this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
33 points (100.0% liked)
guns
2407 readers
40 users here now
Rules (Under review):
-
- NO BUYING, SELLING OR TRADING of guns or accessories. Take that to Reddit and /r/GunAccessoriesForSale or Armslist.com
-
- Censor all personally identifiable information in posts including serial numbers on firearms.
-
- Any post or comment advocating illegal action will be removed and the poster warned. A second infraction will result in a ban.
-
- Unironically suggesting the SKS as a usable rifle in the 21st Century when there are things like the AK and AR that cost only a bit more might result in a ban, it depends on how we feel.
-
- Discussion of hunting is acceptable but please put "CW: hunting" in post titles. Debating the ethicality of hunting is also fine, but keep it civil and don't derail other people's threads.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Why are you playing SWAT in a home invasion scenario instead of staying put? Plus, you vastly underestimate how much a handgun forces you to expose. You don't fire from the hip or with a limp wrist, you have to extend your arms to manage recoil. Doubly so if you have to fire 3-5 shots in quick succession. A shotgun may stick out a bit more when going around corners but in the fucking dark that's meaningless. Unless you're a guy who sticks his gun out from around the corner and waits.
PLUS, you can slip the shotgun stock under your shoulder blade and get LESS exposure than a handgun. You have to fire from the hip of course but that's workable with 8 balls of buckshot compared to a single bullet.
You shouldn't keep your home defense firearm in a safe regardless. You don't want to be fucking with key when you have someone breaking in. Even if the safe is smaller, it shouldn't be locked up in the first place.
You can arguing this with yelling at the person too, or shining a flashlight in their eyes. There is percentage that will stop if you do anything. The fact is you don't want to be using a handgun when you find the percentage that'll fight back.
Very good advice, but I'd argue that an unsecured gun with unsecured bullets in the house is more of a threat to your safety than home intruders, statistically speaking.
Doubly so if you have kids or if kids are ever in your home for any reason.
Or, frankly, any adult without at least a firearm safety training program under their belt.
Yeah, guns in the home are a much, much, much greater risk to you and your family than home intruders. Live by the sword, die by the sword, yadda yadda.
It is a gun. It isn't supposed to be safe
It isn't supposed to kill you or your family, either. Americans tend to have a very skewed perception of how often violent home invasions happen compared to accidental firearms injuries and deaths.
There is a clear spectrum where safety and utility are opposed. A safe gun is a toy. There is no way to have a gun as a useful tool and be safe. They are very useful tools for what they are for they just don't make situations any safer. I don't own a gun myself simply because I don't want to spend the time and anger managing the risks as like you said there is no real benefit to me in my suburb
Most of the "threat" of having it in the house is from intentional self-harm. The other part, that being accidents, can be mitigated almost entirely by teaching you and your family about gun safety. If the kids are too young, put it in a closet out of sight and reach. Don't rack the firearm if you want to be extra safe.
Assuming you aren't suicidal and follow basic safety, a gun is less dangerous than a kitchen knife. I can put a gun away in a condition that would make it very hard for a child to fire it even if they understood how. A knife's edge can't be turned off and is easily accessible.
This is another major advantage pepper spray has over a gun. If you actually want to defend yourself your gun should be easy to access and have loaded mags either in it or right next to it. That's really bad if you have kids in the house or whatever, or even if someone just breaks in and steals your gun.
Pepperspray? Paint it with glitter and leave it on the kitchen table. Who cares? If the kid gets it the worst thing that happens is a very, very, very upset kid for about two days.
I'd still say you should get a gun. Pepper Spray is great outside when you won't get splash-back and you can escape in any direction. Inside, you'll probably get some on you and the person you sprayed is now in an enclosed space with you. They may not be able to see you but they might still be able to flail around and injure you. Plus, most people work in groups when doing a break in. You may get one of them and then have to deal with 2 other guys without your spray. A firearm has multiple chances to stop the threat and is far more likely to cause others to gtfo.
Someone who would break into a home when people are there is a very different kind of thief and necessitates a hardliner approach.
I regularly train shooting my pistols without full extension for this exact purpose. It's more difficult to be on target. You cannot fire a long gun without extension in any circumstance.