Do y'all carry in your house?

[hogcowboy]

I carry from the time I get up and get dressed(it is just one more item) till the time I go back to bed. Same as grabbing my keys.

[DonutGuy]

If I have to carry in my own home, then it's time I look at moving out of the war zone.

[chaplain tom]

If I have to carry in my own home, then it's time I look at moving out of the war zone.

I truly understand your point, but the war zone keeps expanding first of all, and second, some (good people mind you) are simply not in a position TO move out of the war zone. To paraphrase Mr. Hogwallup from "Oh Brother Where Art Though" - "They got this recession on." So to R-U-N-N-O-F-T is not an option for many at this time.

[giaquir]

Hello, I"d like to apologize
about my ignorant remark about
you guys being paranoid and carrying
at home.Thinking on it a bit recalling
all the home invasions, people getting
sliced and diced by invaders who just want
to experience someone die-ing. Even in little
out of the way towns. I'm gonna
start carrying now.Sorry for the remarks.
I opened my mouth before engaging my brain.
Ron

[LordTio3]

Hello, I"d like to apologize
about my ignorant remark about
you guys being paranoid and carrying
at home.Thinking on it a bit recalling
all the home invasions, people getting
sliced and diced by invaders who just want
to experience someone die-ing. Even in little
out of the way towns. I'm gonna
start carrying now.Sorry for the remarks.
I opened my mouth before engaging my brain.
Ron

Wow, that takes some guts. Thank you for this. It shows a lot of character and thought.

~LT

[markj]

I see that Dr. on TV, his family was killed by 2 guys, set fire to his little girls while he was tied up after being beaten. He was asked if he could forgive, he said he cant forgive pure evil, that is what these folks are pure evil. Best be prepared for when they come to visit you, that is my state of mind these days. I wouldnt want to live if I could have done anything to stop any form of attack in my house.


I would rather have a fond memory of the time bad guys got whupped than bad guys raped and killed my family.

Ever see a crack baby? there are lots of them out there right now.

They hate others. Are you ready for them?

[bill 13]

Yes i carry at home. Its better to have it and not need it, than
need it and not have it.

My friends understand my open carry at home. Others have no say.

[DonutGuy]

I truly understand your point, but the war zone keeps expanding first of all, and second, some (good people mind you) are simply not in a position TO move out of the war zone. To paraphrase Mr. Hogwallup from "Oh Brother Where Art Though" - "They got this recession on." So to R-U-N-N-O-F-T is not an option for many at this time.

Believe me when I say this, if I needed to carry in my own home then I would not live there. It's up to me to be a good father and raise my kids in a healthy environment and I most certainly would NOT subject them to a ghetto or African civil war country type of environment. Some people may not have the means to move, but I would find a way. I live in a quiet middle class neighborhood, my guns are readily accessible but most certainly not needed to carry them.

[JohnKSa]

I live in a quiet middle class neighborhood...

Like the one the doctor and his family from this article lived in?



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101108/..._home_invasion

The two home invaders subdued the family with a baseball bat and a BB gun. Pretty clear that if one of the Petits had been carrying at home it would have never happened.

The problem with crime is that while it obviously tends to be more concentrated in some areas, there are no areas that are immune to violent crime. Is it likely that someone living in a quiet middle/upper class neighborhood would need to carry a gun at home? Not at all. Then again it's not likely that any given person will win the lottery either--the odds are more than a million to one. But you know what? People win the lottery all the time because millions of people play.

Crime is like a reverse lottery that EVERYONE plays whether they want to or not. You can reduce your odds of "winning" but you can't opt out entirely.

Do you NEED to carry a gun at home? The odds are that you won't need to but there's no way to say for sure you won't. More to the point, a perceptive person reading about what happened to the Petit family will realize that it's not really about the odds. It's about the stakes.

[pax]

Believe me when I say this, if I needed to carry in my own home then I would not live there.

Believe me when I say this, as long as bad guys have access to cars, buses, bicycles and legs, there's no such thing as a truly safe neighborhood.

Some are more dangerous than others, but none are safe.

See this: http://www.crimereports.com

pax

[4V50 Gary]

Home invasions are up. I had a knock on the door the other night. An unknown black male adult asked me to open the door. We've had that before in my neighborhood and they are recon missions. I declined, stating, "Good night and good bye."

[JohnKSa]

I had a knock on the door the other night.

I live in a quiet suburban neighborhood. A middle-class neighborhood that was farmland less than 2 years before I moved in.

Not too long after we moved in my next door neighbor was awakened by a knock on the door. Since it was late at night and he wasn't expecting anyone he just peeked out a window with a view of the door rather than answering the door.

There was a stranger on the doorstep and, again, since it was late and he wasn't expecting anyone my neighbor just kept watching, unobserved, to see what would happen.

After waiting a few moments the man left, and as he left, his accomplice, who up until that point had been hiding out of sight behind the corner of the house near the front door, joined him.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

We live in a nice one also. Same experiences. But to each his own, it's your life. Probably will never use the fire extinguisher or 2nd floor ladder either.

[DonutGuy]

Probably will never use the fire extinguisher or 2nd floor ladder either.

seems like a lot of people have the mentality to carry in their house, those same people should carry the fire extinguisher around too...never know when that fire will happen!

[DonutGuy]

Like the one the doctor and his family from this article lived in?

There's an article for everything, I'll take that very minute,very very rare case for me not to carry it at home...not like its not easily accessible in a moments time..not like I have it locked up 24/7.

[Stevie-Ray]

There's an article for everything, I'll take that very minute,very very rare case for me not to carry it at home...not like its not easily accessible in a moments time..not like I have it locked up 24/7.

This is getting tiresome. Who are you trying to convince? Us, or yourself?

Yeah, if it was that bad here, I'd move. Oh, and if my wife had wheels, she'd be a Ferrari.

[JohnKSa]

...those same people should carry the fire extinguisher around too...never know when that fire will happen!

I guarantee you that when they start making fire extinguishers as small and light as a compact carry pistol then I will start looking for a fire extinguisher holster.

...I'll take that very minute,very very rare case...

I addressed this already.

No one is claiming that the odds of having a home invasion are high. I'd say that even in a bad neighborhood the odds are very good that you'll never be the target of a home invasion. But if gambling were ONLY about the odds then people would never play the lottery. People don't play the lottery because the odds are good that they'll win, they play because even though the odds of winning are very minute,very very rare, the payoff is HUGE!

Similarly, it doesn't make sense to carry at home based ONLY on the odds. It's a different story when one considers the stakes. What is the cost of gambling and losing?

Ok, time for the standard disclaimer for this type of threads.

No matter who you are, you divide all people into only 3 groups when it comes to preparedness.

• Oblivious sheeple who are less prepared than you are.
• Prudent, well adjusted people who prepare to exactly the same extent that you do.
• Paranoid lunatics who are more prepared than you are.

With that in mind, it's important to step back a little and take another look. Just because you don't want to prepare to the level that someone else here might think is perfectly reasonable is not sufficient justification to ridicule them. Remember, there are many people who believe that just OWNING a gun for self-defense qualifies a person as paranoid.

Similarly, it's not constructive to make fun of people who don't prepare quite as much as you do. Keep in mind that many millions of Americans will live their entire lives and never need to use a gun in self-defense.

These threads aren't intended to help us stratify ourselves, to create divisions. The important thing to take away from these threads is a widened perspective.

[OldMarksman]

Posted by DonutGuy: If I have to carry in my own home, then it's time I look at moving out of the war zone.

Consider that you will not know whether you "have to carry in your own home" unless an eventuality arises when you are carrying, or it arises when you are not. In the case of the matter, you may or may not be able to talk about it later.

"War zone"? In the suburban municipality adjacent to mine, the crime rate is very low indeed. During the week of Thanksgiving, an intruder entered an occupied home in a "safe" neighborhood and stabbed the resident with a knife; the resident survived but required emergency heart surgery. About ten days later, an intruder broke into a house nearby, but left when the resident confronted him; it was found that he had escaped from a federal facility about fifty miles away.

Criminals are mobile, like everyone else.

[CapeCodShooter]

JohnKSa, your last two posts were profiund, even poetic.

I live in a very upscale area. The minimum home price is around seven figures. MY GF, who lives with me, used to laugh at me because I carry a snubby at home. She said it was like living with Wyatt Earp. Then a neighbor not too far from me suffered a terrible beating from a group that invaded his home. Needless to say, she doesn't kid me anymore. Well, actually, she does, but we both know that she's happy that I'm ready, willing and able to protect her.

I have a friend who has a loaded gun in every room, but who doesn't carry around the house. Neither one of us is paranoid, just well prepared.

[MikeNice81]

Believe me when I say this, as long as bad guys have access to cars, buses, bicycles and legs, there's no such thing as a truly safe neighborhood.

I may have posted it in this thread, or I may not have. I know I have told a story that goes with that goes with that point on this site.

My dad was walking my grandmother's dog in the front yard. It was probably 10:00 in the evening. A minivan stopped in the middle of the road and two guys jumped out. They yelled "this is a robbery." My dad pulled out his gun and said "I don't think so." The guys turned tale and jumped back in the van.

The neighborhood has several power company "security" lights in people's yard. So, it is relatively well lighted. The neighborhood is also considerred calm and quiet. None of that mattered though because these guys could use an automobile to target people where ever they wanted.

Later the paper had a story about a group of guys that had been robbing people around town. It was the same guys using the same van. They had struck in several neighborhoods. They had even put one older gentleman in the hospital.

Their automobile had allowed them to strike at will and get across town before the cops could respond. They hit poor neighborhoods, middle class neighborhoods, and even a country club neighborhood with houses that start at 3/4s of a million.

[Steviewonder1]

This is the main reason that I brought forth a measure to install Video Cameras at the entrance to our Dead End Neighborhood last year. The cameras get your face coming in, you and your other faces leaving along with your tag. No there are no signs that say Recorded on Video. You are on public property and subject to surviellance by any means, just like the police can tag you with Radar or Laser. At my home and some others there are 3-8 cameras taking video of our premises and the street in front of our homes. I do carry all day long in my home as I work from my home. My office is on the second floor and has a commanding view of the front yard area. All of our backyards are fenced, but are on video. All I have to do is look behind me in the office closet at the video recorder to see what is going on. Many of my neighbors do the same as I do, CARRY at HOME!

[Onward Allusion]

DonutGuy
<SNIP>Believe me when I say this, if I needed to carry in my own home then I would not live there.

1 in 5,000 TO 1 in 1,000 depending on which FBI stats you work from. Those are your odds of being the victim of a home invasion (robbery and/or violent crime at your residence). 70,000 robberies at one's residence in 2009 alone. This doesn't include violent acts committed at one's residence, hence the wider range.

I believe what you say, and I sincerely hope you will never experience any of those statistics firsthand. I for one will continue to carry at home.

[thebrassexchange]

i carry at home all the time, i think its all about getting a comfortable holster sometimes i forget its on my hip. You just never know in a house who is coming through the doors. If you live in a house your just a rock throw away from someone breaking glass and getting in. You may not have the chance to go upstairs to get your piece. If you have problems carrying your piece on the hip then get a 357 magnum snub nose or some type of front pocket carry to have with you at all times.

[silentargus]

Wait, somebody actually drew a comparison between a house fire and a home invasion? Oooh my.

Fires generally start small. Unless you're asleep, chances are pretty good that you'll either smell the smoke or hear one of your smoke alarms go off long before the fire becomes life-threatening. Fires are also much more likely to happen in kitchens and utility rooms as opposed to living spaces. Fires don't care about witnesses; they never act with malice or rage; they do not choose their targets intelligently. You will almost always have more than enough time to grab a fire extinguisher and call 911, and evacuate the house if the fire gets out of control. Accidental house fires are usually small, do little damage, and are easily dealt with.

Fires can be prevented by common-sense precautions, and are usually caused by negligence- a person who is generally attentive and responsible is in less danger from fire than a person who goes through life in a fog. If your house is kept to code (including smoke detectors and extinguishers), and you take care not to leave flammable things near the stove or wall sockets, and you don't do dumb things like falling asleep while smoking, then it is likely you'll never have an accidental fire at all, let alone a life-threatening one.

Criminals, on the other hand, like to come at you hard and fast. Surprising you is how they get what they want. They can sneak up to your house and be inside in seconds. If you have an alarm, it will only go off when the threat is already an immediate one. Criminals tend to go after the same places you spend most of your time, because that's where the valuable things (and potential victims) are. They might just decide that leaving witnesses alive isn't in their best interests. They act with malice, may be prone to acts of rage, and have a specific objective in mind when they enter your home- be it theft or rape or murder. You may not have enough time to do anything but draw and fire; running to grab a gun may not be possible.

Crimes can be deterred, but not prevented, by taking common-sense precautions. You might reduce your chances of being victimized by locking your doors, installing lights, having an active alarm... but you will never reduce them to near-zero, because there will always be someone out there who is determined to get through all of your precautions. The more determined a criminal is to get through your security measures, the more dangerous they're likely to be.

That's why carrying a gun at home makes sense, and carrying around a fire extinguisher doesn't. Unless we're talking arson, the threat level of a house fire is really pretty low despite how frequently they seem to happen. We have many tried-and-proven ways of preventing fires from happening... we still haven't found a way to keep predatory scumbags from targeting innocent people.

[JerryM]

There is no question that violent home entries and murders happen somewhere from time to time. However I am persuaded that the liklihood of it happening to someone in an average nice neighborhood is less than getting struck by lightning. The chances are much less than getting injured by a drunk driver.

When I consider the number of violent entries, outside the drug neighborhoods or gangs, and consider the numbers of days and thousands of homes that have no problem, I am not willing to change my lifestyle to counter those miniscule odds. In other words, I am not concerned about such an entry.

I lock my doors and have installed metal security doors. I also consider that if my area of town or city made me think there was any liklihood it would happen I would move to another neighborhood or city.

To each his own.

Regards,
Jerry