Home Defense

UPDATE:

I just discovered why this person is angry with me. I once made some remarks about the Scientology Cult and the dangers of the Narconon treatment program. This is why I'm a bad and evil person.

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I got myself into what I consider a strange discussion on another blog.

I have a few blogs linked that sometimes delve into home protection. Some of my online friends are ex-military or live in countries where day to day activities have an element of danger to them.

In that discussion, someone pointed out that if a burglar broke in, they would sit them down, talk to them and likely offer them a temp job. If pushed, this person said they would think for a bit about what the law allowed and act accordingly.

When I read that, I thought I was reading the script for Grand Torino. There is a scene in the movie where the neighbor teen breaks in the Clint Eastwood's home to steal is his. The teen has been pushed into it by a gang that wants to recruit him. Clint let's him go, then later finds him work to do at the urging of the teen's family.

It's a nice story, and logical, within the framework of the setup. But if it were changed slightly. If Clint had cornered the four gang members in his garage, the outcome would've been significantly different. In the movie, the teen ran away and Clint let him go. Had it been the gang members, they likely would not have run and would've decided to have eliminated Clint as a witness. Whether he could have taken them out or not is a line of thought I'll leave up to the reader.

But in this alternative line of thinking, offering them a job or appealing to reason or emotion, would not have been a strong strategic move. From their perspective, this would reek of opportunity and weakness.

Now in that other conversation, I argued that if faced with a burglar, I am likely to be confrontational. Burglars usually work in teams, so like my grandma used to say about snakes, 'If you see one, there's one you don't see.'

As an example I gave, we had a team of home invasion burglaries working the next county over a few years ago. Sometimes folks were home when they broke in. When this was the case, they murdered the families.

I commented that years ago, I did some kickboxing. And we went full contact often in our sparring matches. And that taught me that I do not want to get hit outside of a controlled environment. In sparring, if you take a disabling blow, your opponent will stop. In a real fight with a stranger, you don't know what they'll do. So I know if confronted in my home, I will seek to disable them, then call the police. After all, I'm older now, softer, and out of shape. If I must fight, I will not fight fair.

I pointed out that in my state, deadly force is legal if it's the only way to stop theft or injury. That law was tested to the limits a few years back when a man fired into a car pulling out of his driveway. The four men in the car had stolen his hubcaps. Two were killed and two wounded. The man that shot them was acquitted by a grand jury.

Now as a rebuttal, I was informed that I'm a bad person, and that I'm only getting away with such horrible deeds because I make such things sound so reasonable. I was chastised for not understanding that burglars may be on drugs, or be engaging in crimes for other reasons that I need to understand. On that note, I'm not sure what I've actually done, beyond stating intent to protect my life and loved ones against intruders in my home.

Perhaps in those home invasions, where families were murdered, the victims had a chance to get to know their soon to be murderers, and came to understand them? But does it matter?

I've never actually had to harm anyone in self defense, and I hope I never have to. But I've come close a few times. I have also confronted would be burglars, outside my home. Both times I was doing yard work and caught them peeking into my windows. I simply walked up to them and asked them if I could help them with something, and they ran off.

I've been in a number of other situations where things were iffy, and bull and bluster got me through. So at least I already know how I'll react in the face of fear. I just haven't yet had to cross that line, of actually harming anyone.

But I believe that without hesitation, I would fight to defend my wife and loved ones, without a single thought as to whether the law permitted my actions or not. I can survive the legal process, but I can't bring my wife back from the dead.

Now I've met more than one person who thinks I'm evil for thinking like this. For being able to say that I will defend my loved ones against harm, using deadly force if necessary. And that's fine by me. If that makes me a bad person in your book, I can live with that. I hope that those that would never fight to defend themselves, or their loved ones, are never tested. I don't wish them any harm. I also wish that I could believe we live in a world, where bad things don't happen to good people. But in my personal experience, I've seen it happen too many times to believe that.

If I'm a bad person for this, so be it.