My spidey senses tell me that this home invasion wasn’t random. Given the number of assailants involved, the home owner had little chance of winning a shoot-out—had one occurred. And let’s be fair. Michael Moore didn’t say home invasions never happen. He said the chances of a home invasion in this kind of white middle class suburb are so low protection against one is unjustifiable. But one man’s paranoid delusion is another man’s sensible precaution. And there are those of us who’d rather die fighting a handful of perps than hope we’ll only get roughed-up a bit and stabbed in the ass. Truth be known.
There was a horrific home invasion in a Connecticut suburb a while back in which a doctor’s family was slain and the house set on fire.
CT applications to carry skyrocketed after the incident.
How about the striking security camera footage of an Arizonan who fought off multiple home invaders a year or so ago? That was in a suburban area, too if I recall correctly.
There is an increase in home invasions right now in Fairfield County, CT. The police are trying to keep it quiet to avoid panic.
This kind of assumes that your first reaction to when someone knocks on the door and says, “I’m with the FBI, may I come in?” is to draw your weapon and prepare to start shooting.
Gaining entry to your average home doesn’t require a major operation. Brute force is all that’s required.
If someone comes to my door claiming to be the FBI, I damn well know they’re full of sh*t.
Another one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Richmond_spree_murders
MM is wrong?? When was he ever right?
MM has never been right, this fool just likes to stir up the poop. He feels that we don’t need guns because there’s almost no chance of anything bad happening to us. Well, he must not need home insurance because chances are slim that his house will burn to the ground. He doesn’t need car insurance because what are the chances that he’ll be involved in a car accident. He also doesn’t need life insurance because he can’t die, unless some evil psycho breaks into his home and kills his dumass.
And he doesn’t need a brain because there’s no chance that he might think.
An original thought in that moron’s head would die of loneliness.
It sounds like some of the regular commenters didn’t read your post, Robert, just the title. You clarified very well what the position of Michael Moore is, one which I share. Home invasions are so unlikely in most areas that you don’t need guns to protect against them. The problem is there’s a big downside. All your unnecessary guns are sometimes being stolen and misused, in fact every single Mikeb survey to date has indicated that the chances of gun misuse is much higher than the chances of your saving the day with it one day.
“Home invasions are so unlikely in most areas that you don’t need guns to protect against them.”
Where is this information? Could you show us? Millions of people in the U.S. live in the city. The rate of crime in the city is crazy and home invasions are a regular occurrence (the information to support this is easily accessed). We all hear and know of L.A. gangs and them running rampant, we all know of muggers and rapists in inner cities. What part of the U.S. do you live in that this is such a foreign thing to you? What is it exactly that leads you to dismiss the need for ones need to defend themselves altogether?
In Canada I learned that self defense was must. Guns were not an issue where I lived but gangs of young men drunk and looking to kick someone until dead are quite frequent. I have eight years of self defense under my belt and would not have an issue defending myself against any unarmed threat. Its easy (balls, eyes, throat – repeat until the attack stops). But what do I do when the attacker comes to my door with a gun? What do I do when I am walking down the street and a dude with a gun at his side says ‘Gimme your everything’? What do I do? Does a Jackie Chan movie break out? Do I do an awesome Van Damme kick and get the girl? Or do I grab my firearm and give myself and himself some options?
You see. If I pull my gun and he has a gun I have a chance. He may open fire, he may not. How much does he need the $5 in my pocket?
Think about it. I think the answers are all starkly simple.
“Home invasion is so rare it can’t happen” = red herring. The issue is responding to the actual threat level in an appropriate and clear-headed way. If you really do have a need for armed home defense, a .38 Special DA revolver should pretty much cover it for most people, as I see it. For some folks, a shotgun might be a better choice. Meh, whatever. As applications for firearms go, this one is not terribly specialized or complicated. If you approach the matter in a rational way, the gun industry will not be getting fat off your business.
However, a nice little cottage industry has sprouted up that, unintentionally or not, serves to prey on peoples’ race and class fears and social insecurity, whip them into state of blind paranoia, and then exploit it by selling them a bunch of silly-ass hand-cannons and other horseshit they don’t need and will not make them one bit safer.
Disclosure: I don’t keep any firearms at all in my home — strictly as a matter of convenience. I keep the guns out at the farm 30 miles away because that’s where I generally use them. I live in a diverse working-class neighborhood (ethnically and economically mixed, blue and white collar) within the city limits of a Midwestern rust belt city of 250K pop with a fairly typical crime rate. I feel no need for firearms for my protection. I don’t normally lock my back door unless I am traveling. Do I live in fear without a gun in my belt or under the bed? No.
I felt as you do until 18 months ago when I awoke to find an armed intruder at my bedside pointing a pistol at my head. He robbed us of all the cash in the house, took my ATM cards and left me bound and gagged while he attempted to steal our car to go to the bank and withdraw cash from our account. I was able to escape my bindings and get to a revolver just before he reentered the house with a pillow. I fired one shot at him, missing him in the dark, and he fled. I believe that gun saved our lives and will never give it up. More importantly we have a good alarm system and video cameras as well as strong deadbolt doors on our bedrooms. A gun by itself is no use if you are asleep. It is useful only once it is in your hand and you hopefully have the ability to use it effectively.