Neighborhood crime

[wart57]

There has been a rash of break-ins in and around my community.

Apparently, a group of teenagers are breaking in to cars (well, going around the neighborhoods, finding cars that are un-locked, and cleaning them out) to support their drug habits. The local Sheriff's office has upped their patrols, to no avail. I guess since we are a predominantly white community, and the teens are most likely white legals, Sheriff Joe isn’t that interested in catching them. Until the other night, when one of these teens got in to a car with the garage door opener in it, opened the garage door, found the keys to the car, tried to steal the car and rammed it in to the house, since there was now a hole in the wall he decided it might be a good idea to try to go in to the house to steal some stuff from in there. The kid got caught, and was later released to his mother, since he was only 17. This really got the townsfolk angry, I was expecting to look outside and see people with pitchforks and torches heading over to this kids house. If this wasn’t bad enough, it now has half the neighbors arming themselves to the teeth, almost hoping for a break in so they can shoot an intruder in their house. Seriously, the blood lust being spouted off on Facebook and Nextdoor is scarier than the drugged out punks breaking in to cars! It is almost as if these folks want to kill someone.
One especially angry woman was spouting off about the crimes escalating; I said the most likely escalation would be some random kid getting killed by an overzealous home owner. She went in to a tirade about the next thing would be a home invasion with hostages taken and a sexual assault and then a shootout with the cops and everyone getting killed. She then went on about how she now has a gun and she won’t be a victim. Most of these idiots think that if someone broke in, they would be able to calmly pull the trigger and only hit the intruder, not realizing that in that situation they would most likely shoot several times missing the intruder, and kill their neighbor next door, or their kids in the next room.

Anyway, it made me think of this as well...

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[heyzeus]

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[cardsfantx]

If an intruder steps a foot in my house, I'm shooting them. I don't see that being "overzealous" at all.

What would your suggestion be? If they are in your house, it's too late to call the police.

Just let them beat you, kill you, rape your wife/kids?

[StL Dan]

If an intruder steps a foot in my house, I'm shooting them. I don't see that being "overzealous" at all.

What would your suggestion be? If they are in your house, it's too late to call the police.

Just let them beat you, kill you, rape your wife/kids?

I think you should at least have the courtesy to ask the perp why they are in your house. Wait....the perp didn't bother extending the courtesy of asking if he could enter your home.

All bets are off once the perp illegally entered your home and violated your family's security. I'm not a mind reader.

Perp is fair game.

[tlombard]

I'm all for protecting ones family but there is a line. If the intruder realizes you are home and starts to run... I'm not OK with shooting them in the back. At that point they are no threat to you whether they have your DVD player or not.

I've heard that in Texas it is OK to use deadly force to recover your property if it is at night or something weird like that. I don't agree. Of course the case I heard that law referenced was where a guy chased down and shot a prostitute because he felt she didn't perform the services paid for and the jury agreed that was 'theft' and he was found not guilty for shooting her from behind multiple times. I absolutely do not agree with that.

[pioneer98]

It all depends on the specific situation, but in general I think I'd yell "Hey!" or something at them in the hopes they'd get scared and leave the house without me having to shoot them.

Odds are high they broke in because they thought no one was home. If it turns out someone is home, they'd likely skedaddle. Especially if it's a 17 year old kid.

If they already have a weapon drawn or if it looks like they are reaching for a weapon, then yeah, I might fire. Of course, I refuse to bring a gun into my house so the point is moot for me.

[Spider John]

Everybody is Billy Bad Boy when it comes to talking about an hypothetical situatuion, but it's hard to say what you will do until you find yourself confronted with something like that.

That said, I believe that as soon as I can confirm that the person is in fact an intruder, then they would have about .25 seconds to do something ( such as turn and run) to show me why they shouldn't be shot.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I am aware of a guy, basically met him a couple times but we're not really friends, whose house was broken into. He is a gun owner, not a fanatic, but he doesn't have to be to illustrate this point.

He and his wife had just remodeled a house. They lived there and had a couple guns. In the middle of the night, five guys in body armor and carrying AR or AK type weapons broke in through a glass door and just started taking stuff. Basically said they wouldn't bother them (the owners) unless provoked and if that happened, they had 5 guys and like 10 guns. The guys were in and out in a couple minutes, took all their TVs and expensive [expletive], never went to the bedroom, and gtfo.

You can say you'd have started a gun battle, but that'd be stupid basically ensuring your own death. Doesn't really seem worth it. The people I knew basically called the cops, locked their door and got in a corner each with a gun....but nothing happened...other than they lost their TVs and some stuff.

[pioneer98]

If an intruder steps a foot in my house, I'm shooting them. I don't see that being "overzealous" at all.

What would your suggestion be? If they are in your house, it's too late to call the police.

Just let them beat you, kill you, rape your wife/kids?

I've thought about this as I'm an adult with kids and I refuse to bring a gun into my home. Step 1 before I do anything else is to dial 911 as soon as possible. Doesn't matter what the scenario is, that is step #1. I live across the street from a hospital, so someone would be there pretty quick.

If the intruder looks like an unarmed 17 year old kid (like we are talking about here), I'd yell "Hey!" or something at them, especially if they hadn't seen me first. If they are unarmed, 99% of the time they will probably just get scared and run. They probably only came into the house because they thought no one was home. Once they find out someone is home, they'll probably leave. I bet even a high percentage of adult burglars are probably just looking for vacant homes to rob with easy things to steal. Even if they happen to have a gun, the vast majority of these guys aren't looking to kill or rape anyone. They just want free stuff.

If they don't run and instead draw a weapon or something, then yeah, I might try to shoot them if I had a gun. But since I don't, I'd tell them they can take whatever they want. I'd just talk to them and buy time until the 911 people that I've already called show up. If they end up harming me or someone in my family, I can still live with myself. Because I'm just as concerned, if not more concerned, with the accidents that can happen if I were to bring a gun into my home. I believe that the risk that someone comes into my home and shoots me or a loved one is about equal with the risk of one of my kids having an accident with a gun. Both are pretty unlikely. Of course, if i lived in a different neighborhood or didn't have kids, I might feel different.

Did I tell you about the colleague of mine who kept his gun in his garage....then accidentally left his garage door open one night, to find the gun missing the next day? The police recovered it in a drug house a couple months later. You also can have those kind of "accidents". IMO he's damn lucky he didn't get robbed right then and there with his own gun. There are just so many things that can go wrong with a gun that I'd just rather not deal with it.

[pioneer98]

I am aware of a guy, basically met him a couple times but we're not really friends, whose house was broken into. He is a gun owner, not a fanatic, but he doesn't have to be to illustrate this point.

He and his wife had just remodeled a house. They lived there and had a couple guns. In the middle of the night, five guys in body armor and carrying AR or AK type weapons broke in through a glass door and just started taking stuff. Basically said they wouldn't bother them (the owners) unless provoked and if that happened, they had 5 guys and like 10 guns. The guys were in and out in a couple minutes, took all their TVs and expensive [expletive], never went to the bedroom, and gtfo.

You can say you'd have started a gun battle, but that'd be stupid basically ensuring your own death. Doesn't really seem worth it. The people I knew basically called the cops, locked their door and got in a corner each with a gun....but nothing happened...other than they lost their TVs and some stuff.

Holy crap! That is insane.