Just reminder....

[Guest JeremyD901]

I just wanted to remind everyone the dangers that are out every day and night. Lastnight was the first night in a long time I didn't sleep with my glock in arms reach. On that note I want to say why I'm posting this, I woke up at 5am for work first thing I do is check weather and news. What caught my eye was a Memphis firefighter was shot in a home invasion earlier. He was in a struggle with the intruders when he was finally able to get to his firearm he was able to shoot and kill one intruder. However he is in the Med in critical condition from a gun shot wound from another intruder. This was a wake up call considering it was the first time I didn't sleep within arms reach of my own firearm.

[TGO David]

Good reminder, sad story.

[Guest Red5]

... it was the first time I didn't sleep within arms reach of my own firearm.

I'll bite. Why not?

[Guest JeremyD901]

Honestly figured I live in a nice neighborhood only had one problem. To top it off I was to lazy.

[Guest WyattEarp]

that sucks. Hope he makes it through ok.

I guess I wouldn't understand why anyone who carried a firearm wouldn't keep it with them at all times possible, even in your own home. Is not the point of carrying to be prepared for the unexpected?

doesn't do you a lot of good, if you're sitting at home in front of the tv lounging, and your firearm is upstairs in your night stand, and an intruder(s) barge in and decide they want to kill you.

only place I won't be carrying is school and the VA Hospital, and any posted businesses(which I won't be doing business with) or parks that are posted. I will definitely be carrying in my apartment, my gun will never be left unattended while I'm home or where I can legally carry without restriction.

[Guest nicemac]

Things can happen anywhere–but if I really felt I need to be armed lounging in front of my tv, I would move to somewhere safer.

I refuse to live in a place where I need to be armed inside my home to feel safe.

NOTE: NOT picking on any city/town/neighborhood in particular.

[TGO David]

Just remember, folks... living in a nice neighborhood does not make you any less likely to be robbed. Criminals "commute to work" just like the rest of us, and nice neighborhoods generally mean nicer things to steal.

[monkeylizard]

This.

My in-laws live in a very nice home in a very quiet area. That didn't keep a couple of thugs from breaking in on my mother in law and holding her at gunpoint on her knees pleading for her life before finally deciding to let her live and make a run for it. They've never been caught.

[Guest Jon]

My parents live about 20 miles out a county road in a nice neighborhood, if you can call 3 houses on 30 acres a neighborhood, and have had someone try to gain entry twice.

Robbers also hit the other two houses so it was obvious that they was not from the area. Those guys drove a long long way to hit 3 houses.

[Guest WyattEarp]

Things can happen anywhere–but if I really felt I need to be armed lounging in front of my tv, I would move to somewhere safer.

I refuse to live in a place where I need to be armed inside my home to feel safe.

NOTE: NOT picking on any city/town/neighborhood in particular.

thinking like that is what can get you killed.

burglars have been targeting houses in isolated suburbs and rural areas, because police response times are slower, fewer witnesses, and increased chance of getting more valuables and getting away without being caught. it's happening all across the nation.

it's also one of the reasons I spent the summer in Spring Hill, with my mother, because my dad was out of town working and she didn't like being alone by herself, they live in a neighborhood that's pretty secluded, and about 10 minutes from the police station, so response time wouldn't be fast at all.

you can be anywhere in your house at any given moment, and someone can barge in, if your firearm is not readily accessible to you when that moment happens, then you'll be up **** creek without a paddle. has nothing to do with feeling safe while watching your tv. carrying to me, is being prepared for the unexpected to happen, when you least expect, and being prepared to deal with it when it does happen.

Police Warn Of Multistate Burglars Targeting Rural Homes - News Story - WPXI Pittsburgh

Burglars target isolated houses for bold heists | StarTribune.com

Police investigate string of burglaries across rural Frederick County

Burglar Uses Facebook to Target Home | LifeShield Home Security

Burglary and Home Invasions Increase in Suburbs and Rural Areas; Security … | SecurityCameraShop.net

[Guest nicemac]

Your home should be a refuge. A place where you don't have to be armed sitting around the dining room table to feel safe.

I live in a safe area. I have German Shepherds sleeping on the porch. I have motion sensitive lighting in several locations around the house to light up whatever the dogs are barking at. I have guns accessible in several places around the house. I refuse to sit and watch tv with a shotgun in my lap. If I felt I needed to, I would keep moving until I got to a place that I did not feel that way. If that meant living in a closed gate community, whatever…

btw, there is a BIG difference in a burglary and the robbery of an occupied home with big dogs…

Edited September 27, 2011 by nicemac
changed "does" to "dogs".

[Makiaveli]

Your home should be a refuge. A place where you don't have to be armed sitting around the dining room table to feel safe.

I live in a safe area. I have German Shepherds sleeping on the porch. I have motion sensitive lighting in several locations around the house to light up whatever the does are barking at. I have guns accessible in several places around the house. I refuse to sit and watch tv with a shotgun in my lap. If I felt I needed to, I would keep moving until I got to a place that I did not feel that way. If that meant living in a closed gate community, whatever…

btw, there is a BIG difference in a burglary and the robbery of an occupied home with big dogs…

I think the key words are "should be". Sadly that doesn't make it so. Sounds like you have things set up so that you don't need a holster attached to your toilet.

I think the main point that was being made is that you have to have a plan and appropriate preparations. Where you live isn't really a factor. Run down, crime ridden neighborhood means criminals live nearby. Suburbs mean they head out there for the nice stuff. Rural areas they could think slower police response, less chance of being seen, or even looking to score guns since all city folk think we are all rednecks with guns right?

[Guest JeremyD901]

The reason I posted this wasn't to make you feel you need your whole armory on your couch. It was like it said a reminder, what got my was it was the one time I didn't sleep with my gun close by. Then I read the news and seen that story, it hit home to me....what if. I live in a nice house in the suburbs I have actually caught someone trying to get in my master bedroom window. So the truth is your never really safe but why not have a fair fight

[JAB]

Things can happen anywhere–but if I really felt I need to be armed lounging in front of my tv, I would move to somewhere safer.

I refuse to live in a place where I need to be armed inside my home to feel safe.

NOTE: NOT picking on any city/town/neighborhood in particular.

The relative term here is 'safer'. Some places may be 'safer' or relatively safe but nowhere is completely safe. Personally, I'd feel pretty damned stupid (for the space of my last few, dying breaths) if I went to the trouble of carrying in public whenever possible only to be killed in my own living room smack in the middle of the relatively safe area where I live simply because I didn't take the very minor (and essentially effortless) precaution of having a firearm on me. For me, rather than be so much a question of, "Why?" it is more a matter of, "Why not?"

Edited September 27, 2011 by JAB

[Guest nicemac]

Why not?

I don't even sit around watching tv with my shoes on. Why? Because I am not expecting to go outside in the mud. I don't sit around watching tv with a coat on. Why? Because it is warm in my house. If I need to go outside, I get dressed. I put on my shoes and my coat. I prepare for the conditions out there. That includes holstering a gun.

Why don't I sit around watching tv with my gun (and for that matter, all sorts of tactical gear)? Because conditions do not call for it. If I needed my coat to sit around and watch tv, I would fix the source of cold air. My point was that when I feel that I need to arm myself to sit in my own living room, I will fix the situation in a similar fashion–by moving, by getting dogs, by installing adequate lighting, by getting an alarm system, by moving to a closed gate community, etc… Whatever it takes so I don't have to sit around INSIDE my house armed to the teeth.

Edited September 28, 2011 by nicemac
fixed typo

[Guest WyattEarp]

Your home should be a refuge. A place where you don't have to be armed sitting around the dining room table to feel safe.

only in a perfect world my friend. a reasonable person should expect to not have to be armed in their own home, or always be prepared to have to deal with those who would wish to do us harm. sadly, there are unreasonable people in this world.

no one is saying you're right or wrong, or that we're right or wrong, just introducing another perspective. I'd rather not be lying on the living floor with gunshot wounds to the chest, my life slowly fading away as the air sucks out of my chest, thinking...if only my gun hadn't been in my nightstand...

that's not a pleasant contemplation of a last thought. but in the end of all things both good and evil, the man upstairs is in control of my fate, and if it's my time to go, armed or not, gun or not, I'm being called up to face my final judgement and answer to God for the things I've done on this Earth, and there's not a damn thing I can do to change that. I don't call the shots, He does. Whatever is will be.

[JAB]

Nicemac, I am not challenging your decision. What precautions you feel the need to take (or not) are your business. I do, however, think that there are two, entirely different mindsets at play, here.

I sit and watch TV with my house shoes on. I purposefully chose house shoes with real, rubber soles in case I do need to quickly go outside for some reason. They aren't shoes I would wear to the store but they are plenty comfortable while also being sturdy/dampness resistant enough to wear outside and are not an inconvience to wear inside. I honestly don't really like sitting around barefoot so those house shoes are a good compromise.

I don't sit and watch TV with a coat on. Then, again, I rarely wear a coat at all - I tend to be warm natured so coats are often more trouble than they are worth. I do, however, wear clothes while I am watching TV. It might just be sleep pants or loose-fitting 'gym' shorts and a t-shirt but I will still be clothed. Concerns of decency aside, once again there is always the chance that I might need to step outside quickly, etc. and I'd just as soon not have to go through the house looking for clothes. Again, these might not be the clothes I'd wear to the store but they are plenty comfortable while being appropriate enough for wearing outside in the yard, etc. if the need arises.

I also sit around watching TV with a gun on me. Usually it is my P3AT in a 'belly' band worn low so that the grips are positioned as if the gun were in an IWB holster. Worn this way - with pants that have a loose, elastic waistband that don't put pressure on the gun - I can more or less forget it is even there. Except for certain, very specific situations this is not how I would carry it (or any other gun) in public but it works well for having my P3AT on me while I am just watching TV, etc. It is no more an inconvenience than having a t-shirt on my back and, from an emotional/intellectual standpoint, doesn't cause me any further 'concern' than having house shoes on my feet. As long as I don't need it (and I probably won't) it is a not a big deal, to me. If I ever did need it, however, it would be a very big deal, indeed.

I also always have a flashlight in my pocket when I am sitting around, watching TV. It isn't that I expect the electricity to go off but it can happen and has happened in the past, infrequently. It is often just a small keychain flashlight that weighs almost nothing but it throws plenty of light, if needed. Again, it isn't something I dwell on - it is simply there if I need it.

This is where the two, different mindsets come into play. From your posts, I am getting the impression that you feel that having a firearm on you while lounging around your house would be an inconvenience, would not allow you to relax and so on. I also get the impression that wearing a firearm inside your home, to you, equates with being afraid inside your home or not feeling safe within the confines of your home. Fair enough. For me (and, I suspect, others), however, having a firearm on me while I watch TV, etc. is not an issue. In that situation, I am plenty relaxed and feel that I and my family are as 'safe' as it is possible to be (within my belief that nowhere is completely safe.) I don't dwell on the gun at my side any more than I dwell on the t-shirt, shorts and house shoes I am wearing or the flashlight in my pocket. I am not saying that you should adopt my mindset or that yours is wrong - simply trying to explain that your feelings about carrying in the home are completely different from mine.

Edited September 28, 2011 by JAB

[dlm37015]

Things can happen anywhere–but if I really felt I need to be armed lounging in front of my tv, I would move to somewhere safer.

I refuse to live in a place where I need to be armed inside my home to feel safe.

NOTE: NOT picking on any city/town/neighborhood in particular.

me too thats why i live in the country

[Guest ArmaDeFuego]

Just remember, folks... living in a nice neighborhood does not make you any less likely to be robbed. Criminals "commute to work" just like the rest of us, and nice neighborhoods generally mean nicer things to steal.

I couldnt agree more. My parents tried to use this line on me when I told them they really needed to get a gun for protection. I finally got them to agree that thats really a silly supposition. Do people really think most criminals dont have cars or other means of getting about? They can strike anywhere.....

[Guest ArmaDeFuego]

I refuse to live in a place where I need to be armed inside my home to feel safe.

Then you should probably go ahead & die & go to heaven.

There are tons of crazy people on this earth who could bust into your home at any time. You shouldnt be paranoid about it, but you SHOULD accept it as fact & arm yourself accordingly.

[Oh Shoot]

... but in the end of all things both good and evil, the man upstairs is in control of my fate, and if it's my time to go, armed or not, gun or not, I'm being called up to face my final judgement and answer to God for the things I've done on this Earth, and there's not a damn thing I can do to change that. I don't call the shots, He does. Whatever is will be.

Since you believe in such pure divine fatalism, why have a gun at all, or certainly ever carry one? Or wear a seatbelt, or lock a door, get medical attention, etc?

- OS