Reply #55: "someone was breaking into his house"

[iverglas]

Well, before that he was walking down the street. He had the same intention, he just hadn't got to the house yet. I'll bet the homeowner would have been "justified" in blasting him away then, before things got too dangerous.

All the world's a threat, and all of us are about to be victims and therefore justified in blasting all of them away.

On the other hand, when we suspect that someone is actually about to do something to us, we could always try testing that theory just a little.

"HEY YOU! Get away from my window!" ("Or I'll blast you away", if you like.)

I am absolutely positively bet-the-farm convinced that if I had said something like that to the guy who twice walked into my house and took my purse, before he got past the threshhold, he would have turned around and left.

In fact -- prepare to be amazed -- my father survived just such a horrible threat to his life and limb a couple of years ago, despite his own foolish failure to take proper action to protect his life and property. I only realized that my purse was gone, the second time, when I talked to my father later that morning and he asked whether I'd been next door earlier in the day (he was staying in a second floor rental apt. of mine). He'd heard the ground floor door, he'd called out "is that you?", and there was no answer. So he'd gone downstairs, and seen the back of someone walking away down the city sidewalk. Turned out he matched the description of the guy the little neighbour girl had seen go into my house the *first* time my purse was stolen 6 months earlier (and whom the cops eventually fingered, yer usual braindead opportunistic druggie criminal).

There he was, wandering around the neighbourhood for weeks, stealing stuff out of houses -- and not a single body of a murdered homeowner was ever found. And I'm here to tell the tale of my father's miraculous escape, and my own.

"He is justified 100% by ending the threat as quickly as possible without exposing himself to danger. ... I just wish he had used something a little bigger, like a 12 guage."

Ah, if only you ruled the world, eh?

"This burglar is still alive, is probably pissed off to no end, and now knows the homeowner has at least one gun. If anything, he is a bigger threat now (or when he gets out of prison) than before."

What life experiences have you had on which you base this assertion? If not your own experiences, can you explain what it is based on? I ask because you have made an assertion of fact ("he is a bigger threat now ...") that simply does not reflect my own experience or my knowledge of the world outside my personal experience. I am curious what such a flat and unequivocal assertion might be based on.

Gotta go. I need to double-check the six deadbolts on my office door (my office is the apt. where my father used to stay), and grab a few hammers. (After all, they're just the same as a gun, right? so why I'd need a gun, I dunno ... .) That addled loser is undoubtedly on the loose at this very moment, dreaming up his revenge against me ... .

.