following is text pulled from a thread on the DU, only relevant text between the two posters was pulled, and edited only to correct spelling/grammar errors as well as for space:
DU member that defended himself with a gun:
He used a crowbar on the patio door. Evidently he brought that with him, because it wasn't my crowbar. He brought his own pistol, too.
.The noise woke me. I first dialed 911 and got my pistol almost simultaneously, left the phone with my wife, went to the bedroom door and shouted that he should leave because I was armed and had called the police. He shot and wounded me in the leg. I shot back. The police removed the body. I was treated at the ER and released. 1978. AZ.
No arrest. I did get a "job well done" from, I believe, all of the officers responding. I didn't see it as a job well done. I saw it - and still do - as defending the lives of my family and me.
Now tell me how if only I had been quiet and cooperated with him, I'd have likely lost some insured household goods and none of us would have been the worse for wear. Perhaps you could tell me that because I was only hit in the leg, he didn't really mean to do my family or me serious harm so I was unjustified in returning fire. Or maybe you could tell me how wrong it was of me not to invite him to take whatever he wanted. OR! Sin of sins! I was wrong in having the audacity to occupy my own home at the time he wanted to rob it. And don't forget to discredit it as an anecdote.
I did and do lock my doors. Yes. I did and do keep loaded weapons in my house.
End of story.
Edited to add: Let this be a lesson to you. Never take a .380 to a .45 fight.
DU member that is an idiot:
The gun, an inanimate object that can't act of its own volition, didn't prevent the crime.
DUMTDHWAG:
In my case, the use of mine prevented a worse crime. I'd rather the intruder be dead than my family or me.
Edited to add: What was I supposed to do? Throw my pajamas at him? Speak in an authoritarian manner and expect him to obey? Or are you just sad that I survived instead of the criminal?
DUMTIAI:
I don't know you well enough to make a judgment like that, and I don't know the intruder at all. Did it occur to you to get OUT of the house after calling police, rather than staying inside and waiting for an encounter? I suspect you may be one who is just waiting for a chance to use your gun...
