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If someone breaks into your house, it's completely legal to shoot them. It's called the 'Make My Day' law. I know a few people who were victims of home invasion, but because they had a gun (or a hunting rifle) they escaped unharmed. Burglars who are trying to avoid confrontation will break in during the day time, after first knocking (under the pretense of yard work, usually) to make sure no one is home. Someone just breaking in during the evening while you're there is ready to hurt you. I don't own a gun, but I've given serious thought to it.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott -
In my neighborhood in Chicago we've had 2 lethal shootings, right on campus and 2 blocks southwest from the Obama house (which is guarded 24 hours a day). Plus we had a guy attacking people with a knife on the Metra station, but he eventually got arrested. During that time I was having thoughts about getting a gun, but then I would need a license to carry it concealed when I'm outside, and I haven't touched a gun since age 11, when my dad was teaching me how to shoot on property we used to have in the woods when I was little.
In Chicago Hyde Park when I get out for groceries when it's dark I never carry a purse, just conceal my credit card and keys inside of one ankle pocket compartment in my pants and stay very alert of my surroundings. A couple of times when there were suspicious individuals walking around I spotted them long before they saw me (in one case the guy was so completely wasted, he didn't even notice me watching him, he just kept scratching cars and stealing stuff from their roofs), but just once there was this girl jogging on snow and I only saw her when she was right there behind me. I was real schocked, and I thought “Gee, if this had been an assailant with a gun, I would have been a goner“, but it was a very light girl, weighting maybe 70 pounds, and I bet a guy would have made much more noise running on snow and I would have heard him early enough.Best regards,
MariaComment
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I like to think I protect myself from home invasion by not having anything even remotely worth stealing.The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.Comment
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The only thing of value I keep in my apartment in Chicago Hyde Park is my (old) laptop. There's also tons of real expensive books and music scores borrowed from my boss, but an intruder wouldn't know this. ;-)
It's not that hard to break into our apartment house (I could do it myself), but so far it has never happened. Maybe cuz it's next to the fire department, plus it's a known fact that there are always tenants in the house during the day (grad students and stuff).
The real danger in my neighborhood is outside, for which I'd need a gun with a licence to carry it concealed. Otherwise I'd get arrested.Best regards,
MariaComment
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I come from a rural area where guns were a part of growing up and I have a few of them now that I live in a metro area of about 100,000 people. I've had some bicycles stolen over the years, and some things taken out of my car, but thankfully have never had my home invaded. I did however once live in an apartment house where a raving mad Vietnam vet lived- not to put down all vets by any means, but this guy had serious war trauma and would wander about waving his arms and talking to people that weren't there. He made some crazy threats against me and there were times I stood at my door listening to him out in the hall with a loaded gun handy. I'm very glad I never had to shoot him.
I have a collection of martial arts weapons too, things that could be just as effective against home invasion as a gun in many cases. I recall a story in the news a few years back wherein a student living near the campus of MIT discovered a burglar ransacking his garage and killed him with a samurai sword when the man rushed at him. As I recall, some campus police cruising nearby heard the man's dying scream from a few blocks away. Aaah, justice comes in many forms.
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