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Castle Doctrine: should you own a gun home?
I agree with John that Pepper spray is damn effective. I bought two cans and gave them to my girlfriend to protect the house when I'm not there. I tried them to see if they work and man! If you use that stuff in a confined environment, like a house, nobody will be able to shoot, stab, or even grab another person. That goes both ways! The person shooting the spray most likely will not see very clearly, and will cough and sneeze all the way to a safe location.
If you want the quiet confidence of concealing carrying, take pepper spray with you at all times. I suspect it would win a battle against a gun at close distance (about 3 meters). Just be prepared to run while not seeing much yourself.
So for me that solves the problem.
It may not help in Armageddon to say force people out of a car or away from a valuable resource, because the car would be nullified during the time the spray is active. And if they are wearing masks (very common nowadays) and glasses, they may deal quite ok with the spraying. But all in all, thumbs up, I would recommend.
Agreed with LoF. I'm going to buy one myself.
I watch every day Active Self Protection on YT. In this one he says that based on statistics if you comply when robbed, you have 25% chance of not being injured. If youresist, it changes a little bit. If you draw and put a shot on target, the chance of being injured is really small. This does not answer the original question (house attack situation) as the situation is a bit different. However, it shows that you need:
- To have a gun.
- To have quick access to it (attacks are most of the times surprise attacks, you were not expecting to being robbed or your home invaded)
- To be proficient at it.
- To draw without being noticed or draw first (unlikely since they attack, so you will have to counter-attack, so draw discreetly will be the most frequent case) when attacked
- To shoot first
- To hit your target (first)
So to me, that seems like a lot of conditions. I'm not saying it's not worth it. However, if you do own a gun, it means you have to invest in weekly training I believe. Otherwise, it's unlikely you will have the necessary training/reflexes/proficiency to accomplish proper self-defense. I think it's worth considering. There are great self-defenders, however they are usually off-duty cops or trained shooter. See videos below. Of course, you will have the "scare factor" in case of home invasion. I've seen many videos and this is one of the situations where they're often witnessed to flee.
Also, to be safe at home, I agree it has to be put in a safe. Theoretically. Because when you're attacked, what he teaches is that if you don't have your firearm on you (in the street) or immediately available, then it's of no use. So basically, if you have a weapon at home, it should be easily reachable, according to him.
Trained shooter
Mind you, it's one of the 1-5% shooters. I've seen many videos and this one is the rare one where he's so good. Superhero/action movie star like. Here we see compliance -> counter-attack.
Home attack
Here we see how a home attack is likely to go (many videos like this, some where they have cameras they get to have more time to anticipate the attack). If he did not have his weapon on him, he would be toast.
Of course these videos are in the USA and in Brazil. As said earlier it's really context dependent.
According to statistics (wikipedia):
- Brazil: 20.9 homicides per 100,000 people
- USA: 6.3 homicides per 100'000 people
- Switzerland: 0.5 homicides per 100'000 people
So on average, I'm 12 times less likely to be killed than an American and 40 times less likely to be killed than a Brazilian. Of course there are specific sub-contexts within these countries (meta for learning's sake: prevention from "you cannot generalize").
Interesting John, thank you for sharing.
I think we spoke about that channel before.
And it strikes a chord with me.
I used to watch Active Self Protection but stopped because I found it focused on gaining subs and sharing personal opinions/preferences, rather than sharing tactics based on data -and, to me, some of his recommendations didn't even seem the most logical-.
Also, he seemed to push that narrative that "to be safe, you need to (list of a million thing he does/recommends that are lower priority than, say, shed the extra kilos he's carrying. No hating on him, he seems a good guy, just dispassionately commenting).
I'm also surprised about that 25% number, which would mean that the robber harms the victim 75% of the times even when the victim complies.
It doesn't seem to add up with the videos I've seen.
That being said, I haven't seen any of his videos in a while now.
So if he changed approach, I'm glad (of all the videos I've watched in the past, I've never heard him once talk about statistics).
Quote from John Freeman on September 4, 2022, 8:44 pmAlso, to be safe at home, I agree it has to be put in a safe. Theoretically. Because when you're attacked, what he teaches is that if you don't have your firearm on you (in the street) or immediately available, then it's of no use. So basically, if you have a weapon at home, it should be easily reachable, according to him.
For sure in some situations, you need to have it readily available.
However, that is where I strongly diverge.
Life is not about operating at the "highest level possible of security", 100% of the times, it's about odds (or else, you wouldn't live at all but train all your time, clean your guns all the time, check your car tire pressure every time before driving, change your passwords every week, etc. etc.)
So placing the weapon in a safe is good in the sense that it covers you with many situations in which you wouldn't otherwise be covered but not having one at all.
If you have, say, an alarm or a solid door and you lock it, then an intruder will make some noises before entering in many home invasion situations, which allows you to access your weapon (and if you fail to secure your place, then you failed the most important, highest priority step #1, and a gun on you won't ensure you get the upper hand).
It's also the first time I hear about statistics from him, hence the post.
Yes, that changes everything: if the gun is part of a larger home defense strategy where the robber is detected early enough and/or slowed enough, then the safe is totally sound.
Quote from leaderoffun on August 30, 2022, 4:42 pmI agree with John that Pepper spray is damn effective. I bought two cans and gave them to my girlfriend to protect the house when I'm not there. I tried them to see if they work and man! If you use that stuff in a confined environment, like a house, nobody will be able to shoot, stab, or even grab another person. That goes both ways! The person shooting the spray most likely will not see very clearly, and will cough and sneeze all the way to a safe location.
It sounds like you had the vaporizer.
You may want to get gel or stream/get for indoor.
Otherwise, it can turn out to be a game of who can resist the pepper the most, and that's 50/50.
Otherwise, it can turn out to be a game of who can resist the pepper the most, and that's 50/50.
Hahaha, I can imagine the scene, both guys covering their eyes, coughing and cowering, this is out of a comedy movie. I don't want the vaporizer! Hahaha!
They then end up calling it a draw as they tear up, make friends, and then go for drinks.
The robber insists to pay :D.
Hahaha, too good! major LOL
