[QUOTE=cssutton;7783981]
Thee is some good advice and some terrible advice in this thread.
Good advice…get a gun safe. They make pistol safes that will open instantly, only for you and without complex pass codes that you might forget under stress.
Bad advice…get a toy gun that looks real.
When you point a gun at someone, one of two things will happen…he will run or he will try to kill you before you can shoot. Not good if all you have is a toy.
The first lesson in protecting yourself with a gun is to make a determination that your life is truly, by the judgment of a reasonable person, in danger. Only then do you draw or present the gun and if you do, you fire immediately.
To present, as they refer to it, and not fire is in many jurisdictions evidence that you did not really believe that you were in danger of losing your life.
So is firing in the air or at the ground.
So even if you decide to scare a guy off, which I do not approve of, tell the cops you fired at him but you don’t know whether you hit him.
Never ever tell them you fired in the air or fired a warning shot.
In many jurisdictions, drawing and not shooting is considered brandishing and that in itself is a crime.
So you did the right thing under the circumstances.
If you get a gun, do exactly the same thing except crouch in a protected area and say and do nothing, other than calling for help as you did, but be ready to shoot immediately should the person break into the house.
You do not shoot people in your yard, although there are exceptions to that in TX.
Get a pistol rather than a shotgun. That has been argued forever, but a pistol is easier to handle in a confined area. Preferably a very simple to operate weapon that will not cause you to make a fatal mistake when you are scared.
Semi auto pistols with safeties, magazines not properly inserted and latched, all have caused the victim to lose the weapon to the bad guy.
And practice until you can hit a man sized target at the longest space in your home without looking at the sights. Because most likely you will be either in the dark or in very poor light.
The longest hall in my house is 34 feet. See what yours is and practice at that distance. In truth, the bad guy will be much closer because he will be advancing.
If he gets in the house before you can compete your call for help, immediately hang up. You need both hands on the weapon and your full concentration on what the bad guy is doing.
Besides, if you want to see why you don’t want to be talking on your cell, tonight turn off all of the lights in your bedroom and open your cell and hold it to your face as you would when calling 911. Do this in front of your mirror.
Two things will be very obvious. You are blinded by the light on the cell screen and your face is a perfect target to the bad guy.
Not smart.
In my house, the call will only be made to get the mess cleaned up.
I forgot, take the concealed carry course. They will teach you what the law is in your state whether you ever carry or not. Many of those laws apply to you even at home.
Most important:
Get an alarm. Get one that is monitored by the alarm company.
They will have all of the vital information on record so that when they call the cops, the cops have no confusion about the address, the layout of the house, etc. The alarm company can tell which door or which widow has been breached.
The alarm company will call you to verify there is a problem or not. Even so, if the guy gets inside while you are talking, throw the phone on the floor and concentrate on saving your life.
The alarm company will know what to do when you put the phone down.[/QUOTE]
THIS is the sum total of the best advice offered here!!!
We live in a very secluded, rural area of Oklahoma. We have 5 dogs…two “useless” as protectors, but 2.5 VERY serious guard dogs…a 100 pound, bad a$$ male Boxer…a big love-bug, but with a great sense of protection and a hair trigger, a 120 pound, Boerboel/Ridgeback female named Mako (as in shark) and a very wired Kelpie who would love to bite someone. One of the “non-protectors” can hear a flea fart at 200 yards and alerts everyone else. We have assorted guns at the ready (no children at home) and both of us are crack shots. In this day you have to be ready to defend yourself. A neighbor about 4 miles from here had a break-in one early morning, a month ago and it took the police 45 minutes to get to his home from the station no more than 6 miles away!! Not comforting!! YOU have to be prepared to take care of yourself.
