Welcome to Aftermath, a portion of our First Line email newsletter where Attorney Anthony L. DeWitt walks you through a real-life self-defense incident and shares his key takeaways.
A wily 93-year-old California man is alive because he wasn’t afraid to protect himself. Hearing his home being invaded, the man approached a trio of burglars and told them to leave. They threatened him, but the homeowner produced his shotgun, saying he had three shells inside. One of the home invaders rushed toward the man, who shot the attacker in the legs. The homeowner attempted to hold the remaining invaders until deputies arrived, but he only had one shotgun shell. Two of the burglars ran off, and the one who was shot was transported to the hospital in critical condition.
Do you prefer a handgun or long gun for home defense? Have you taken training specific to defending a home?
Me and my wife have our handguns along with extra magazines next to our night stands. Our everyday carries and rifles are in the safe locked up at night. So nobody can get to them if we don’t hear them in the house.
Long gun. Significantly more effective at stopping attackers ASAP. Easier to hit with, far more effective terminal ballistics.
The only real reason handguns are a thing is they are more portable. If we could draw a handgun off our belt and suddenly be holding a rifle or a shotgun…that would pretty much always be preferred.
The “if we don’t hear them in the house” part of your response makes me want to ask…do you have an alarm system? I highly recommend and alarm with sensors on all accessible doors/windows (or motion or glass break as appropriate), with locked doors/windows…I’d hate to have intruders in the home and not know.
These days the alarm systems are easy to self install and you can set reminders or even automatic processes in them to have them auto -arm nightly at a set time in case you forget, even
Yes, We have an alarm system on all the doors and windows. But I left one morning a few years back and I didn’t turn the alarm on after I left because I knew my daughter was getting up and going to work shortly after I did. But somebody came in the house from the pool deck and my daughter heard them and thought it was me but they came in, found my wife’s purse and keys and stole her car from the driveway. When they found the car there were bullets in the car so who ever came in the house had a gun on them and its not going to happen again. now I have cameras also everywhere
A handgun is my go to because it allows me to quickly move through the house and leaves a
hand free to gather up my son and bring him to our safe area. If the threat levels in my incredibly low crime little town ever increased I would invest in a quick access safe for a long gun in our safe area. I would definitely keep more than one round in it. My home defense pistol is 24+1.
I have gone through a couple of online home defense trainings and have practiced moving through the house and getting to our safe area. It would not be an easy place for home invaders to safely access.
We have an alarm system, it’s electric with a battery back up, and it alerts the monitors via it’s own wifi and cell number. We set it off about once a year just to test the system, audible siren followed by a phone call from the monitor service. What scares me is the article a few days ago where the intruders were using some jamming device that blocked your cell phones, and probably the alarm wifi from sending any messages. I don’t think that would prevent the audible siren from going off, but I don’t know. Good to be armed and ready though.
