready to fire (other than that it isn't so much of a threat when the crook finds it while you're sleeping).
That whole gun by the bed business is not such an easy question to deal with. I've thought about having a little pocket between the wall and the mattress at the head of the bed for this reason.
I like his idea about the long gun vs hand gun.
Here in rural America, there is a standing joke about rural fire departments, which are usually volunteer. When the alarm goes off, the firemen must leave their job or wherever they are at, go to the station, and then go to the fire. The old joke always was that they got to the burning house in time to save the chimney. That's about how I feel about 911, though in the place I'm living now, the response time of the police is reasonably fast. Also, the police are pretty good, well trained, and professional, not like the hillbillies in some of the neighboring towns. Still, I don't like the idea of yakking on the phone and making such a racket while someone's rummaging through my house.
