Posted on 07/26/2016 4:37:06 AM PDT by marktwain
A friend of mine had a Defensive Gun Use (DGU) a few days ago.
He had parked a bike near the front door, cable locked to a metal chair. It is a decent cable lock. The dog started alerting at the door, in the middle of day, during the week. There was no knock or doorbell. My friend keeps odd hours.
My friend accessed his house gun, a S&W N frame model 28, that had been converted to .45 ACP. The security door was locked. He opened the inside door with his left hand, the .45 revolver in his right. In the entryway was a 16-18 year old young man with a shaved head and tattoos down his neck. My friend is very observant, and had not seen this young man in the neighborhood before.
The young man was studying the bike, the lock, and the chair. My friend held the revolver in the attitude shown in the picture. You do not see more of him because he wishes to remain anonymous. In the actual event, he was in the doorway, visible through the locked security door.
In fluent Spanish, he asked "May I help you?"
The tattooed youth looked up. He did not say anything. My friend said that he did a very credible 100 yard dash. My friend did not pursue. There was no reason to pursue. He never pointed the pistol at the youth. He never threatened anyone. He never reported the incident to police. What was there to report? No crime had been committed, except perhaps trespassing.
In Arizona, you are allowed to threaten deadly force to prevent trespassing. As the young man immediately left the property, it is unlikely a judge or jury would convict him of trespassing. My friend had only asked him if he needed help.
This is a good approximation of the "typical" if there is such a thing, DGU. No shots fired. The mere presence of the firearm defused the situation. If no firearm were present, the youth might have been emboldened to further action.
As it was, there was no physical confrontation. It appears that a guilty conscience was sufficient to command flight.
It is not hard to believe that such incidents occur between 500,000 and 3 million times a year, as noted by the CDC in 2013 (pdf):
Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million (Kleck, 2001a), in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008 (BJS, 2010).There is no incentive, actually a negative incentive, to report an incident such as happened to my friend. There is a small but real potential for it to bring trouble to him; there is almost no potential for it to prevent trouble for him. It is not an incident that would make even a local news cycle.
If I had a dog, I wouldn’t report to police, either!
There was still that smelly wet mess to clean up on the porch where the bicycle admirer had been standing before he ran.
More likely the fear of lead poisoning.
Defensive display in a lot of cases is all that is needed to stop the criminal or potential criminal act from taking place.
If I lived in a neighborhood where I needed a steel-mesh security door instead of a screen-door, I’d think about moving.
Record gun sales, idiot writer contributes it to just fear of terrorist. STUPID UNINFORMED RAT IDIOT.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3453017/posts
I had a DGU similar to this years ago, except no armored security door.
Cops had already been called by a neighbor on the prowler. Said prowler vacated the area at a high rate of speed on seeing an armed homeowner asking if he was lost.
No shots fired, cops arrested the prowler several days later for probation violations.
I lived in Ga and hubby was gone for a week on business. We lived in the middle of nowhere, 2 policemen were 15-20 min away. One Sunday morning our driveway alarm went off. I grabbed a shotgun and dressed only in a wispy nightie, stepped out and casually asked the people who were exiting from their car if I could help them. They froze and with a smile, everyone of them slightly raised their hands and with a sheepish grin, backed into their open car doors. They drove off and I watched them with the shotgun nestled in the crook of my arm.
A fresh home security audit is in order.
It is a pretty safe bet that all rural homes in the south have gun owners living there. And that includes all races, creeds, colors, etc.
You did right, including having the foresight to have a driveway alarm. My wife loves ours, as does our neighbor who had me put one in for her.
That is a great story. Thanks for sharing.
had one a few months ago. I was in the computer room just a little after 4 AM when my door bell rang. Looked through the small window on the door and there was a guy standing there holding a box. Went back to the room and grabbed the DPMS and had it behind me when I opened the door. I immediately started chewing his ass out about coming to my door at 4 am in the morning and told him to leave. He stood there and looked at me and that’s when I brought the rifle around and told him he 5 seconds to get off my property. He vacated quickly and I called the PD with a description of the truck. From what I heard on the scanner he was pulled over 5 blocks away. He did have a knife in the vehicle but nothing else. Later after the sun came up I walked my wife out the her car and found a can of pepper spray in the hedge. I’m now pretty sure what his plans were, but don’t think he was prepared for my response when the door opened.
If your going to try and rob somebody it might help to get a little background on them first, not all little old men are as they seem. Company D 502 101st Air Mobile in the A Shau where everybody was trying to kill me. Deputy with the Sheriff’s Department 5 1/2 years where 2 people tried to kill me. Plus an ex wife who would love to kill me! I’ve survived 66 years and some drugged out idiot on the porch wasn’t going to change that.
In the desert southwest, a steel mesh security door can serve two purposes. Swamp (evaporative) coolers are used quite extensively in the desert southwest, and for them to work properly, you have to leave windows/doors open (or have holes cut from your ceiling into your attic and vents put in) to allow the air brought in by the swamp cooler to escape, and, in the process, cool your house.
These steel mesh doors allow for leaving one's front/rear door open, but disallowing someone from being able to just push through a regular screen door and unlatch your screen door.
We never had much crime where I lived, but these doors were prevalent, because they look much nicer than regular screen doors (you can buy them plain, or with nice patterns in the mesh), and are far sturdier and stand up better to dogs jumping against them when they want out or in.
Pepper spray is a new twist on home invaders. I will re-emphasize to my family to NOT answer the door if I am not home, use a window (upstairs) to ask what they want.
What article were you reading? Care to provide a quote to back up your claim?
The liberals would still have this guy arrested for refusing to have all of his goods stolen or destroyed.
In many areas, Amazon is now delivering direct using independent drivers in unmarked trucks and cars. The person delivering your Amazon package will usually not be in uniform and does not have any identification. The only way you know he is from Amazon is the logo on the package.
I do not like having strange people on my porch. A UPS driver at least has a uniform, ID, and an identifiable vehicle. These Amazon delivery guys could be anybody.
Good story.
Thank you for your service, sir.
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