Your odds of getting killed increase if you own a gun. Chances are somebody breaks into your house they just want to steal something, now the second they see the gun they will get scared and it becomes a who will shoot the other guy first moment. Add to that accidental deaths due to misfiring a gun, you are safer without one.
Home invasions are happening frequently in my hometown. Some of them have ended up as property thefts, some as kidnappings, and some ended in murder. I would argue that the prepared and trained person should give a swift and violent response to this sort of crime.
However, there is something to be said for identifying your target before firing.
I would argue (as wiegeabo did), that RESPONSIBLE gun owners who receive good training and keep the appropriate mindset are likely to NEVER have any sort of gun accident.
As I said when it becomes a who will shoot the other guy first moment, your odds of getting killed are increased. That being said your odds of getting something stolen from you decrease but I would say life is more valuable then any physical property(But hey that is just me).
Life is more valuable than property, I think almost anyone would agree with that. Which is why it is important to be prepared to defend both as I stated above.
Assuming anyone who breaks into your home is only there to steal is a mistake, because you don't know them. Better to shoot first as they walk through the door, than risk anything else happening.
Unless you invite them, no one has the inherent right to invade your home for any reason...period.
Legally (speaking about Georgia law for the moment), this is perfectly acceptable. That said, see what I said about target identification above.
It has less to do with a home invader using your gun on you during a robbery and more to do with the fact that, statistically speaking, a home invasion is much less likely to end in violence if the home owner doesn't brandish a weapon on the criminal. The vast majority of home invaders are looking to steal things, not kill people, and the vast majority of both thieves and private gun owners don't have the training or the experience necessary to handle an armed stand off correctly.
A policy which drastically increases the likelihood of killing an innocent person due to a misunderstanding.
I would like to see those statistics and find out more about those individual gun owners. Were they armed when the home invasion took place (or was the gun in a closet, locked away, under the cushions of the couch, etc). Did they have any training? What type of training and how recent was it?
Further, you simply said that the statistics show that the incident is less likely to end in violence if the home owner/resident does not brandish a weapon. So, the way that you worded it, that sounds like the statistic that mentions these situations ending in violence
includes incidents where the resident shot and killed/injured the home invader as well. Endings such as that, where the only injured/deceased party is the invader are satisfactory endings, in my opinion.
Also, I agree that there are a LOT of gun owners who are clueless both about their own firearm and how/when to use it. Training trumps all when SHTF.
Seems like the solution is to get training.
Improve the ability to protect oneself while reducing accidents.
Agreed 100%. And, while training doesn't 100% prevent any gun accidents, I would argue that it greatly reduces anyone's chances of having a gun accident and greatly improves anyone's chances of responding appropriately to a potential deadly force scenario. Honestly, people do dumb stuff all the time (just check the community forum, people post news stories about this sort of thing all the time). So again, training doesnt guarantee that there will never be any gun accidents, but if people follow the basic safety rules of handling firearms, then there would be almost no accidental gun deaths.
Also, everyone should keep in mind that every scenario is different and situations can be very dynamic. We can play the "what if ____" game all day and people on both sides could validate certain points. For me, after being in law enforcement since 1999, I know what I will be trying to do in a home invasion and it involves protecting my family, myself, and my property by using my mind, training, and my firearm, if necessary. My wife and I have talked-through and walked-through scenarios so that she knows what she should be doing in some of these situations. We have done the same with situations out in public (parking lot, mall, driving down the road, etc). I am armed 24/7, and I dont mean that it is in a lockbox in the next room. I have a firearm on my person at all times (there are obviously a few exceptions, like when I am at my mma gym, for example). But generally speaking, I always have a firearm at the ready.
Both unfortunately AND fortunately, I have seen some pretty sick things and know what people are capable of doing to others, whether their motivation is greed, poverty, hate, addiction, or something else. I had to open my wife's eyes once we were together to some of the same, I feel that she is now better prepared to handle certain situations. I hope that we never have to utilize what we have and what we know, but if something happens that requires it, I certainly hope we execute the appropriate game plan.
For the smart and prepared individual,
Training never ends.
