Defensive Daddy’ blog, Growing Up Guns, continues bang out great material that is well worth reading. I strongly suggest giving his FB page and blog a gander. Defensive Daddy’s latest post, “The Bell-Curve: Shooting Practice by the Odds,” is well worth your time.
-Gary
NBC; not the National Broadcasting Company but, Nothing But Crap. That’s what I’ve decided is the actual meaning behind NBC. There’s just no other explanation for a company that would actually broadcast the sort of stupidity shown as a defense to homes invasions on the “Today” show last week.
Jeff Rossen enlisted retired New York Police Officer, Wallace Zeins, to sell some of the most useless advice I’ve ever heard. Citing 99-cent noise makers and using your car’s panic alarm, not once did they mention hardening your home against a home invasion in the first place by reinforcing doors/doorframes, installing long-throw dead-bolt locks, having an actively monitored perimeter alarm (with a glass break sensor), good exterior lighting, cameras or any of the well known deterrents to home invasions and burglaries. Nothing about leaving “tools” for entry readily accessible outside your home. And the only active defense suggested was, of all things, downplaying oleoresin capsicum (OC) pepper spray in favor of wasp spray…WASP SPRAY!
Zeins also suggests keeping another item in your bedroom: “Buy a can of wasp hornet spray in the hardware store or the supermarket, keep it by your bedside or the floor,” he said. “It’s more powerful than police Mace.
“The great part is, when you spray, it will go 20 to 25 feet,” Zeins added. An intruder hit with the spray will be temporarily blinded. Please check your state and local laws on the legality of using these sprays for self-defense.
via Home invasion: Jeff Rossen shows how to protect your family – News – TODAY.com.
Forgive me if it is the wasp spray to which I take the greatest offense. The rest could be chalked up to being an unimaginative, lazy, dolt. But wasp spray?!?!? Really? Never mind the fact it is a violation of FEDERAL LAW to use almost any aerosol, especially paint, cleaners, pesticide or other chemicals in a manner inconsistent with their labeling. Some local and state jurisdictions have additional laws and ordinances specifically stating that it is illegal to use anything other than OC as a chemical agent against another person. And in general, it just doesn’t work. If you’re going to resort to sprays, stick with stuff known to work better than terse language and buy a quality spray from Fox Labs, Sabre, or any number of other vendors.
I’ll refrain from the ubiquitous, “get a gun, gun training,” mantra. You’re an adult. Make your own decision. But, don’t stick your head in the sand. Fully evaluate your choices. Realize that NBC and Jeff Rossen had an agenda to scare the crap out of you by citing how many home invasions there are every year but, they offer little in the way of solutions and they never tell you this one truth…The problems presented by a home invasion or burglary occuring while you are home are yours to deal with until help arrives. That may mean you have the rest of your life to solve the problem. Therefore, how long the rest of your life will be is entirely up to you. Choose wisely.
-Gary
“I turn, and there was a guy standing in my face. A split second later he smacked me. We went at it. We went at it hard,” said Houck. via Father fights ‘crazed’ intruder in front of kids and wins.
Tony Houck survived one of life’s lessons that is often fatal. Stuff happens. Often when you least expect it. And sometimes it happens in “nice” neighborhoods. Sometimes the violence comes to you. Houck was making tacos for his kids at five o’clock in the afternoon when a man kicked in Houck’s door. In the time it took Houch to realize what was happening, he was in a full-fledged fight.
Houck told local CBS affiliate, KHOU, “He almost got me in a chokehold. I thought, this is for real. All of a sudden, this guy was trying to kill me.”
Before we get to the part where we tell you THIS is why we often advise folks to carry at home, let’s look at a basic home security issue. Houck’s first indication that anyone was even at his home was the moment 32-year-old Noah Collier kicked in the door and attacked Houck. That is a problem. And while we all have our priorities about security, the reality one must accept is that the door to your home is nothing more than a social barrier for normal, law-abiding people. Violent criminal actors don’t care and if committed, will get past that door no matter what you do. Still, an early warning system as simple as a dog or even infrared “door chime” to let you know someone has crossed a threshold point before they reach your door is just one step that would go along way in keeping you ahead of the curve. And if you don’t already have a centrally monitored burglar alarm with an “at home” or “stay” mode, get one!
“Chastiti Horne wonders what would have happened had she been the one left at home with the kids.
“Had that been me, you would be doing a completely different story,” said Horne. “I don’t know what he would’ve done to my kids, and that is the scariest thing.” via Father fights ‘crazed’ intruder in front of kids and wins.
And now, here’s where we tell you THIS is why we often advise folks to carry on their person, even at home. Houck was lucky. Very lucky in that he faced a single, emotionally disturbed attacker that he was able to overpower on his own. How easily could this have been multiple attackers? How easily could this have been a woman or just one of the kids who couldn’t overpower a single attacker with brute strength alone? This is where the fact guns are equalizers comes into play.
Arming yourself and seeking training are great. But ideally the whole family should be involved. I am not saying your nine year old needs to be ready to go grab a gun and go to work. That’s a call for you and your family to make but, at the very least, have a plan. That might mean your wife and/or children children are instructed to hide or even lock themselves into a designated space or spaces in your home while they call 911. At the very least, the issue needs to be discussed. You cannot stick your head in the sand and think that won’t be a time violence comes to you.
A short while ago, Jason Berry, our LE contributor, posted a video on our FB page of a woman being attacked in her driveway. That video seems to have been staged to promote self-defense training. It was also in another country but, there are valid lessons to be gleaned even from that video. In contrast, the video I’ve posted here is not staged. It is local to the Mission Bend area of southwest Houston.
In this case, the driver noticed a white Honda CRV passing him by as he pulled into his driveway. As a rule, if something doesn’t feel right, go with your gut. Usually if something feels wrong, it is wrong. And for this driver, something felt wrong so we see him investigating his surroundings.
Sure enough, the CRV does a three-point turn in the street (off camera) and pulls into the driveway. The driver runs back to his car. That motion alone appears to convince the CRV occupants that they have somewhere else to be. The driver notes that the occupants of the CRV most likely thought he was “loaded” and ready for them. Not knowing this driver from a hill of beans, I can’t tell you if he carries a gun or not. He clearly states he’s been robbed before and is not new to the game. As a practical matter, I can tell you that it would be better to have a gun than to risk having someone call your bluff.
Still, a major deciding factor in this incident remains the fact the driver had enough situational awareness to see trouble coming. He put himself in a position to be ahead of the curve and watched his surroundings with purpose. This stands in contrast to the staged video where we see an example of behavior we see in robberies every day. The driver is distracted and completely unaware of her surroundings, allowing time for the bad guys to sneak up behind her. It’s great if you can fight and it’s great if you carry a gun (assuming you actually train to use it) but, it’s all for naught if mentally, you are still a grasseater, with your head down and no clue what’s going on around you.
-GM
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A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after an 82-year-old woman was beheaded in broad daylight in a suburban back garden.
via Woman Found Beheaded In Back Garden Named.
The anti-gun movement currently focuses on the terms “gun-violence” and “gun-crime.” As if the underlying violence and crime will suddenly cease if guns didn’t exist. But here we have a worst case example of the fact violence and crime don’t go away because you’ve gotten rid of guns. In fact, crimes like these only serve to fan the flames of Britain’s current campaign against, you guessed it, knives. Yes, years after they’ve all but completely banned guns, crime and violence still exist in England.
There’s no point in denying the actual homicide rate in the US is higher than in the UK. That’s a well reported and verified fact. However; what’s less often reported is that in the US, you’re less likely to be a victim in the first place. Of course, in the face of that fact, you’ll find that some criminologists and most mainstream media outlets will argue that you can’t compare crime between the two countries.
They argue that comparisons can’t be made because the definition crimes such as rape, sexual assault, or aggravated assault often vary between countries and even individual agencies within the same country. In fact, the very definition of any violent crime varies so much, they argue, that no apples to apples comparison can be made. Funny, those same folks have no problems making their own comparisons so long as they can say there is a higher rate of homicides “caused by guns.”
-GM
