Scary situation:easily prevented

[Guest jimblasick]

Hey Erik, I'd like to retract the welfare comment and apologize for it (along with thanks to Sgt.Joe for raising some good points). Still, it's unlikely that you'll change your parents mind about much of anything. DaveTN has some compelling arguments and, as german shepherd dog owner, I tend to agree with him. Whatever you do, please be careful.

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

Hey Erik, I'd like to retract the welfare comment and apologize for it (along with thanks to Sgt.Joe for raising some good points). Still, it's unlikely that you'll change your parents mind about much of anything. DaveTN has some compelling arguments and, as german shepherd dog owner, I tend to agree with him. Whatever you do, please be careful.

I can second third and fourth if necessary the idea of a big dog. I currently have two a Lab and a Siberian Husky, I have had German Shepherds in the past and think they are the best. I just wasnt ready to replace the last white one we lost when I got the Lab and the Husky was a street rescue.

I also agree with ALL the points that EVERYONE has made here.

As for carrying all the time Heck I feel a pretty bad about it also, but being new to handguns myself, having three kids around, living on a very busy road, the main front door being mostly open due to crappy lighting and thus leaving only the glass one along with recent armed home invasions in the neighborhood I feel it is best at least for the situation now.

The convenience store only a few hundred yards away has been robbed and there have been a couple armed robberies in the parking lots at the two motels only a few hundred more yards away. And believe it or not this is a "quiet" part of town.

It isnt that I have not taught my kids to not touch the gun (s) if it was to be on the table beside me but they are still kids (15,11&9) and I have yet to take even the oldest to the range for any real training. Also they are still getting used to me having a gun. As I was one who did not and still do not allow toy guns in the house. So until we can get moved "on my hip" and the others locked up is how it has to be. And you bet it stinks.

Erik, I wish you well with all your endeavors, like you have been advised you may or may not be able to change how anyone else wants to live their lives. You can try but you cant push too hard, it is as you well know their house and their lives.

I still commend you for trying as new people are brought into "our" world everyday. If someone had told me three years ago I would be wearing a gun in my own house I would have bet my life against it.

Sometimes the last in the world we think would ever happen....happens.

[Punisher84]

Thanks for the rudeness, Punisher.

Hey, you're welcome.

[Erik88]

Hey Erik, I'd like to retract the welfare comment and apologize for it (along with thanks to Sgt.Joe for raising some good points). Still, it's unlikely that you'll change your parents mind about much of anything. DaveTN has some compelling arguments and, as german shepherd dog owner, I tend to agree with him. Whatever you do, please be careful.

No hard feelings Jim and thanks everyone for the suggestions. And just for the record my parents have gotten used to me having the gun around the house and have actually been more supportive of it. My mom even mentioned getting a gun of her own... To which I just snickered.

[Guest 44M]

install a home alarm and don`t give anyone a password, but do let them know that you have alarm...

Db

[Guest 44M]

sorry, I tought you have your own place...

Db

[Guest PatriotCSA]

I had a story similar to this. Back in 1999-2001 I was going to school at TTC in Athens TN and lived across the road in some apartments. I had a 12 gauge pump at the time remington 870. Normally, when the maintenance man was to come the management would leave notes on everyone's doors letting us know or they would call. Well, they never called and never left a note. I was taking a shower and had the shotty in the bedroom with the bedroom door closed. I heard someone "moving around" in the den. I got out of the shower, wrapped a towell around me got the shotty and opened the bedroom door. There was a guy in the den that had his back to me. I said who the F are you and what the f are you doing in my apartment? He turned around saw the gun and his eyes got as big as quarters and I think he peed himself. Anyways, he said I am the maintenance man here to change the filter in your heating and air unit. I said do you have some id? He gave me some id that said he was a maintenance man but that wasnt good enough. I held him at gun point and called management. They confirmed he was their guy and had been sent to change that filter. I advised them to let me know ahead of time about this because I just pulled a gun on him. From then on I never had a problem with not knowing they were coming to do maintenance.

Exact same thing happened to me three years ago when we lived in an apartment. It's actually partly because of this incident that we bit the bullet and bought a house. We had a spider problem in our apt, so they sent out a bug guy to spray. Bout a week or two later, without telling us ahead of time, they scheduled the guy to come back and check up on the issue. I had been sleeping when I heard someone messing with the door and coming inside. I rolled out of bed and grabbed a rifle I had been storing from under the bed and came into the living room. The bug guy turned ghost white to find me with my messed up hair standing in my shorts with a gun in my hands. I told him how much it pissed me off and how damn dangerous it was for him to not even bother knocking, especially in a city like Memphis.

Two weeks later, we bought a house.

Edited February 17, 2010 by PatriotCSA

[Guest PatriotCSA]

So I have been a little annoyed by this for a while now and thought I would share what happened.

I was home alone a few weeks ago when the following took place. I was downstairs in my basement(yes college student still living at home) when I heard the front door open. I immediately go into defensive mode and grab my gun that was beside me. This is not normal b/c my parents don't use the front door ever, nor do they come home during the day very often.

A few seconds pass(seemed like hours) and I can hear someone moving around near the door. I am trying to plan what I should do next when I hear a deep voice say "hello"... This makes me somewhat at ease only because I don't think most robbers would announce their presence. But I wasn't taking any chances so I open my basement door looking up to find a repair-man staring back at me... Apparently my mom had hired him to work on the gas fireplace and decided I didn't need to know someone was going to be coming over.(she left a key outside)

The frustrating part is that my parents are oblivious to the basics. They give me grief when I double check the locks and my step-dad is always giving me crap about my gun being on my hip, on my nightstand etc....

Any suggestions on how I can teach them to use a little more common sense? Sorry for the long thread...

I feel you man. I grew up in a no-guns household too. It's not that my parents were anti-gun. They were always staunch conservatives. They just didn't want any in our home. After my dad passed away several years ago, I started talking to my mother and sister about their safety and the need for firearms for SD. They came around and now are very ardent gun owners.

It took several months and for them was something like getting into a swimming pool and you get the cold feeling at first but it gets warmer after you get in. I took them to gun shops and showed them all the other women who buy guns and carry. I appealed to the historical aspect of our past family members owning guns. (Not sure what your family history is there, but it's worth a shot)

I didn't get them to change their mind about guns in the home in one conversation. It took some time but it paid off. Just stick with it man.

[Guest bkelm18]

When I live with my dad and step mom after I got out of the service, I had to keep about $3000 worth of firearms in a rental storage unit. They are staunch liberals and staunchly anti-gun. Their house, their rules. So at least you got it better than I did.