I’m not a fan of private ownership of guns, and a politician’s unconditional support of the NRA is usually enough to cost him my vote.
But my son’s house was broken into Friday. And they came back on Monday to take what they’d missed on Friday.
Friday, a female housemate was home during the break-in, but she was in a closed, air-conditioned room all afternoon and didn’t hear a thing. Monday, my son was home during the break-in, but he was in a closed, air-conditioned room all afternoon and didn’t hear a thing. They were both lucky.
If I had a close friend who owned a gun, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask him to wait in my son’s living room this afternoon.
© 2012 by Bill Bickel unless otherwise noted.
Sorry, Bill. We had a break-in last November, but we were not home. It was a broad daylight attack, and more of a quick in and out, so while we lost a lot of living room electronics and a laptop, they didn’t get around the last corner to my office where I had a lot more equipment. My wife found our property listed on craigslist the same night, we called the cops, but apparently the one detective was on Thanksgiving vacation, so while we did wind up catching all kids involved, we did not recover more than a suitcase and a backpack they stole to carry loot with.
We have discussed taking local gun classes but have yet to do so. We have invested in an alarm service and that seems to provide a better peace of mind (they are quick to call in whenever we accidently set it off ourselves). I am glad your kid wasn’t physically hurt.
Bill, you have become a punchline of sorts:
A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.
I can empathize with you- the feeling of violation after being burgled is horrible; I can’t begin to imagine how many times worse it is for someone who has been sexually assaulted.
That being said, revenge fantasies are good for the healing processes but do you really think you cold condone the taking of another person’s life if they attempted to steal your family’s possessions again? Because if you wield a handgun, you must be prepared to use it to kill; any hesitation to do so just puts you and your family at risk
Welcome to the club Bill.
It is a rare and stupid burglar who returns to the scene of the crime. Returning twice would be almost unheard of.
But Bill… consider that none of the reasons for opposing firearms have changed due to a single incident. A gun would not have stopped the robbery in question, and it would have risked escalating the incident into a gun battle. Guns take bad situations and make them worse. The fact that someone you know was robbed — and not even at gunpoint — doesn’t change any of that.
The fantasy:
“If I’d only had a gun, I’d've shown them. Pow, pow, pow!”
The reality:
If your son had had a gun in the house, the burglars would now have a gun.
Probably correct.
And if your son had a gun in the first place, that would almost have guaranteed the thieves would come back. There’s nothing they can sell better than a gun, and people who keep guns in the home would replace it quickly when stolen. That means thieves would come back looking for another one.
Sorry to hear about this Bill, glad no one was hurt.
Hardly a foregone conclusion,James; sometimes the good guys win.
When seconds count, remember your police are only minutes away.
Glad to hear no one was hurt.
Yeah, right, the only possible outcome (with a gun present) would have been “your son shoots at the burglar, who flees”. The pro-gun fantasists are out in force, I see.
How about “burglar is also armed, sees your son before your son sees the burglar, also sees the gun, and shoots first”? That’s also a strong possibility. So is “there are actually TWO burglars, son sees one, tries to threaten first burglar with gun, second one gets the drop on him, they fight, son gets shot in struggle”. So is “son ends up chasing the burglar, forgets the rules in the heat of the chase, shoots after the burglar has left, hits someone innocent”. And let’s not forget “son shoots burglar, but does so in way which leaves son legally liable for shooting”.
And under the circumstances, we can’t leave out “son gets a gun and is so paranoid about the circumstances that he shoots anything that moves on his property after dark, which turns out to be a neighbor coming over to drop of a misdelivered letter or maybe son’s family’s pet”. That one is always fun.
Look, I know that when you’re hit with an unexpected blow the human response is to want to hit back, but it’s a reaction which usually ends up costing a lot more than the blow itself. As a country, we’re bankrupting ourselves fighting two wars halfway across the world which each cost millions every day and which we allowed ourselves to be talked into on the basis of “we just got hit, someone’s got to pay!” Why not show a little wisdom, instead?
Nicely written!
You left out: “unarmed female housemate gets raped at gunpoint.”
When my parents were out of town for my wedding, burglars took a valuable coin collection. They also made off with two handguns my dad kept in his sock drawer. I don’t know how I would have felt if there had been a gun battle, whatever the outcome; but the thought that the bad guys ended up with the weapons has long convinced me that firearms probably shouldn’t be in homes — the odds probably favor that kind of result.
I would not like to be caught in a home invasion with a gun. I used to know a prison psychologist and she described a typical conversation with a house robber:
“What would you do if someone who is unarmed tried to stop you?”
“I’d beat them up.”
What would you do if they had a knife or gun?”
“I’d kill them.”
I believe that criminals practice proportional response because there’s no self-defence saving them. If they kill someone in a simple house robbery they’re going to jail for a long time, so unless they’re afraid for their lives I don’t think they’re shooting anyone.
You aren’t describing a home invasion, they’re not out to hurt anyone. It’s just stuff, don’t get shot over it, don’t get into a $100k self-defence trial over it.
Bill – nothing wrong with owning a firearm. The vast majority of gun owners are very responsible with safety on the top of the list. MN requires a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Those I know would probably hold the burgler at gunpoint until the squad he called showed up.
Try a dog first.
And while it’s frightening that the burglar/s would do so when someone is at home, if your son and housemate had not been in a closed off room, the burglar/s might have moved on to a house they thought was empty.
How about just a quieter air conditioner or an open door?
Getting a dog sounds like the better option than a gun. My dogs aren’t attack dogs but they will bark if someone comes into the house, sometimes that’s all you need to scare a bugler away.
I do understand where you’re coming from though, being robbed twice is such a violation I would probably react the same way, get me a gun so it won’t happen again but the truth is when a gun gets on the scene nothing good will happen.
Good friend of mine, back in Texas, heard someone breaking into his house one night, got out his gun, went downstairs in the dark, saw that there really was someone trying to break in the back door, drew a bead, released the safety, waited for the person to come through the door… and recognized his own teenage son, who had forgotten his key and didn’t want to wake anyone and thought he could somehow jimmy the lock… just in time.
I don’t think I need to say any more, do I?
He was shaky for weeks afterwards.
But of course I’m glad – like everyone else – that no one got hurt. In your family, Bill. Just as I’m relieved to this day that no one got hurt in my friends family, back then in Texas.
If you openly have a gun, every punk who comes in your house is going to consider stealing it.
When I lived in Philadelphia, we didn’t lock our doors. And that’s with having a stroller taken off of the front porch in the middle of the day, and a lot of break-ins nearby (we lived in East Mt Airy, a few blocks from Germantown). We had a dog (German Shepherd mix), and snoopy neighbors.