I bought my brother a couple of those since the kids bedrooms were upstairs.Originally Posted by Cypher
I bought my brother a couple of those since the kids bedrooms were upstairs.
30-odd years ago, the woman who eventually became my wife was carjacked in Minneapolis- luckily she was able to extricate her infant son from the car seat before the brutes took off.
She locks the door religiously now.
One morning about 16 years ago, I had a younger homeless woman jump in my passenger seat at a stoplight in a seedier district of downtown Seattle. I was new to the city then and didn't realize what was happening. (I had an EG Makarov in a smart carry clone loaded with Hornady JHPs.)
Luckily for me, she was simply lonely and needed a kind word and a lift for a few blocks only, and didn't stain the seat. I have locked the doors -and check 'em frequently- ever since!
There have been some brazen walk-in-and-grab robberies in the neighborhood over the last few months, and everybody here at the Lutherie Arms is accordingly wary and careful.
No unlocked windows at night, no unlocked exterior doors unless one is standing right there. I'd much rather call the PD than have to fight someone in my bedroom.
Last edited by Lex Luthier; 05-28-2018 at 10:01 AM.
"If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john
"Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne
I was five and my little sister was three when a pair of goblins walked right in the unlocked front door of my parent's house at about 10 in the morning. They had guns I'd later recognize as a 1911 and an S&W model 10, my memory of the whole following incident was that clear.
One would hold us all at gunpoint while the other sacked a part of the house, they took turns. Model 10 guy had a big ass bowie knife and made a show of holding my Mom's hands against the surface of the glass coffee table as he threatened to cut her fingers off if she didn't give up the 'stash' they were looking for. I'll never forget my mother's face - the threat of injuring her didn't phase her at all. But as the knife-wielding goblin led my sister into the garage as the other one held his 1911 on me, the look absolutely pained, terrified helplessness on her face is something I'll never, ever forget.
Thankfully we were all physically unharmed - they just hoped my little sister would show where Daddy kept 'his secret stuff'. As a 3 year old girl would, she happily led them to his workbench and tools and said something to the effect of 'that's Daddy's stuff and we're not allowed to touch it'. She remembers it all. It's her earliest memory.
They eventually gave up and trashed the phones on their way out but took only a few pieces of my Mom's jewelry.
Doors were locked religiously from that point forward, locks were upgraded, and my Mom got a couple of handgun classes and a .380 Colt Mustang Plus II that she carries to this day.
We later found out that a house a couple doors down was a normal middle class looking dude that sold coke and weed on the side. The goblins were looking for him but found us instead.
Lock your doors.
Last edited by JRB; 05-29-2018 at 12:35 PM. Reason: typos
Again, this is tangential to locking your doors but almost every time I read about a home invasion in The Springs the story says the victim opened the door for the robbers.
Invariably someone in the comments will say "That's why I always take my (insert macho euphemism for handgun here) when I answer the door."
They get pissy when I suggest they might be better off not opening the door until they positively identify the person on the other side
A common element in may home invasions is that the person opens the door without asking who it is, or the person on the outside of the door uses some type of subterfuge to get the person to open the door to enable them to initiate a home invasion.
Cypher, you are correct in that is another type of archetype post from certain stupid forums that will remained unnamed where the person gets a strange knock at the door, often late at nigh,t and they grab their gun and rush to the door----and then open it.
Motherhubbard, if you think there was any type of a threat you should not open the door at all and do all of your talking by shouting through the closed door and probably tell them that you can't help them, are not interested in what they are selling, and offer to call the police to provide them with help.
I am going to paraphrase a line of Matthew McConaughey's from the first season of the HBO TV series True Detective and apply it to those forums and posts:
"Certain linguistic anthropologists think that *reading stupid posts on stupid forums* is a language virus that rewrites pathways in the brain and dulls critical thinking."
I don't know if it does all of that, but it can drag you into either wasting time getting into stupid online debates with morons or waste your time getting irritated thinking about the response to you would write to their stupidity and raise your bloodpressure.
That’s a pretty intense childhood memory. Point taken.
Claude Werner shared a blog post on Facebeast a week or so ago about a guy who ended up shooting a home invader in the middle of the night AFTER opening the door. I asked WHY any sane person would do that and I got an answer from him and I Think Tamara Keel.
To paraphrase TK she said why doesn't matter you just make sure YOU don't do it and CW so that it was a Pavlovian reaction. He says that social convention has wired our brains so that when somebody knocks on our door we open it to see who it is. Then he said the same thing that TK said "Don't worry about why, You just make sure you don't do it.
Last edited by Cypher; 05-30-2018 at 04:41 AM.
Years ago while working in Miami / South FL, using the gift of gab and my creds, I convinced women at home alone or with their kids to allow me to use a location within their homes for a surveillance post prior to an arrest, serving a warrant, or other enforcement action. (One was the (trophy) wife of former professional bowler, Don Carter.)
In one or another instance I had the women call their husbands so I could explain what was going on.
In every instance, when I was ready to depart, I thanked them for their kind assistance and warned them never to do that again.
Last edited by blues; 05-30-2018 at 09:13 AM.
There's nothing civil about this war.
Tony Blauer - who has spent his entire adult life training and teaching self protection - had a home invasion because his wife or kids opened the door for 3 young criminals and allowed them to enter the house. If memory serves, it was about 10 AM and Tony had just left for work. His wife and kids were heavily traumatized, although physically unharmed. There's at least one podcast where Tony and his wife discuss the event and the aftermath.
I found it...ironic.. that a guy so heavily involved in self protection could have his family become victims, especially when it could have easily avoided.
That is a good point about Pavlovian conditioning some people to open their doors.
But once you study how home invasions occur--and by this I mean read a bunch of accounts about them--you recognize that many home invasions were the result of someone opening their door by reflex, or without scrutiny, or as a result of subtrafuge applied by the person on the other side. Honestly, any person who is concerned about crime who follows the news should be hip to this.
But it should not even take that. As a child in the 1960s I was taught not to open a door before asking who it is and making sure it was someone that I knew. In the mid 1960s I lived in NYC. We lived in an apartment building with a doorman--at least during the day. I remember a story that my late mother told that took place when I was a very young child. One night at around 7 or 8pm there was a knock at the door. My mother asked who was there and the answer was phone company. She did not request the phone company for anything so she did not open the door. After that we got a double lock--a second lock on the door in addition to the deadbolt that was already on it.
Think of this, my mother, without the benefit of internet forums or tactical training, was able to discern that there was something suspicious and did not open the door. We did not live in a what would be considered a bad area--21st street on 3rd avenue. The local police precint was down the street at 21st and 2nd avenue, and the police academy was at 20th street and 2nd avenue. But I remember hearing stories about people in the building being robbed or burglarized.
As many firearms instructors point out, once you become serious about defending yourself with a firearm you should try to apply awareness and avoidance as much as possible. This increases your chance odds of avoiding a criminal attack, and if not the awareness keys you in as soon as possible to prepare you to respond, maximizing your chances of success.
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