Home owners with Guns

[LenTesta]

Heard on the news last night that a man shot his wife thinking that she was an intruder.
This man's house was invaded two times in the past. I am not sure what time span it was, it may have been the same week.

He heard movement in the house between 2 and 3 A.M. Thinking that it was another intruder, he drew his weapon and went to seek out the noise. He made no noise himself, creeping up on her, he fired two to three shots which struck her.

This situation brings up a lot of questions to me.

Does he sleep in the same room with his wife?
If so why did he not check to see if she was there?
If not why did he NOT USE some sort of verbal command to signal his wife?
Why did she not signal her husband?
Did she hear him?

She MAY HAVE heard him searching. She may have thought that he was an intruder, and did not want the intruder to know she was awake.

People who have guns in their homes for this type of defense need to have verbal signals that they can use to indentify each other.

If you are a gun owner and plan to use your weapon for self defense of your home, Please, have a HOME INVASION PLAN and make sure everyone in your house knows a secret word or phrase that will distinguish you and them from an intruder.

On the plus side, he did not kill her!
The woman remains in the hospital in critical condition. With hope she will survive, and a very hard lesson will be learned by them.

Another tragedy to be blamed on home owners with guns.



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Len Testa

[Van Canna]

A tragedy , to be sure. But not as common as people might think. One way to reduce such incidence is for a gun owner to attend specialized tactical instruction such as found at the Lethal force Institute and similar top notch schools.

I realize that attending such training is expensive,and possibly out of reach of most gun owners, but it is matter of responsibility and priority.

It reminds me of the karate student who claims he can't afford the $80/100 per month tuition, then blows four times that amount on beer, hamburgers and french fries, dinners out,and impulse buying of stuff he doesn't really need.

Some people are awful "grinders" and gun owners have their share.

If we own guns and even think of dealing lethal force with them, it becomes imperative to learn and program sound tactical concepts, the kind that Panther talks about.

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Van Canna

[Kevin Mackie]

Other questions the police will be asking are: (I'm curious myself)
How well did they get along?
Did the wife have life insurance? Any RECENT policies?
Were the previous break-ins reported and documented?
How did he learn to shoot so well in the dark? (I for one can recognize my wife in a lighted room)

I hate it when these type of things are called "accidents."

Maybe responsible gun owners have some tips for others about how to respond in the middle of the night to a noise? Maybe try a little verbal interaction first? Like, "Hey hon, is that you?" No response..call 911, and sit tight.

Kevin

[Randy Pelletier]

Len, this sounds amazingly familiar to the discussion that you started a couple of months ago where you posed the scenario of an intruder in your house and asked the question of whether you would use VSD or not.

I stated that I would always use some form of VSD and had some (mostly) differing opinions. It is unfortunate that this situation you describe above happened but goes a long way to support the need for VSD when you here a bump in the middle of the night.

But again, this viewpoint is from a Canadian who lives by different gun laws than those of the US. This is not to say that I am against people owning guns, just against stupid people owning guns.

My $.25(cnd) or $.17(us) worth.




[This message has been edited by Randy Pelletier (edited February 01, 2001).]

[Allen M.]

I posted HERE on or about January 25, 2001, with a good response and shortly afterwards noticed that my riposte disappeared. Does anyone know what happened to it?????

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Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera

[LenTesta]

ALLEN:???

I remember reading your post.

I did not delete it.

I am wondering where it went also.

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Len Testa

[Allen M.]

Let's see if I saved the original on my machine when I get home.