[quote]chiro1 wrote:
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
Question: has anyone here ever used a gun in self-defense?
How did it happen? Was it hard to have the presence of mind to shoot? Did the attacker back down as soon as he saw a gun? Did you have legal trouble afterwards?
I’m just hoping I can get some real-life anecdotes. Where I’m coming from: I find the rhetoric about being a “citizen, not a subject” inspiring, I think it’s important that we have decent people in this country who are capable of protecting the vulnerable, and sooner or later I’d like to learn how to shoot. But I’d just like to know how self-defense plays out in real life, if anybody’s had experience with it. In other words, does it work in practice?
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Annecdote not exactly personal defense but applicable. I lived through an attack on my family when I was 19, although I wasn’t directly involved. My aunt had divorced her ex husband. He calls and threatens her so she goes to my grandmothers house, where my uncle also lived. The ex goes to her house and then goes to my grandmothers. (Rural and mountainous part of virginia) He gets there and rams here car in the drive ways. This woke me up, living about 400 yards away, its august and now AC so I was sleeping with windows open, about 5:45 am) Now I hear 3 pistol shots followed by 2 shotgun blasts. I am getting dressed and the phone rings, My mom answers and says that the SOB has shot my grandmother and uncle. Good news, they all survived, my grandmother was hit the arm and breast, but my uncle was shot through the chest which collapsed his lung and narrowly missed his spine resulting in intensive care for over a month. The police didn’t show up until the next day. My grandmother begged my uncle not to kill the ex, so he put his shotgun down. He opened the door and was shot at about 6 feet range. The assailant then tries to shoot my grandmother and aunt through the windows. My uncle though hit badly then shoots the shotgun (with birdshot) at the ex who has run behind a truck in the yard. My other aunt came out of her house and scares off the ex who runs away. At this point my mom and I arrive, and yes I have a loaded rifle with me. The police don’t show up until the next day to investigate.
The saying “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away” truly applied. There is no way they could have been there faster than 20 min at best.
Now some would argue that with stricter gun-laws the criminal wouldn’t have a gun to shoot them. Thats bs and you can only believe that if you choose to hold to your ideals in the face of reality. Bottom line, Guns are here, and they are here to stay. No legislation will get rid of them. 2nd, if a lowlife wants to harm someone, they will do it, police will not stop them. whether they use a knife, club, poison, or a car bomb, guns are only one choice. 3rd, a gun is an inanimate object, it does nothing of its own volition, only what it is made to do. It has no ethics, no morality, not conciousness.
My take, guns are tools (yes a weapon is a tool) similar to a knife. Some purposes my be beneficial. Preparing food, scapels for surgery, historically self-protection, butchering and on and on and on. Similar as mentioned, a gun serves only the purpose of killing another living creature. Absolutely. Can provide food, historically and even presently, (yes I hunt and eat what I shoot.) Can be used for personal defense. Can also be used in heinous crime. The gun is not evil or bad. [/quote]
Firstly, this is a horrendous thing to have experienced, just happy that it wasn’t a worse outcome for your family members.
This does bring up an interesting point though. With domestic violence related offences it is often the case that the offender has no prior criminal record. By way of illustrative example, an honest, law-abiding member of T-Nation purchases a gun to protect himself and his family. He then comes home one day and catches his wife in bed with the neighbour. The red mist descends and our hurt and furious T-Nation pal collects his gun from the bedside drawer and shoots them both. 20 years later he’s being read his last rights whilst strapped on to a gurney awaiting a lethal cocktail of barbiturates and paralytics.
I see 2 solutions to this mess. Do what Frank Mir suggests and make sure that the wife and the neighbour are also packing weapons and trained in using them so they can have a shoot-out like at the OK corral…or…restrict everyone’s access to guns so at worst the above example would have been a case of fisticuffs or possibly a stabbing.
A point which may not have been given due consideration here is that many gun-related offences aren’t being committed by “criminals” but by everyday johns like you and me.
PS. This isn’t a “my country is better than yours” thread. I find it pretty surprising how defensive some of you are getting, you choose to interpret this as ‘america-bashing’ but it’s really not, there are plenty of Americans who advocate the same arguments the ‘foreigners’ have raised. I for one find it pretty interesting hearing other people’s views, especially when I don’t agree with them.