Q: Police are searching your neighborhood for lurking murderous terrorist. Would you feel safer with

[Skip Intro]

or without a gun in your home?

[Shrek]

1. I would much prefer to be well-armed n/t

[Electric Monk]

2. I'd lock my doors.

[Bay Boy]

4. I'm going with response #1 & #2...

I'm going to lock my doors and have a gun handy.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. Agreed, though it is not the right approach for everyone

[seabeyond]

3. i do not know how to use a gun and am not comfortable with guns. so...

i am fine without a gun and more comforted with police out there searching.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

42. I'm with seabeyond

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Wait, you are going to start shooting

at shadows while swat teams are going door to door?

Good luck with that.

Seriously stupid gun nuttery.

[Cali_Democrat]

10. It's funny how the gun nuts so badly want to be the hero

They sleep with guns by their side and many carry their guns everywhere they go thinking there will be a hero moment when they can pull trigger.

Of course the truth is that the hero moment will never actually come. The chances of some terrorist fugitive bomber entering your home are virtually zero.

What usually does end up happening in gun nut homes is that the gun nut or family members have a much greater chance of dying from gun violence simply because the gun is present in the home and not because of an armed intruder.

[Skip Intro]

13. Where did I say that?

Do you regularly make stuff up and run with it?

[Warren Stupidity]

22. So you want the gun just to hug and feel safe?

And here I thought you wanted it for protection so you could shoot the bad guy, or the neighbors dog, during the search.

The guy who found #2 in his boat did the right thing. He didn't go all Rambo, he went back inside and called the cops. You on the other hand bizarrely think that this was a situation that would have been aided by gun nuts gone wild.

[Skip Intro]

39. Wow. An even more bizzare post.

I asked a question, would you feel less or more safe with a gun in your home while a murderous bomber and shooter is on the loose in your neighborhood.

Simple question.

Two ludicrous replies from you.

And you want to call other people nuts?



Say you were in that area, at home, locked up tight, and the guy busted down your back door, threatening to shoot you and blow the place up? Would you just explain to him that you don't believe in guns or violence, and ask that he just chill until you can get the cops to see to your protection?

Has nothing to do with shooting at shadows. You're coming off like a ridiculous, petulant child.

[Warren Stupidity]

43. So you do not want the gun to shoot the terrorist nor to hug and feel safe.

Obviously your answer would be you do not want a gun in this situation. Good for you, that is the right answer.

[Skip Intro]

53. Why do I hear circus music when I read your posts?

[Warren Stupidity]

56. Tinnitus?

But circus clowns can be very scary so I suggest gunz, lots of gunz.

[Skip Intro]

57. Someone on DU once told me that my user name

fit me perfectly.

I think you're giving me a run for my money on that count.

[Warren Stupidity]

65. Oh, you've cut me to the quick.

I am dying Egypt.

Look, it isn't any fun at all if you aren't even trying to be creative.

[karynnj]

49. Uhmm - you are not so naive as to not have considered the responses you would

and should get. The people who you are responding to with outrage are pointing out that the citizens of Watertown, whether they had guns or not, did exactly what they should have. They stayed indoors. They opened the doors to police only. They let the police, FBI etc do the law enforcement job.

The result - the second suspect captured alive. A better solution than would have happened if vigilantes with guns intervened. As it played out, the results that happened with no civilian gun fire are likely as good as could (unfortunately) have happened given they were able to amass their arsenal undetected. (Maybe if the gun check law AND something monitoring the purchase of gun powder in large quantities existed - the tragedy could have been avoided.) Not to mention, an armed individual that challenged them would have risked his own life. Remember that a trained, armed, MIT cop was shot.

Now, I did see that spoke of HAVING a gun, not using it. I can see that you are asking whether people would feel more comfortable with or without a gun under that situation - even if they listened to the cops and stayed indoors. In this way, I assume that the personally owned gun would be seen as the weapon of last resort - for defense, not to join the chase. If the suspect attempted a break in in your home and was successful - at that point, you would have a gun with which to face him.

However, by your definition, the suspect has a gun too - and unlike you he has no moral compunctions against using it - and seeing your gun, he would very likely shot you immediately. Remember in this case, the man ran over his own wounded brother (he could not have known if his wounds were fatal) with an SUV - do you think he would hesitate? Where you, at minimum would pause - to be sure that the situation is what you thought - the criminal breaking in. Why do I say that? - I assume, on your part, a decency that I reject on the part of a man who placed a bomb next to a 9 year old child and other innocent people.

[Skip Intro]

50. I guess I was a bit naive to expect all responses to be based in reality.

Most were - clear answers to a simple question, but there's always one or two...

No outrage, though.

Btw, yes, I would feel much safer with a means of self-protection at my disposal, as clearly many would.

[Terra Alta]

6. I'll trust the police over my shooting ability

or lack thereof. I don't know how to use a gun, and wouldn't trust myself with one, ever.

[liberalmuse]

7. Without.

I don't do guns, period. It's not that my dad used it as the means to commit suicide. It's not the fact that he left that same gun when he took off, leaving pre-school aged children who cried every night because they didn't understand why their daddy left them, while months passed where he didn't let his family know where he was. It's not the fact that my sister and myself found said gun that he'd mistakenly left behind in our mom's dresser drawer one day when we were too young to comprehend the dangers of playing with said weapon. Thankfully, it wasn't loaded, or one of us would not be here.

I was a sharp shooter in the Army, so I'm no stranger to taking apart, cleaning and shooting guns, but I will never, ever understand this American obsession with them. I don't even have the intelligence or intuitiveness to pinpoint exactly what the disorder is that many Americans seem to suffer with their weird and gross obsession with guns. My best guess is that it might have something to do with the excessive fear we Americans are subjected to by the media from birth to the present.

[Art_from_Ark]

60. I think the gun issue really heated up after the Luby's Cafeteria massacre in Texas (1991)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_massacre

[Go Vols]

8. I don't think anyone suggested shooting at shadows

But if police were looking for someone armed that would be willing to break in my house and kill me to have a place to hide,I would prefer to have a gun handy.

[LWolf]

9. Without.

I don't need police seeing me with a gun and assuming the worst as they are searching the neighborhood.

I don't need a "murerous" terrorist deciding to take refuge in my home and helping himself to my gun.

I don't need to live in fear.

[Live and Learn]

15. +1 Holding a gun while police are searching the neighborhood

is likely to get you killed by the police.

[hunter]

11. It happens a couple times a year in my neighborhood.

I make sure the doors are locked whenever the police helicopter is overhead.

When we lived in worse neighborhoods and I heard gunshots nearby I'd bring the kids to the center of the house and we'd play on the floor.

In my experience any situation becomes worse when a gun is handy. Guns are shit amplifiers. They turn bad shit into deadly shit.

[CountAllVotes]

12. without

I keep a lightweight baseball bat right next to my front door and a knife next to my bed.

Good effin' luck is what I have to say.

Gun, no thanks.

[LeftInTX]

16. Sounds like something that Republican from Arkansas tweeted

He tweeted, "I bet the Boston liberals wished they were hugging AR15s" He caught a bunch of flack and eventually apologized for his tweet.

No, I would not feel any safer with a gun in my house.

Why would a terrorist come to my house anyway? It's too darn messy.

[AndyA]

17. Without.

I'd lock my doors and windows, turn on my alarm, and watch outside so I could let the police know if I saw anything. If they're in the neighborhood, it won't take them long to get here.

[HockeyMom]

18. Am I allowed to get in my car and LEAVE?

I got stupid guns in my house, but I wouldn't want for the cops (or the suspect) to start running/shooting around my house. Find a room in my house away from windows? Been there, done that, in a school bathroom with 16 Pre-K kids. My husband should sit by the front door ready and armed? For how LONG? Dumb. No, get the hell out of there.

[SoCalDem]

19. I would ask for a police escort OUT of my house

and would go elsewhere until the hullabaloo is over

[petronius]

20. I would ensure that all my doors and windows were secure, curtains closed,

exterior and interior lights on. I'd sit in an interior place, out of sight from any windows, with my phone handy, reading a good book or posting on DU. I would not listen to music or watch TV, to have a better chance of hearing any knock or disturbance. And I'd feel safer having a last-ditch defensive weapon like a gun available to me...

[etherealtruth]

21. Without

I don't want to have the potential to arm a previously unarmed (or increase the arms of an armed terrorist).

Recently, in Boston (as I recall), armed terrorists killed an armed (young) MIT cop.

[PD Turk]

23. I have an alarm. dogs and a shotgun

If I think somebody is breaking in I'm going to retreat down the hall to the bedroom, get the shotgun and cal 911. If the perp breaks the door, ignores the alarm and makes it through 2 large dogs chewing on his ass and comes down the hall after us before the cops can get there, then I'm going to blast his ass with the 12ga. That's about as fair as I can be about it, by then he's had plenty of warning and opportunity to turn around and leave.

[leveymg]

26. Large dogs and pump shotguns generally make an unmistakable deterrent noise.

Most people would leave, post haste.

[PD Turk]

27. Yep

I have motion sensing lights outside too, if somebody comes up in the middle of the night, the dogs start barking inside the house, that's most likely the point where theyll turn around and leave.

That's fine with me, I have no desire to have to shoot anybody. The shotgun is the very last resort when all else has failed.

[leveymg]

36. If only US defense policy were so rational.

[PD Turk]

37. exactly!

[leveymg]

24. Just don't wave it around so the cops or anyone can see it. Or, else.

[jberryhill]

25. I feel safer with my dog than a gun

And, she knows everyone in the family by sound. She doesn't even stir when anyone in the family comes or goes. But if someone new is around, she makes a good bit of noise about it.

[Logical]

28. I would want a gun. n-t

[Electric Monk]

29. and 30 round mags in case 30 terrorists try and sneak into your house at the same time

[Logical]

30. No, just the handgun I have now. 16 rounds. n-t

[jazzimov]

31. I'm a non-sequitor.

I live in the woods at the end of the road. My neighborhood is a 1/2 mile down the road. My dog alerts me to anyone coming down the road. He also protects the house from anyone unknown. I have a one-shot shotgun to protect him from snakes. But I feel completely secure because of my dog.

I did have a similar experience - my dog was going crazy so i looked out the window. I saw a car barreling down the road, only to turn around once he realized there was no more road (which I was used to). I saw him turn around and go around the corner from whence he came. My dog was still barking like crazy. After a while, I knew something was up so I walked down from the house around the corner with my dog at my side. As I rounded the corner, I saw a Police Car sideways blocking the one-lane gravel road, with the suspicious car blocked.

I called my dog and went back to the house.

Never touched my "barn gun" shotgun. Or my machete that I use when hiking.

[trof]

32. In this case they're looking for a person, not a gun.

So I wouldn't worry about having a gun in the house.
They going room-to-room, looking for a young man.

I wouldn't worry about them tossing the house for a gun or a baggie of pot.
That's small beer in a situation like this.

I do have a couple of guns.
And I'd have them at hand.
Yes, I'd feel safer.

[Ian David]

33. One is seven times more likely to use that gun on the wrong person, or have it used on yourself.

Unless I was a trained law enforcement or military person, I would feel safer without the gun.

[baldguy]

34. Before, during & after - it's still less safe to have a gun in the home.

So, if you're more worried about actual safety than pretending to be Rambo.....

[On the Road]

35. I Would Feel Safer with a Gun That Particular Day

Every other day I would feel safer without one.

[treestar]

38. I'd go without the gun as I do not normally use them

and so don't think I would be effective.

Mainly I'd go on the odds it is not going to be me, or running away. I think I'd have been terrified though, so I have a lot of compassion for the people who were under the lock down.

[Demo_Chris]

40. Armed, obviously.

[sarisataka]

41. With but

I have training. Even so, it sounds like a good time to go see a movie, about 20 miles away.

[stevenleser]

44. Without. nt

[MineralMan]

45. If the police are in the neighborhood, the gun stays

put away where it belongs, and I stay indoors. My doors are locked and dead-bolted.

[Raven]

46. I have a shillelagh with blackthorns. :-)

[1-Old-Man]

47. And I have a Beretta with hollow-points

everyone to their own I suppose.

[madokie]

48. I have no guns so apparently I feel safer without them

otherwise I'd be armed to the teeth.

[bemildred]

51. Much safer with no gun.

The statistics are quite clear.

[LannyDeVaney]

52. I don't know much about guns, but I'm trying to reach Officer Collier to get his answer

NM

[Tommy_Carcetti]

54. Speaking from experience....

....having been through an office shooting in my building several weeks ago and having to take refuge in my office, I can honestly say I didn't think about wishing I had a gun once. Not a single time. I just wanted to stay safe until the danger had passed. That's the honest to God truth.

As for Boston, there were hundreds of hundreds of armed police officers combing every street in the city. That, and my 34 inch aluminum baseball bat, would have been enough for me.

[Sunlei]

55. I'd feel safest if the police had a tracking dog that could follow a simple track- car to boat!!

[BellaLuna]

58. Having lived in the 'hood' for some time

No..I never had a gun nor would I have one.

I have been in situations with police helicopters overhead telling us to lock our homes over the loud speaker and stay inside.

I've had the police chasing someone through the yard a couple times etc..

Gun? No. They are trained to handle that stuff - I am not.


To me a phone is much more important in those situations.

And yes.. I'm glad I got out of that neighborhood.

[Blue_In_AK]

59. I've always felt safer without a gun.

I think I'd just lock myself in my house and take my chances.

[Prism]

61. My locks are riduculously strong

Maybe I'm more in sync with this because I just locked myself out today and realized how difficult/impossible it is to get in my place, but I'd b fairly confident of my front door should someone come bouncing about.

But then, I have one real point of entry - the front door. And it's a veritable barricade.

Would I feel the same if I lived in a 2500 sq ft home, with multiple low windows, back sliding glass doors, and a garage situation? Probably not as secure. And I might want that insurance.

But, I'm not in that situation, so I can't say. It always depends.

[Electric Monk]

62. You lifted this straight from Nate Bell.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022738661

[Skip Intro]

63. No, I didn't "lift" this from anyone.

It is a glaringly obvious question to anyone who has any sense of objectivity and a willingness to use it, and frankly I'd be troubled if simply seeing the question posed troubled me so.

What is it with you people who prefer to attack posters who think for themselves rather than sing from your hymnal?

I mean, everybody's gotta agree with you, and if they don't you attack them?

Seriously, what is your deal?

[Electric Monk]

67. If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, floats like a duck, and quacks "I like cjeek dgg" then..

[Electric Monk]

68. Crickets. Or, should I say, "Cjeek-dgts"? nt

[Warren Stupidity]

66. Probably not, it is just the shared gun-loon mindset.

[ileus]

64. Lock my house down get out mossy or the AR.

and surf the Internet while waiting for LEOs to knock on the door.

Lock my self defense firearms up let them do their search then rearm after they leave.

It's not like they're doing no knock warrants.