Pardon me for pointing this out, but it sounds to me that by the time the bad guy reaches your bedroom at o'dark thirty, if he wasn't armed already when he came in, he will be then. The only one without a weapon will be you because you keep your weapons everywhere but where you'll be when the perp pays you a visit.

I keep a handgun in the nightstand, and a shotgun loaded in the master bath, which is opposite the only point of entry into my bedroom. If I can't get to one, I'll get to the other.

As far as the two kids killed by gun accidents, I can only say that the cause was not with the fact that the guns were accessable, but with the fact that these kids, ages 12 and 13-14, were old enough to know better HAD THEY BEEN TAUGHT TO KNOW BETTER IN THE FIRST PLACE. The fact that the parents did not educate their kids was the real base cause for these tragic accidents. Like many of use here, I was raised around guns long before cable and trigger locks became the quick-n-easy substitute to responsible parenting. The only thing between me and dads guns was his sliding bedroom closet door and the zippers on the gun cases. I could access the guns any time I wanted provided dad was present, as soon as I could pick up any of the guns I knew how to safely shoot and handle them, and I knew that if I did play with the guns without dads permission, shooting myself was preferable to what would happen to me when dad got home. It all boils down to demistification, education and dicipline.

And make no mistake about it, there was plenty of violence on TV when I was growing up. I grew up with old westerns, Arnold Swartzenegger, Sly Stallone, Clint Eastwood and such on the TV as often as dad could find such shows and movies on TV. The only difference today is that the violence is much less sterile, much more bloody and graphic, but no less prevalent. Violence on TV is another parental cop-out.

By the time I was 12 I owned MY OWN SHOTGUN. My brother also got his first shotgun at the same time (sibling rivalry, you know) and he was 10. Yet we never harmed ourselves or others, we never took our or our dads guns out to show our friends (without supervision), and never played with them without permission and supervision. We were as safe then as we are now with guns. I have many friends that I grew up with who lived in similar circumstances, and all are alive and well today.

It won't be long before I have to make this very decision as my wife is due to deliver our first child in February. During the childs very young years before s/he is old enough to understand firearms safety I will likely adjust the way I keep my defensive weapons. Once s/he is old enough to understand I will teach him/her the safe safety rules and safe gun handling techniques that have kept me safe with guns for my last 29 years. I will also make it as clear to him as my dad did to me the boundaries of when and where the guns may be handled, yet encourage them to feel free to ask any time they wish to see or shoot one.

And yes, I have had a person walk into my house unannounced. The person was heavily intoxicated on alcohol and probably drugs and came barrelling into my apartment yelling obscenities toward someone he thought lived there. I heard the door and his shouting and ran from the living room to my bedroom where my shotgun was. By the time I got back to the hallway he was already stumbling his way out the door. I called the cops, who picked him up outside the building. Turns out he was looking for his girlfriend who lived in the same apartment in the identical building next door. Apparently, they'd been fighting and he went out and got blasted and came back to finish the argument, but was sober enough to realize that my apartment was not hers once he got inside.

While the possibilty of being attacked in my home is slight, it is still worth taking a few sensible precautions against such an eventuality. I was a Boy Scout myself, and I believe firmly in the motto "Be Prepared".

Semper fidelis et semper paratus.

Mike

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Responded by:

I never meant that you should stop BEFORE eliminating the headache. So often it's dark and hard to see when you are awakened by an intruder. The 2" barrel allows you to cover a wide area with .410ga so that you can finish the job with the 45 Long Colts.

The intruder has the advantage because their eyes are adjusted to the darkness. I want to overcome this dis-advantage so I can get within 3-5ft to be able to make sure my 45s cure their headache. I wouldn't want to miss.

Keep in mind the noise factor . . . your ears are ringing from the .410ga blasts . . . YOU CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING. You can't hear good enough to call 911 for at least 30 minutes. You may have a pool of blood to clean up, but that's better than having to cut grass around a tombstone!

Never start something unless you are sure you can finish it. Firing your revolver until you have NO AMMO LEFT will show "you fear for your life". I only want ONE WITNESS in the courtroom (me) when I have to go before a liberal judge.

I didn't think anyone would actually stop at "blinding the intruder" . . . if you do, you shouldn't have a gun available for home protection. All your guns should all be locked up in a safe and brought out only for hunting and target practice.

Sorry for not including this in my original post.[]

Thunder5,

I SERIOUSLY recommend you take a class covering the legalities associated with the use of deadly force. If you do to an intruder what you have planned your county prosecutor and local criminal court will chew you up and spit you out into a jail cell for 15-25 years.

If you load your gun with .410 bird shot you are effectively loading a round meant not to kill but to maim. It's still by the strict defination deadly force, but the maiming aspect is going to get you into DEEP TROUBLE. If you are going to shoot someone you'd better be using a cartridge designed for the task. Bird shot is for birds, no people. The court would look at you intentionally shooting a person with birdshot with the intent to blind them (by destroying their eyes) as an intentional and reckless act of a person bent on inflicting pain and suffering on someone, and not simply a victim using only reasonable force to stop an attacker.

SECONDLY, if you do shoot someone in the face with three rounds of bird shot, which will certainly successfully blind them, there is no way in hell you're going to convince a prosecutor, judge and jury that he was still enough of a threat to you for you to reasonably believe that putting two more .45 slugs into him to "finish him off" was necessary. The little catch to deadly force is that it can only be used provided you, and any reasonable person in the same situation, would reasonably conclude that deadly force was necessary to stop an imminent threat to yourself or others. Therefore, you can only continue to use deadly force if the bad guy continues to present an imminent threat to you or others of serious bodily harm or death. Once you blind and disfigure the guy with three .410 loads to the face, he IMMEDIATELY ceases to be a threat to your life, both in reality and in the eyes of the law. If you "finish him off" with two more shots to the chest you have now gone from using reasonable force (which is not really reasonable, see above) to defend yourself to committing at the very least, intentional manslaughter, and at worst 2nd degree murder.

The way a court will view your plan and actions if they ever come to fruition is that you intentionally planned to main someone in order to incapacitate them so that you could kill them.

In reality, deadly force law allows only that you may use deadly force to STOP an attack that poses the imminent threat of serious bodily harm or death. The intent of the victim in a deadly force encounter NEVER to kill, simply to stop the attack (if the bad guy dies, thats simply a legal consequence of your need to apply deady force), and if the county prosecutor can prove that that was your intent then you're a murderer, not a victim.

If you want to defend yourself with a shotgun, buy a 12 gauge and load it with buckshot. If you want to use your pistol, load all five chambers with .45 Colt or .410 slugs. Using birdshot to main someone will GUARANTEE you jail time.

It's your choice, but if you ever do have to implement your plan and they lock your butt up afterward, I'm going to read about you in the paper and laugh because I told you so.

Mike

I have three little ones (two of which are boys who love to play army men) and I have a Llama .45 which is loaded (unchambered), a .22 savage (love it) and a .270 remington model 721...

I wouldn't dream of leaving the gun out unlocked (I bought a locked cabinet (from sentinel) from walmart under $99). Kid's are too curious to leave the temptation out. It's doubtful that they could ever jack a round into the gun since my wife has a hard time loading the llama, but why take the chance.

I do keep some pepper spray near the door, and the key to the cabinet is easily accessible in a high area where the kid's can't get at them... I live in the country and have three dogs so I don't think we would be easily surprised.

Bottom line, it is too risky to leave weapons out where children can access them... Statistically speaking I would venture to say that leaving them out would be more dangerous than a possible intruder break in...