Some good thoughts here, I agree with some I think are rather speculative IMVHO. in the army some years back I remember being instructed to wake up a relief by tapping his foot at a slight distance so if he woke up startled he would just start swinging. I later found however this is only prevalent in about 1 in 6 people and more so in young men under stress. All I can say to this is "know thyself and thy enemy and in 1000 battles one will not be defeated!" That being said..enough Tsun Tsu ;-) Do I dismiss such thoughts? No ,absolutely not. The following is something without doubt to consider and not dismiss, but comes under the heading of knowing yourself.We are responsible for our actions.
Owning a firearm is a great pleasure and right but too often when we become complacent we make mistakes.I'll share an embaressing but true story, My dad was a Police Sgt. after retiring he got a job delivering barer Bonds and carried as part of his job, myself and both my sisters had moved out and had families of our own. It was only him and my mom in the house. One visit for my mothers birthday comes to mind, the whole family came to celebrate, Dad was at work still but the party was to start when he got home...anyway as I, my sisters and their kids and husbands sat around chatting I heard a noise...I went into my dad's room and found my nephew pointing a loaded.38 detective special at me. I quietly spoke to Michael and took the firearm from him, unloaded it and put it away. It's embaresssing to say but Dad ever vigilient, screwed up, he woke up late for woke and left it loaded on the nightstand! Needless to say I took it to him when he came home...he grew complacent because there were no kids around anymore! I never forgot that lesson, he got lucky that day and never did either!
That being said, at the time, I was in law enforcement myself. I;ve seen both sides of the coin so to speak, I personally know of instances when people were suprised in their sleep by an intruder. I've dealt with people who specialized in B@E and seen the sad results of those unprepared who thought the Police were magicly hovering around like angels protecting them. I know better. If your going to have a firearm for home defense you need to have quick access while denying the same to a potential perp if possible. Otherwise keep it locked up. FWIW in every case where I asked a perp, the single factor that detered them from Breaking an entering and going elsewhere was NOT an alarm....it was a dog! The dog doesn't have to be big, noisey will do! I can go on and on, but I'll spare you and be brief, I keep a loaded pistol in the draw of my nightstand under a T shirt. Not immediately visable but I can draw it in easily when waking from my sleep. I have both a watch dog and a guard dog (there is a difference BTW) a small rescue mutt mix wachdog that yaps at the sound of anything gives plenty of warning, and a european Dobermann (Much larger then her American cousin) that's just growls and says come on in ...I dare ya. If I awake to find someone over me...well then they are super ninja!
nothing I could of done....except maybe my wife will cap him with the bersa thunder 380 she has in her night stand! ;-) Long story short, when I wake up the gun goes in the safe til nighty night time AS a Trained Habit or it goes in my holster to be carried out and about my daily affairs. We owe it to ourselves to protect our loved one's from bad guys....we also owe it to our loved one's to be ULTRA responsible! Just my two cents...sorry for the length!
.
