Do you home carry?
- Thread starter Sabrewolfe
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I don't get off on packing. I find it uncomfortable for the most part. I think the odds of criminal attack in my home are very low. I have guns available, but not on my person. I can reach a gun within a maximum of about five seconds from anywhere in the house. If I don't have five seconds then I guess they got me.
Glenn E. Meyer
New member
I caution that we follow the rules of posting. An unacceptable post was dealt with. No need to reply to it.
As a corrections officer, the main reason I carry off duty at all is because ex cons have a tendency to hold grudges. Nothing has ever happened to me, but I know people who it has happened to. When these guys get it in their head that they want to enact some kind of revenge, they typically follow you home and do it there or the side of the road. That seems to be the most common. So for me, it would be absolutely stupid not to carry while I am at home. I will admit, there are many times when I just don't feel like slipping on the holster and all that jazz just to sit around. But at the very least, I have different guns all around my house and are pretty easy to get to if need be.
I don't think it is crazy at all. Even if I wasn't in corrections, I would still carry. I agree with the others that say, what is the point in having a firearm for personal protection if you don't have it when you need protecting?
I don't think it is crazy at all. Even if I wasn't in corrections, I would still carry. I agree with the others that say, what is the point in having a firearm for personal protection if you don't have it when you need protecting?
When I'm dressed the gun is on me whether at home or in the street. I don't think of a firearm as some sort of inconvenient necessary evil that's only to be carried or possessed when I deem it absolutely necessary. Like my keys, wallet and smartphone, the little sub-compact .45 with two spare mags is a normal everyday item. The only difference is that I treat it's handling as a deadly weapon.
I don't have children but sometimes friends and relatives visit with children, and besides, I don't like leaving my gun or any gun laying around. When it's off my body or out of my immediate reach it's in the safe.
My home is peaceful quiet and secure and my neighborhood isn't crawling with crime but it's still not an impenetrable fortress. There's a balance between being paranoid and being complacent. I call it being peacefully prepared.
If my decision to carry was based on the probabilities, I'd never carry.
I don't care about the odds. It's the magnitude of the potential loss that resonates. I do what I can to avoid losing no matter how slim the chance of losing might be.
It's sort of like a reverse lottery. People don't play the lottery because they have a good chance of winning. Their chances of winning are miniscule. The vast majority of people who play will never win a jackpot. But IF you win--the payoff is tremendous.
The big difference in the "violent crime lottery" is that everybody has to play, and there's not a payoff for "hitting the jackpot"--instead of winning big, you lose big.
Of course, just like the real lottery, most of us will never "hit the jackpot" in the violent crime lottery. But just like the real lottery, someone is going to hit every week--and just like the real lottery, it's impossible to predict with 100% accuracy what area the "winner" will come from.
I just don't see any reason not to carry at home.
I know people who only carry when they feel a need. I know others who put on a gun every time they leave the house. They all put it away when they get home.
I put a 38 in my pocket in the morning when I put my keys, wallet, etc. in my pockets. I go where I want, do what I want, without assessing risk all the time. If you ask me, picking up a gun every time you go to the store or the bank is more paranoid than just having it with you all the time.
And it's not like carrying a fire extinguisher around, or wearing a helmet (those were some pretty silly analogies). You could forget its there.
Someone mentioned flashlights. I started carrying a flashlight during the hurricanes in 04. That comes in almost as handy as a pocketknife. Maybe more so.
I know people who only carry when they feel a need. I know others who put on a gun every time they leave the house. They all put it away when they get home.
I put a 38 in my pocket in the morning when I put my keys, wallet, etc. in my pockets. I go where I want, do what I want, without assessing risk all the time. If you ask me, picking up a gun every time you go to the store or the bank is more paranoid than just having it with you all the time.
And it's not like carrying a fire extinguisher around, or wearing a helmet (those were some pretty silly analogies). You could forget its there.
Someone mentioned flashlights. I started carrying a flashlight during the hurricanes in 04. That comes in almost as handy as a pocketknife. Maybe more so.
Glenn E. Meyer
New member
How many safely secured gun folk have actually run a drill to see if they could get to the gun in real time from various places in the house?
Compare it to draw time from a carried gun?
Compare it to draw time from a carried gun?
The time difference factor doesn't bother me none. I cannot change the minds of others who have decided to try to harm me or my family...but I damn well can prevent my child from accidentally harming herself by keeping my firearms safely secured. Nor I do not feel it necessary in my current situation to 'stack the odds' by carrying 24/7.
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Theohazard
New member
Skadoosh, previously in this thread you stated in two different posts that you don't carry in the house because you don't want your 5-year-old to gain access to your firearm. You never directly answered this question: How exactly is your 5-year-old going to gain "uncontrolled access" to your firearm when it's in a holster on your body? Is your child going to wrestle the gun away from you?
I guess you missed that part of my post.
I do not carry at home. Because I do not feel the need to do so. Which means my weapon is not under my direct control 24/7. Nor do I 'stash' any weapons in hiding around my home, thus all of my weapons are secured in a safe under lock and key.
Theohazard
New member
No, I was referring to your previous posts in this thread. Here's your original answer to the OP's question, "Do you home carry?"Skadoosh said:
Skadoosh said:
Then when I pointed out that carrying on your body is a good way to keep children away from your gun, you said:
Skadoosh said:
It's fine if you don't want to carry in your house, but I find it hard to understand how a five-year-old is going to gain "uncontrolled access" to a firearm holstered on your body.
OldMarksman
Staff
You certainly could if you were equipped to do so, and the "time difference factor" could be the deciding factor.
Certainly. Or by keeping one directly under your control.
That's a judgment call, but in my case, I want the best odds I can get.
So do those that break into houses for a living, that means you will not be home and a police car will not be near. Neighborhoods are scouted over and over for patrol patterns as well as signs of vacant houses (owner away). Most professionals are caught be recovery of stolen goods, not by police seeing them carrying your TV out the front door. So any unsecured firearm you have in the house is an opportunity for a big payday for a crook. You may think that you have hidden that pistol well, but don't believe it these people do this for a living and can bust your hideouts in no time flat.
Unless they are locked in a large safe that can not be moved, your firearms are at risk. It is interesting one of our forum members "Pond, James Pond" lives in a Country (Estonia I believe) that unless you have a safe, you can not obtain permits to own multiple firearms.
You stand a much greater chance of being car jacked than of having someone break into your home while you are there.
That's the real concern of parents with children, do the children need to be exposed to Papa and Mama totting 1911's or 44 Mags (put in what ever caliber you want) on their hips and brought up in an environment of paranoia.
(that's a topic for a different thread)
So no, I agree that the kids welfare is more important than being able to instantly draw and shoot it out with some bad guy while my children are present. And yes the family is completely protected in our home, just not with guns lying around or on my hip. There are other ways of doing that.
Jim
OldMarksman
Staff
While burglars may generally prefer to enter unoccupied structures. there are enough cases of break-ins of occupied homes in our suburban area and elsewhere in the country to render that assertion incorrect.
A police car may or may not be near, but unless its presence deters the crime, that won't matter very much.
True.
No.
Check your facts. This has been covered here numerous time over the last few years.
You have a significantly greater chance of being violently attacked somewhere other than in your home, but that includes attacks in parking lots, in parking garages, on sidewalks, and everywhere else. And many attacks do occur in the home.
Agree.
But---in the unlikely event that "some bad guy" (and there rae usually more than one of them) should enter your home with criminal intent, with a risk if not a likelihood of committing crimes against persons, wouldn't it be a good thing to be able to do something effective to attend to the "kids welfare" at that time?
It is always a good idea to look to home security in the context of an overall systemic solution, but I respectfully submit that nothing will ensure that the family is "completely" protected.
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