Extremely rare in some places, extremely common in others. Here in AZ with all the border/smuggling issues, this sort of thing is a legitimate concern.

 

Flat tires are extremely rare. I haven't had one in years.
I still carry a spare. :wink:

I have been involved in a few situations where I was glad I was armed.
Have dealt with trespassers and subjects who were obviously 'casing the joint.'

 

If it has been thought of,its been done..if its been gotten away with its been done more!
One should feel comfort in their home or the home/castle will not be very comfortable!

 

My home was burglarized about 30 years ago. I was at work, and it was likely an amateur job based on what was taken. 40 years ago I was the victim of a violent assault resulting in injury that required hospitalization and surgery.

Do I worry about my personal protection, yes I do.

There have been a few times that I have had an uneasy feeling about a person or place. I do my best to pay attention to my surroundings, and if it does not feel safe I tend to vote with my feet.

Two significant instances in a life that so far has spanned 54 years. I do feel that physical violence is rare. That does NOT mean that I am not prepared.

 

Rare as it may be, it only takes once. Once is enough to change your life forever. It can happen in an instant, and it doesn't matter who you are, where you live, or what your politics are. Some demographics are more insulated than others, but desperate people make desperate decisions. You are either capable of defending yourself or you are not. Rest assured the police will arrive in time to clean up the mess and draw a chalk line around your body if you leave your personal defense to them. For those who tell you how rare it is, bear in mind that to them, you are just a statistic.

 

I live north of pittsburgh pa.

I'd say the odds of me facing violence are rather low. If I were in different parts of pittsburgh, I'd believe it rises exponentially.

I know one person who's daughters friend lost a fiancé at a shooting at an area mental hospital. My neighbors grandfather was killed by home invading robbers.

I guess it could happen. My neighborhood is nice, quiet and for the most part crime free. We have a basically problem free school district.

Less than 5 minutes drive from my house is a minority filled drug ridden cesspool of a town. There is nothing stopping them from coming up the hill to look for opportunities.

I like my hd shotgun full of buckshot and my Glock on my hip.

The odds of being in a house fire are low too. Still have a fire extinguisher.

Every time I strap on the Glock, I pray it never has to come out of the holster.

 

Shortly after starting this thread I heard about a strange home invasion that happened either last night or earlier today in a small community about 10 miles from here. A man broke into a house where a woman was in alone, and forced her to cook him something to eat at gun point, he then took the cash she had on hand and left. The suspect is still at large.

p.s. In my list of events earlier I left out another strange one, my wife has a cousin that went missing about 6 or 7 years ago, he was walking home from work and never made it home. It was about a 1 mile walk in a rural area in south Louisiana, and he just vanished.

 

Rare as it may be, it only takes once. Once is enough to change your life forever. It can happen in an instant, and it doesn't matter who you are, where you live, or what your politics are. Some demographics are more insulated than others, but desperate people make desperate decisions. You are either capable of defending yourself or you are not. Rest assured the police will arrive in time to clean up the mess and draw a chalk line around your body if you leave your personal defense to them. For those who tell you how rare it is, bear in mind that to them, you are just a statistic.

Exactly right.

 

I was looking for reports of how many shots were fired if a shotgun was used in a HD incident. .I did not find any . I'm thinking that many are not reported and there is no central data base a civilian can look at that I found. I feel better knowing my 930 is close by. It does just take once to make all your efforts worth your time.

 

What if there were either no consequences, or the risk of consequences became so low, that people no longer cared what they did? If this ebola thing takes off, I predict lots more "home invasions", and/or criminal behaviors.

 

Maybe off topic a bit but:

Here in my part of the country, a lot of home invasions occur during the harvest season when Mexican laborers have cash money hidden in their shacks provided by the farmers. Though most of them send a money order to their relatives in Mexico, they hold onto the cash until they have a day off, which is rare during the harvest. I have yet to know of an incident where a seasonal laborer had a firearm or used one to defend themselves. They work from daylight until no-light and are very tired and are easy prey. Some of the farmers keep their pay until they go to the post office but there is a period of time when the money is given to the worker and they go to the post office. Most of these home invasions that take place around midnight when everyone is asleep, to be surprised by a door bashed in and guns in their face.

They can't legally own a gun and are easy prey. The farmers can't get locals to help them so they do what they have to do to get their crops in.

 

I have had the same concerns, and now keep firearms in my bedroom and vehicles.

I live in a nice area, most people used to never lock their doors.
Recently there have been a lot of burglaries, where we used to have absolutely none. Meth related, IMO.

I can think of four home invasions over the last 30 years that happened to people I know pretty well. Three random, and one was drug related (I knew the parents, not the druggie, FWIW). Just this morning a lawyer was assaulted in the parking lot across from my office.

 

Invasions of occupied dwellings are very rare in my part of the South yet daytime burglaries are relative common. The reason is that most homes contain loaded guns and people who are not afraid to use them because we are protected by a strong castle doctrine. The criminals know to wait until the productive people are away at work because it is pretty much expected that they will be shot if they break in when people are home.

 

My home was burglarized about 30 years ago. I was at work, and it was likely an amateur job based on what was taken. 40 years ago I was the victim of a violent assault resulting in injury that required hospitalization and surgery.

Do I worry about my personal protection, yes I do.

There have been a few times that I have had an uneasy feeling about a person or place. I do my best to pay attention to my surroundings, and if it does not feel safe I tend to vote with my feet.

Two significant instances in a life that so far has spanned 54 years. I do feel that physical violence is rare. That does NOT mean that I am not prepared.

"Paying close attention to surroundings and voting with your feet" sound wisdom indeed !! :wink:

 

My home was burglarized about 30 years ago. I was at work, and it was likely an amateur job based on what was taken. 40 years ago I was the victim of a violent assault resulting in injury that required hospitalization and surgery.

Do I worry about my personal protection, yes I do.

There have been a few times that I have had an uneasy feeling about a person or place. I do my best to pay attention to my surroundings, and if it does not feel safe I tend to vote with my feet.

Two significant instances in a life that so far has spanned 54 years. I do feel that physical violence is rare. That does NOT mean that I am not prepared.

"Paying close attention to surroundings and voting with your feet" sound wisdom indeed !! :wink:

Unfortunately that lesson was learned the hard way. I had the uneasy feeling, but I did not vote with my feet in time. I was 15 years old, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

 

Live in a nice neighborhood. Not a house under $1 million, and many in the $5 million plus range. Low incidence of violent crime, high incidence of burglaries. However we are one hour from Mexico, and less than one hour from LA. Stuff happens - and if you happen to have been here during the LA riots you know what I'm talking about.

Several years ago on Christmas Eve a gang of professional thieves came down the street. They broke into almost every garage and stole cars - while people were sleeping overhead. My house has a bolt key lock on the garage door, motion sensor lighting by the outside approaches, and three dogs. We were not bothered. My neighbor across the street had Christmas gifts in his car (in his garage) that were stolen, but he had a gated driveway so they didn't steal his car. This was a high-end BMW with a "security" system that they were able to bypass and open his trunk in a locked car. Another of my neighbors was woken by the Police calling him to tell him they had recovered his stolen car. He said "my car isn't stolen - it's downstairs in my garage!" Imagine his reaction when he found his garage empty.

About ten years ago we had a nanny caring for our two small children. Our nanny used to take the kids to the park every day about lunch time. One day as she was leaving the house, two women approached and said they were there to measure our kitchen for kitchen cabinets. They knew my name, etc. The nanny said she needed to call me, and they said "go ahead" and at the last minute she decided against it. She let them into the house, and then went to the park. God knows how long they were in the house. Fortunately we have a safe. Needless to say, we didn't have the nanny for very much longer.

House down the street from us at the end of a cul-de-sac was a little shady. I thought they were selling drugs out of it - people would come and go at odd hours - no one staying for more than 15 minutes. One day there was a "home burglary". Individuals broke in, tied up the residents, and left - "without stealing anything"... at least that's what they told the Police. Another house in our neighborhood caught on fire. Turned out it was a meth lab. This was a $2 million house that pros were using because it was "low profile".

I'm an Army vet (Airborne / Military Police). Forewarned is forearmed. You wouldn't buy a house without fire insurance. How much does it cost to have a weapon and a few cases of MRE's on hand? A lot less than fire or car insurance.

 

People are victimized by criminals every day. The vast majority have no skills, tools, or mindset to display a real resistance and thus become victims. Occasionally, the criminals make a significant error in judgement, and the victimized fight back. They don't accept the "victim" designation and they defend themselves. It's a wonderful thing to respond to a robbery call where the victim is detaining the suspect...who needs an ambulance.

Yep...It's rare compared to the overall population. I've had a lot of "rare" crap happen to me. I prepare, and it helps keep me from being paranoid.

 

^SoCalDep: you nailed it.

I live in a nice MC-UMC suburb: pop.~60,000 with a 125 officer PD that make of point of having great presence 24/7 within city limits. Some folks may resent that you might not get much over a 2-3 mph speed limit grace but their meet&greet stops are reknown and truly help encourage the smart problem chillun to by-pass us. Because this is still the greater Memphis area where there's lots of daily crime driven by longstanding and formidable issues of education and poverty, gangs and drugs, and, worse-case, potential for Katrina- and LA-like civil mayhem due to the New Madrid fault line and unfortunately racial politics and divides.

Benjamin Franklin said "If you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." This still holds true wherever you find yourself.
I elect not to be a head-down grass-eater. I am responsible and prepared to keep my family and myself safe.
Because it's not about the odds, rather the stakes.

 

It only takes one time to alter your life forever.

 

Of course such things are rare. If I lived someplace where they were common, I'd move.

My house has never caught fire, but I still own a fire extinguisher and know how to use it.

 

One of the most dangerous things that can happen is that you come home during a burglary. Most thieves, especially the professionals go to great lengths to avoid occupied dwellings. But if something went wrong and you were to walk in on a burglary in progress it could turn deadly. They could panic, especially if they feel cornered or think that you could identify them. This is why I always walk in with a loaded .45 in my hand.

How?

If it is legal to have a pistol in your car where you live then there is no good reason for you not to have it in your hand every time you walk in or out of the house. Besides, it is perfectly legal to take your pistol back in your house. You don't want to leave it in the car where it could be stolen. That would be irresponsible. If you just happen to need it, it will be in your hand ready to go. A .45 in the hand beats one out in the car every time.

 

I prepare, and it helps keep me from being paranoid.

Reminds me of a show I once saw where a reporter visited Jeff Cooper's Gunsite. At the end of the program he said to Jeff, "I notice that you are always armed with your .45 pistol. What are you afraid of?"

Jeff replied, "Not a damn thing."

 

One of the most dangerous things that can happen is that you come home during a burglary. Most thieves, especially the professionals go to great lengths to avoid occupied dwellings. But if something went wrong and you were to walk in on a burglary in progress it could turn deadly. They could panic, especially if they feel cornered or think that you could identify them. This is why I always walk in with a loaded .45 in my hand.

How?

If it is legal to have a pistol in your car where you live then there is no good reason for you not to have it in your hand every time you walk in or out of the house. Besides, it is perfectly legal to take your pistol back in your house. You don't want to leave it in the car where it could be stolen. That would be irresponsible. If you just happen to need it, it will be in your hand ready to go. A .45 in the hand beats one out in the car every time.

Depending on the law where you live, carrying a loaded firarm or even an unloaded firearm not secured in a locked case, from your car into your house could very well be illegal.

 

It may be 'rare" but it's always a possibilty. Today's world is far different from say the 50's , 60's. Why take chances? Every day there are news stories on defensive gun usage all over America. I'm ready.