We had our second burglary attempt within the past three weeks, and it changed our minds about gun ownership

[Anonymous]

Get a shot gun. They make home defense models that are more compact. Still go to your attic so they have to come up the attic stairs gives you time to ID before you shoot and makes sure your family is safe a free from accidental shooting

[Anonymous]

I am sorry you went through that OP and also about the way you're being received here and hope you don't experience this again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a shot gun. They make home defense models that are more compact. Still go to your attic so they have to come up the attic stairs gives you time to ID before you shoot and makes sure your family is safe a free from accidental shooting

Joe Biden has recommended exactly this. Buy a shotgun.

[Anonymous]

OP if you are seen to have a gun by an intruder you are 100 x more likely to get shot by them.

This is a known fact, I am 55 and I was taught this in 7th grade.

Get a fence, get sensor lights and a ring on your doorbell. Get a loud dog or a recording of one that is set off by people coming close to the house. Put up a sign that says "beware, guard dog" and another that says "ADT" or whatever company does your security.

There are so many things you can do to deter a home invasion that do not require the purchase of a gun. FFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So far our plan was always to hide in the attic and let the perpetrators take what they want as long as they spare us. But now, having had to hide up there for 25 agonizing minutes until the police showed up, feeling helpless and exposed, I want to buy a handgun to protect my family and my home. I am livid. Why should I have to bow down and remain at the mercy of whoever burglarizes my home?

My husband and I are from a very pacifist northern European country where civilians do not own guns except for hunting.
These two incidents have been watershed moments.

The first attempt was in the morning of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, at 9:30 a.m. Our house is in a very expensive neighborhood. It is one of the very few that does not have a gate or fence (now made a priority), and you can see through the front door and the living room windows. We just had our carpets shampooed, so the furniture was removed and the curtains bunched up in a knot. I understand why burglars would think that the owners had their carpets shampooed just before traveling for Thanksgiving.

The perpetrators parked in a white pick-up truck in front of our house. They did not spend more than five minutes there, because I had just seen our neighbor from across the street drive away from that spot. Then they walked on the path at the garage toward the garbage bins toward the back yard. The motion sensor there went off, and that apparently scared them away. I was on the phone with the security company that gets alerted and sends out armed guards when I saw the perpetrators (through the glass panels around my front door) get into their truck, look at me and drive away.

The second attempt was this past weekend at 8:30 pm. I was alone in the house, and for the first time in several weeks I turned off all lights visible from the street at 6 pm when I went upstairs. Only an hour and a half later the same motion sensor at the garage path halfway toward the back yard went off. I sprinted to the attic, called the security company and the police. The police took 25 minutes to get here, and the security company never showed up.

Now I live in fear, thinking about the next burglary attempt all the time. I am done with this.

Oh my goodness, just get a gate/fence! its a huge deterent. Grow some hedges so they can't see inside so easily. We live in DC and I will never get rid of my iron doors (the first line of defence -- my front and back doors), they are VERY hard to break into. Our neighbors also just put up a metal fence and tall hedges -- it actually makes a huge difference. It just makes it less appealing to burglars.

[Anonymous]

Is moving an option?
I know it's drastic .. However, we have some family who after a few gun battles on their street and in their alley decided to move..

Glad no one was hurt...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BS.
Where do you live that a security company has armed guards on standby?
This also wasn’t an attempted burglary. It was a suspicious act. Someone walking around your house, while unusual and definitely concerning is not a reason to gosprinting to your attic in fear.
Take it down a notch.
You are the type of person who will accidentally shoot someone in fear.

OP here. We moved from DC a of few years ago (but I am still on DCUM). Yes, our large neighborhood has a private security company. I have never seen it in the DC area, but it is common in our new area.

I am certain that it was a burglary attempt. Nobody just walks on our property toward the back yard unannounced.

Many ultra-wealthy people live on our street, many with their own security guards either in a car in front of the house or stationed in their gate-house. Just because this is beyond your experience it does not mean that there aren't places like this in this country.

If you have armed security that responds immediately why did you wait 25 minutes for the police when someone walked across your property?

Are you saying you would have taken the gun and gone off into the night to search for and kill this person who wasn’t in your home? And, since that’s not self defense by any definition that you would put your kid through the trauma of losing their parent to prison over sitting still for a few minutes?

OP here. Thanks everyone for their replies.

The neighborhood armed security patrol never showed up after being alerted by the motion sensor and me telling the call center that it is a burglary attempt.

The motion sensors are not on a path from the street toward the house, but on the side of the house almost at the backyard. So no mailman, passersby, neighbor etc sets off that alarm. There is no doubt that those were burglars on the property just a couple of minutes away from entering the house by pushing in a patio door or window.

We don't wear flashy jewelry, etc, however we have museum-quality 18th century antique furniture/clocks/candelabra/paintings visible through the front door and the living room windows (when the curtains are open).

I agree, hedges/fence/gate are a priority.

I friend has recommended this self-defense mechanism, that apparently does not require a license, and uses chemical irritant projectiles:
https://byrna.com/products/byrna-sd-non-lethal-self-defense-pistol

[Anonymous]

You’re here to make money, so there are some trade-offs. You’re not in “Northern Europe” anymore, making peanuts. Get a gun and get plenty of training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you truly prepared to kill someone? Are you prepared to be someone who shot someone dead? Do you know what that does to a person psychologically? Think about that before buying a gun.

“Are you prepared to be someone who left themself at the mercy of criminal psychopaths and got taken up on the offer? Do you know what that does to a person psychologically, if they live through it at the whim of a violent attacker?”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re here to make money, so there are some trade-offs. You’re not in “Northern Europe” anymore, making peanuts. Get a gun and get plenty of training.

Northern Europe is where the real money is. It's only Southern Europe that is poor, by comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If someone broke into my house at 3am, I would not have time to get into my safe, load the gun and try to find my family to protect them. Am I really prepared to start shooting at someone? Isn't it better to just wait for the police to arrive since my alarm will be blaring? My husband is the deepest sleeper and it would take him a minute to even realize what is going on before he'd walk to the safe.

That's why it's important to keep it loaded semi-auto under your bed.

There is no condition of firearm readiness called “loaded semi-auto.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP, if you’re real, you are exactly the sort of person who shouldn’t have a gun- emotional, impulsive, panicky. Bringing a gun into your home makes you more likely to accidentally harm yourself or a family member, self harm, accidentally harm someone like a delivery person, lost teen, etc, and you’re more likely to be injured if you try to use a firearm to defend your home (see below for a good collection of data).

It’s easy to say, that you can handle it, but most people have no idea how they will react when adrenaline is pumping and they are terrified. It takes a lot of training and certain personal qualities to physically attain calm and make good decisions with a gun during a crisis.

Since you have so much money, why not build safe rooms? Get a dog, any dog is a deterrent. You correctly assessed that you can’t manage a guard dog, well I don’t think you can manage a gun either. You can afford a dog walker.



https://www.thetrace.org/2020/04/gun-safety-research-coronavirus-gun-sales/

This is all BS.

And all of it was already refuted in the other thread.

PP: you probably think Kamala Harris should not be allowed to have her gun in her home for home defense.

I’m going to side with the VPOTUS over you, PP, since you’re just some internet rando who doesn’t care at all about my family’s safety.

Are you OP? You don’t sound even vaguely Northern European. You sound like a very American Karen. None of that research is debunked. And I stand by my assessment. You are a panicky overreactor and will only endanger yourself and others with a gun.

I support responsible gun ownership and common sense regulation. You want to argue about things I didn’t even say. Maybe you need therapy.

[Anonymous]

So just to get this straight, before your home was burglarized, the way you saw a burglary going was the burglars would enter, you'd hide in the attic, the burglars would take what they wanted and leave you alone?

And then not once, but twice, your home was burglarized, and not once, but twice the burglars did exactly what you thought they would and left you alone, thereby proving in two real-world scenarios that your original plan went exactly the way you imagined it and wanted it to go?

And now that you have received confirmation not once, but twice, that burglars will leave you alone, you have decided that instead of sticking with the plan that worked exactly the way you wanted it to twice, the better idea is to introduce a deadly weapon to the scenario?

The people saying you are the kind of person who shouldn't have a gun are exactly right. You have absolutely zero sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BS.
Where do you live that a security company has armed guards on standby?
This also wasn’t an attempted burglary. It was a suspicious act. Someone walking around your house, while unusual and definitely concerning is not a reason to gosprinting to your attic in fear.
Take it down a notch.
You are the type of person who will accidentally shoot someone in fear.

OP here. We moved from DC a of few years ago (but I am still on DCUM). Yes, our large neighborhood has a private security company. I have never seen it in the DC area, but it is common in our new area.

I am certain that it was a burglary attempt. Nobody just walks on our property toward the back yard unannounced.

Many ultra-wealthy people live on our street, many with their own security guards either in a car in front of the house or stationed in their gate-house. Just because this is beyond your experience it does not mean that there aren't places like this in this country.

If you have armed security that responds immediately why did you wait 25 minutes for the police when someone walked across your property?

Are you saying you would have taken the gun and gone off into the night to search for and kill this person who wasn’t in your home? And, since that’s not self defense by any definition that you would put your kid through the trauma of losing their parent to prison over sitting still for a few minutes?

OP here. Thanks everyone for their replies.

The neighborhood armed security patrol never showed up after being alerted by the motion sensor and me telling the call center that it is a burglary attempt.

The motion sensors are not on a path from the street toward the house, but on the side of the house almost at the backyard. So no mailman, passersby, neighbor etc sets off that alarm. There is no doubt that those were burglars on the property just a couple of minutes away from entering the house by pushing in a patio door or window.

We don't wear flashy jewelry, etc, however we have museum-quality 18th century antique furniture/clocks/candelabra/paintings visible through the front door and the living room windows (when the curtains are open).

I agree, hedges/fence/gate are a priority.

I friend has recommended this self-defense mechanism, that apparently does not require a license, and uses chemical irritant projectiles:
https://byrna.com/products/byrna-sd-non-lethal-self-defense-pistol

What market do you believe burglars have to unload this type of stuff? Weird Christie’s thieves smuggling out wall paintings, furnitures, and clocks.
OP, are you have a mental break?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BS.
Where do you live that a security company has armed guards on standby?
This also wasn’t an attempted burglary. It was a suspicious act. Someone walking around your house, while unusual and definitely concerning is not a reason to gosprinting to your attic in fear.
Take it down a notch.
You are the type of person who will accidentally shoot someone in fear.

OP here. We moved from DC a of few years ago (but I am still on DCUM). Yes, our large neighborhood has a private security company. I have never seen it in the DC area, but it is common in our new area.

I am certain that it was a burglary attempt. Nobody just walks on our property toward the back yard unannounced.

Many ultra-wealthy people live on our street, many with their own security guards either in a car in front of the house or stationed in their gate-house. Just because this is beyond your experience it does not mean that there aren't places like this in this country.

If you have armed security that responds immediately why did you wait 25 minutes for the police when someone walked across your property?

Are you saying you would have taken the gun and gone off into the night to search for and kill this person who wasn’t in your home? And, since that’s not self defense by any definition that you would put your kid through the trauma of losing their parent to prison over sitting still for a few minutes?

OP here. Thanks everyone for their replies.

The neighborhood armed security patrol never showed up after being alerted by the motion sensor and me telling the call center that it is a burglary attempt.

The motion sensors are not on a path from the street toward the house, but on the side of the house almost at the backyard. So no mailman, passersby, neighbor etc sets off that alarm. There is no doubt that those were burglars on the property just a couple of minutes away from entering the house by pushing in a patio door or window.

We don't wear flashy jewelry, etc, however we have museum-quality 18th century antique furniture/clocks/candelabra/paintings visible through the front door and the living room windows (when the curtains are open).

I agree, hedges/fence/gate are a priority.

I friend has recommended this self-defense mechanism, that apparently does not require a license, and uses chemical irritant projectiles:
https://byrna.com/products/byrna-sd-non-lethal-self-defense-pistol

What market do you believe burglars have to unload this type of stuff? Weird Christie’s thieves smuggling out wall paintings, furnitures, and clocks.
OP, are you have a mental break?

OP here. No, of course I don't think that the burglars will haul out and sell antique furniture. However, I do think that they expect there to be valuable jewelry and watches in an expensively furnished house.