Quote:
Originally Posted by TAC
What makes you assume a drunk neighbor, or a 14 year old boy, is not a treat to your life?
The drunk neighbor, might be thinking you're having an affair with his wife, and intends to kill you. As for 14 year olds. A young age does not make them harmless, or innocent. Young people kill others in our country quite often.
Assume nothing, trust no one!
|
My point was that no one here would want to shoot someone who wasn't a threat. How to determine "shoot / don't shoot" is an important topic which deserves a thread all its own.
I was hoping this thread would have a narrow focus on when or even if you would ever "give your position away."
I guess people will talk about what they want to talk about. Some responses go into great detail on every aspect of home defense. One gentleman even responded that he will not discuss the topic! I guess I can count myself lucky that the thread hasn't devolved into a debate over the effectiveness of bird shot!
For the record, I don't advocate racking a shotgun slide. It comes a little too close to the mindset of "I'll just scare 'em with my gun" which I think might be the worst mindset you could possibly have.
But my question for this thread is, don't you at some point have to give away your position? If so, why is racking the slide any worse than shouting a warning, or anything else?
There used to be an old guy at a gun store I frequented who had a rather extreme position on this. He stated that the first thing any intruder in his house would see would be the bright light of the muzzle flash! That's what he said, not what I would ever advise. Speaking for myself, I would want to exhaust every other option before I pulled the trigger.
Case in point:
On the news not long ago was a story about a kid getting killed. It seems a teenaged girl who lived at home with her parents snuck her boyfriend into her room for a nocturnal visitation. At some point in the wee hours of the morning, boyfriend decided he'd better sneak back home before his parents missed him, so he slipped out into the hallway and started for the door. Apparently the man of the house heard footsteps in the hall and grabbed a gun. Not recognizing the "intruder" the father tragically shot and killed the unarmed teenager. I don't know all the circumstances, but I am willing to bet the man wishes he would have held fire until he was certain that the "intruder" was indeed a threat.
Hopefully, you all get my point. I wanted the thread to focus on having to, one way or another, give away your position BEFORE you shoot if you absolutely had to. But I'm not a killjoy. If people here just want to argue about birdshot, or anything else, go ahead.
