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Cycrops · January 13, 2012, 02:06 PM

Back in November I read an article which made me realize that my wife and I need to be more prepared to protect ourselves and our new twin babies. My wife is young and pretty, which makes me worry about about her becoming the target of violence.

I had an instance not long before I read that article where a shady guy showed up at the house with a pizza box in the evening and rang the bell. The instant I answered the door, he said "You didn't order a pizza?" then turned around and left. Maybe the puzzled look on my face as I answered the door tipped him off that he was at the wrong house, or maybe he was casing the neighborhood.

Anyway, I decided to purchase a HD/range handgun, which I'll be picking up next week. I already own a 22 rifle, but decided it's not ideal for HD. My wife has no firearms experience.

After reading the article linked above, I had a talk with my wife where I instructed her to NEVER open the front door for a stranger, especially when she is home alone with the babies during the day.

Today she called me at work and said the bell had rung, but she decided to ignore it because of our conversation. The bell rang again, and then there was a loud banging at the front door. She went to the door and saw a neighborhood teenager, big kid, acts a bit odd, who was going around shoveling driveways. She tried to tell him to go away from behind the door, but ended up opening the door to talk to him and send him on his way.

Two questions:
1. Due to the babies, I doubt my wife will have an opportunity to fire the Beretta for a couple of months. In the meantime, should I show her how to use it in case something happens, or assume that she'll likely do more harm than good if she goes for the gun in a bad situation?

2. How do I train her to not open the door? She knows in principle that she shouldn't, but she has a people-pleasing streak and appears to have a hard time being rude to a stranger at the door by not opening it. Any ideas about how to cope with this?

January 13, 2012, 02:06 PM	#1
Cycrops Member Join Date: January 7, 2012 Location: Illinois Posts: 99	My young wife home alone... Back in November I read an article which made me realize that my wife and I need to be more prepared to protect ourselves and our new twin babies. My wife is young and pretty, which makes me worry about about her becoming the target of violence. I had an instance not long before I read that article where a shady guy showed up at the house with a pizza box in the evening and rang the bell. The instant I answered the door, he said "You didn't order a pizza?" then turned around and left. Maybe the puzzled look on my face as I answered the door tipped him off that he was at the wrong house, or maybe he was casing the neighborhood. Anyway, I decided to purchase a HD/range handgun, which I'll be picking up next week. I already own a 22 rifle, but decided it's not ideal for HD. My wife has no firearms experience. After reading the article linked above, I had a talk with my wife where I instructed her to NEVER open the front door for a stranger, especially when she is home alone with the babies during the day. Today she called me at work and said the bell had rung, but she decided to ignore it because of our conversation. The bell rang again, and then there was a loud banging at the front door. She went to the door and saw a neighborhood teenager, big kid, acts a bit odd, who was going around shoveling driveways. She tried to tell him to go away from behind the door, but ended up opening the door to talk to him and send him on his way. Two questions: 1. Due to the babies, I doubt my wife will have an opportunity to fire the Beretta for a couple of months. In the meantime, should I show her how to use it in case something happens, or assume that she'll likely do more harm than good if she goes for the gun in a bad situation? 2. How do I train her to not open the door? She knows in principle that she shouldn't, but she has a people-pleasing streak and appears to have a hard time being rude to a stranger at the door by not opening it. Any ideas about how to cope with this?