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

[Anonymous]

OP, reading your posts and you should not get a gun.

[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 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.

So the thieves decided to pick the neighbor of the people WITH security guards? I think you want to be a target to show your level of achievement/success. That casual of a burglar - walking around, isn't looking for a $100k heist. They could get valuables more suited to their skills elsewhere. You also may just be paranoid.

OP here. We live in the "poorer" section of the street, and there aren't any houses with guards within a good 300 yards of our house.

I find it really annoying that you people are trying to find "holes in my story", as if I would waste my time trolling here instead of focusing on my work.
I simply wanted to convey that these incidents and the ongoing risk of burglary has changed our attitude about owning guns.

This kind of emotional reasoning is what causes people to shoot family members by accident. You say that you're protecting your teenage daughter, and I hear you, but the likelihood of a "burglar" at 3am being your teenager who snuck out is pretty high. What you are describing as a "change of attitude" is actually paranoid, fearful behavior motivated by your perception of crime, which is inaccurate as no crimes seem to have taken place. You were scared. That is a terrible reason to buy a gun, which can kill people, including you.

A dog, a personal defense class, and a good home insurance policy is a better move for a fearful person. Don't buy a gun unless you're prepared to kill with it, period.

[Anonymous]

Well, in at least the first case, it sounds like the security system worked. It scared them off.

In the second case, it doesn't sound like you even have confirmation that it was a burglar-to-be. Not sure what wildlife you have in your area, but in my region it could have been a deer, fox, or a neighbor's dog escaped and wandering. If it was a burglar, the security alarm seems to have worked again.

I understand this is unnerving, but if you're looking for deterrents, I'd suggest other options before buying a gun. Put highly visible security cameras at every corner. Motion-activated floodlights over the entire yard - most criminals like the dark, and will run when the lights suddenly come on. Fence with "BEWARE OF DOG" signs, even if you don't have a dog.

If you're still determined, don't start with shopping for a gun. Start with the gun safety courses, hire an instructor to teach you about different types of firearms, then lots of training and practice to get proficient with your choice. Then, and ONLY then, should you consider actually purchasing one. The worst thing is to have a firearm available before you're prepared to use it.

- Owner of hunting rifles and shotguns, proficient deer hunter and a decent skeet shot, whose house actually was fully burglarized about 10 years ago while nobody was home ... but I still don't consider my guns to be part of my home defense system and would never go for them in a burglary, nor would I ever buy a handgun for that purpose. I'd grab the kids and get out of the house, run to a neighbor, and call the cops from there. I have no desire for a face to face interaction with a burglar. We did improve our security cameras after the break-in.

[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.

Sounds fake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

OP here. After having lived through the agony of waiting for the police for 25 minutes, yes, I am prepared to shoot and kill a perpetrator in my home, especially to protect my teenage daughter and my husband. So far I always thought that I would hide, but now I do not see why I should accept the risk of bodily harm to us.
I felt very helpless and exposed. I don't want to feel that way ever again in my life, especially not in my own home.

I get it that it’s scary but isn’t the point of hiding in the attic avoiding bodily harm? Or do you think once they break in the intruders will then try to break into the attic where presumably your kid and husband will be hiding with you?

Or if you no longer want to hide in the attic is your plan instead to shoot them through the closed door to the house? Or wait for them to break in and then kill them? I suggest you research stand your ground laws in your state. You may find your attic far preferable to a prison cell.

[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.

Kamala Harris publicly stated “anyone who breaks into my house is getting shot.”

Apparent Kamala Harris is prepared to defend her life, her child & husbands lives, and her home.

What’s your problem PP? You think you are smarter than Kamala Harris?? OMG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A dog will be a lot better deterrent than a gun. A mouthy dog, even better.

I would never have a gun in my house. A childhood friend accidentally killed himself when we were 15 showing his girlfriend his dad's supposedly-unloaded gun.

But, as Bill Burr says, a pitbull is a gun you can pet...

Until it bites to kill and won’t release its bite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Kamala Harris publicly stated “anyone who breaks into my house is getting shot.”

Apparent Kamala Harris is prepared to defend her life, her child & husbands lives, and her home.

What’s your problem PP? You think you are smarter than Kamala Harris?? OMG.

I’m with Kamala.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 38 and grew up around guns. Break ins and crime rates are still very low where I grew up largely in part because everyone knows that the house they break into very likely has a gun. The break ins that do occur are usually done by people that they know. I used to own guns. I've done many classes and have been certified to teach them. I know you think you'd be ready to kill someone, but I can tell just from your posts that you're too reactionary to have a gun for protection at this time.

Take some classes. Learn about gun safety and self defense. Go to shooting ranges where you can rent a gun to shoot. You need to be very, very comfortable with a gun before you own one for home defense. It isn't just about being prepared to kill someone. You also need to know how to prevent the intruder from getting the gun away from you.

In a home, you don't give warning. You make sure it isn't a family member then you shoot. If an intruder is in a position to get a gun away from you, something has gone very wrong

Pp here. Agreed. But I think a lot of people who want to have guns for protection like OP aren't at that level of comfort with guns where they would shoot without warning. They'd waffle a bit or be nervous and give the intruder a chance to get the gun away. I am obviously very comfortable around guns and consider myself to have pretty good aim and I still question if I would ever be able to shoot someone who was breaking into my house. But I never owned guns for that reason.

OP here. PP, what would you do instead if you are not sure that you are comfortable shooting a burglar in your home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 38 and grew up around guns. Break ins and crime rates are still very low where I grew up largely in part because everyone knows that the house they break into very likely has a gun. The break ins that do occur are usually done by people that they know. I used to own guns. I've done many classes and have been certified to teach them. I know you think you'd be ready to kill someone, but I can tell just from your posts that you're too reactionary to have a gun for protection at this time.

Take some classes. Learn about gun safety and self defense. Go to shooting ranges where you can rent a gun to shoot. You need to be very, very comfortable with a gun before you own one for home defense. It isn't just about being prepared to kill someone. You also need to know how to prevent the intruder from getting the gun away from you.

In a home, you don't give warning. You make sure it isn't a family member then you shoot. If an intruder is in a position to get a gun away from you, something has gone very wrong

Pp here. Agreed. But I think a lot of people who want to have guns for protection like OP aren't at that level of comfort with guns where they would shoot without warning. They'd waffle a bit or be nervous and give the intruder a chance to get the gun away. I am obviously very comfortable around guns and consider myself to have pretty good aim and I still question if I would ever be able to shoot someone who was breaking into my house. But I never owned guns for that reason.

OP here. PP, what would you do instead if you are not sure that you are comfortable shooting a burglar in your home?

We have a home security system and a dog. Our dog is very friendly and not at all trained to be a guard dog. That said, he is a 100 pound black lab who has a loud, deep, and angry sounding bark and would be a pretty good deterrent combined with the alarm. We also live in a quiet and safe area.

If neither of those are deterrents AND they continue to break in knowing we are home, then we would grab DS and risk jumping out of a second story window or escape through another window. Because at that point, the intruder is coming in to harm someone, not to rob them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 38 and grew up around guns. Break ins and crime rates are still very low where I grew up largely in part because everyone knows that the house they break into very likely has a gun. The break ins that do occur are usually done by people that they know. I used to own guns. I've done many classes and have been certified to teach them. I know you think you'd be ready to kill someone, but I can tell just from your posts that you're too reactionary to have a gun for protection at this time.

Take some classes. Learn about gun safety and self defense. Go to shooting ranges where you can rent a gun to shoot. You need to be very, very comfortable with a gun before you own one for home defense. It isn't just about being prepared to kill someone. You also need to know how to prevent the intruder from getting the gun away from you.

In a home, you don't give warning. You make sure it isn't a family member then you shoot. If an intruder is in a position to get a gun away from you, something has gone very wrong

Pp here. Agreed. But I think a lot of people who want to have guns for protection like OP aren't at that level of comfort with guns where they would shoot without warning. They'd waffle a bit or be nervous and give the intruder a chance to get the gun away. I am obviously very comfortable around guns and consider myself to have pretty good aim and I still question if I would ever be able to shoot someone who was breaking into my house. But I never owned guns for that reason.

OP here. PP, what would you do instead if you are not sure that you are comfortable shooting a burglar in your home?

I am not PP.

But if I may suggest:

Take a training class at a local indoor firing range. Familiarity is key when it comes to defending one’s home with a firearm (which even Joe Biden has endorsed: “buy a shotgun”).

Consider also: the person breaking into your home may not intend to steal anything.

They might plan to rape you.

[Anonymous]

Like others, your claim has holes shot in it. Pun intended.
If it would make you feel better I would get an audible alarm that you can activate. Something like a panic alarm.
Or some sort of pepper spray in the house.

[Anonymous]

Growing up, my room was in one end of the house and my parents’ room was in the other, right next to the laundry room, which had a door out to the garage.

One night in high school, my mom had gone to bed while I stayed up late doing homework (my dad worked nights). I realized after I had finished doing homework that I needed something out of the dryer. I thought I was being quiet, but apparently I wasn’t quiet enough because the dryer door shutting woke my mom up who thought it was someone coming in from the garage. She went into protective mode determined to keep the intruder from getting past her to her baby (me). I very nearly got a face full of mace. We were both extremely grateful that she hadn’t had a gun or else I might have been shot.

[Anonymous]

Come on, NE my butt.
Put some lights up and a have a loud speaker. They run so fast.
You are looking for a reason to get a gun.
I'm not reading the whole thing, but what happened to a dog?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what good a gun would have done in either of OP’s instances. No one entered the home. The deterrents worked. Isn’t that the point?