Crime and defending yourself against it.

Buying and carry a gun (legally) is no guarantee you will be able to use it when the time comes and I don't mean convenience. The psychology of inflicting lethal force comes into play and the vast majority of law abiding citizens are not prepared to step across this line when that time arrives...unless it is very clear there is no other option.

Take these two scenarios for instance:

1. You wake up in the middle of the night and can clearly see a burglar with something in their hand that appears to be a weapon, slowly walking through your living room and it appears they are going to eventually go out the front door. You have your handgun in your hand. Do you shoot the intruder because they MIGHT turn and come into the room (you can legally do this)?

2. Same situation, but the intruder turns and starts walking into your kids room.

It would be very easy to say "I would drop that character like a bag of potatoes”, but the truth may be very different. Most people who train in self-defense, work out many of these scenarios in advance so they respond quicker, but even then, the moral code most of us live by, put us at a disadvantage. Untrained people usually play it by ear, because they do not want to believe it will happen to them. They bolster their feeling of security by saying they would "blow them away", or some such boast.

The bad guy/gal or crack head doesn’t live by this moral restraint and this puts them with the advantage every time. If you plan to fight back, then you better get all the training you can including reading books on self defense, or taking classes at a martial arts school.