Decius wrote:

The legal ruling that the District's citizens can keep loaded handguns in their homes doesn't mean that they should.

Just nine of those shootings were legally justifiable homicides or acts of self-defense; guns kept in homes were also involved in 12 accidental deaths, 41 criminal homicides and a shocking 333 suicides.

In Atlanta, a city where approximately a third of households contain guns, a study of 197 home-invasion crimes revealed only three instances (1.5 percent) in which the inhabitants resisted with a gun. Intruders got to the homeowner's gun twice as often as the homeowner did.

I know a lot of people who explain their gun ownership based on the theory that they are going to defend themselves from some sort of home invasion. I think of this a bit like I think of Ralphie Parker's dreams of fending off Black Bart with his BB gun. In general, your home is not going to be invaded while you are there, and you are not going to defend yourself this way if it does happen. Shooting can be a fun hobby, but you're not John Wayne.

You might want to ask around, and ask how many gun owners carry while in their own homes?

I know of several people in the Atlanta and Nashville community who answer the door with a pistol in hand, or at least on the hip, and keep one at hand all day.

When I'm at home on the weekends, like right now, my weapon is beside me on the floor, locked and loaded, inside it's shooting bag. I would certainly be able to get my hands on it in less than 5 seconds.

Weapons are there to protect my family. I'm not any TV character, I'm a guy who knows that there are evil people out in this world, who have no respect or values, and would take my life, liberty, children, or anything else that they wanted, if given 1/2 a chance. Home invasions are real. People died in them. I hope they skip my house, and go somewhere else, however, it's just statistical math. If they come in, and can beat my 5 second response time, I'm just as fucked as my neighbors who don't have weapons. However, if I beat them, it's going to be a very different result.

As a direct example, see http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/06/22/invasion_0623.html, where Homeowner wounds would-be burglar.

Had he not been armed, he would have been robbed, AGAIN.

RE: Guns for Safety? Dream On, Scalia. - washingtonpost.com