Anyone sleep with a weapon?

[Gogl]

Carrying a spare tyre doesn't make road debris get sharper and nor can road debris use your spare tyre against you. Oh and you can't be prosecuted for changing your tyre in an overly aggressive fashion.

Having a weapon doesn't make you any more likely to be burgled and doesn't make it any less likely that they'll flee if disturbed. And you'll still be left stranded if you get a puncture and you don't have a spare.

Is one of these things where people completely fail to assess the risk correctly and mitigate disproportionately.

As was mentioned earlier by someone I think keeping your loved ones safe is perhaps the best course of action. You seem to be assuming having a weapon means going Rambo on an intruder and I guess this could be the inference, but it's not what I'd do or recommend. There were a few break-ins very close to where I live a while back, and when I hear a sound now I usually pick up something to hand and check it out. Funnily enough just a couple of nights back I heard what sounded like the recycling bin being clipped, but most likely it was some glass stacked up that had slipped, that time I didn't take anything when checking.

I suppose I have the choices of not investigating or going unarmed, but I don't really like the idea of either of those, I'm not sure that any intruder who wouldn't tackle someone unarmed would go "Oh look he has a baseball bat, I was going to flee but I think I'll try and take it off him to beat him up". More likely people get injured in this way when they go mental and find that they are out of their depth.

I don't care about the prospect of being prosecuted, that old line is popularized by the Daily Mail et al jumping on every case, not that they aren't right to for those involved, but it distorts the reality. Generally you would only need to worry if you prevent them from leaving and then employ the weapon or use it excessively.

One thing I've got from this though, I probably don't make enough noise when I go to check things out. Still I'd rather not ignore things altogether and I'd rather not go unarmed.

What would you consider the best course? Do you think picking up something invites being attacked by an intruder?

 

[areksnumbr1sxylady]

to those that do keep a weapon nearby. You realise that the law states that you may use REASONABLE force to defend YOURSELF or YOUR FAMILY, and that the use of a baseball bat or knife or ASP probably wouldn't be classed as reasonable.

Also @JaWalks you of course realise that if you are pulled over and the police find tha they WILL throw the book at you and if you use it to beat anybody off that is trying to carjack you are breaking the law right? hell you are breaking the law by simply carrying in the cabin of the car let alone by your seat

reasonable force by UK laws would be use of a pillow to defend yourself... Thin pillow, even that is border-line since you can bruise someone.

 

[£15]

I think that's what the media may have us believe. But in reality, cases of people defending themselves and being prosecuted don't happen that often. According to my Solicitor friend, anyway.

 

[Fuzz]

Good point actually, I have a 6-D cell maglite behind the headboard too. I'd forgotten about that one.

 

[dcsarge]

Who needs a weapon when you can simply shout 'Oh good, we have visitors. Darling could you let the Gimp out of his room while I find the lube?'.

This should be followed up with rattling door handles, grunting noises and stamping feet.

 

[Efour]

Who needs a weapon when you can simply shout 'Oh good, we have visitors. Darling could you let the Gimp out of his room while I find the lube?'.

This should be followed up with rattling door handles, grunting noises and stamping feet.

address ?

 

[dcsarge]

Hang on, that wasn't a party invitation

 

[bitslice]

reasonable force by UK laws would be use of a pillow to defend yourself... Thin pillow, even that is border-line since you can bruise someone.

Steady on there Rambo, the intruder could have a feather or latex allergy, the whole encounter could turn nasty.
I'd suggest holding up a picture of a pillow whilst screaming "I'm going to smack this picture of a pillow in your face if you don't leave right now"
Unless he's a Muslim, in which case show him into your daughters room, it would be racist not to.

 

[asim18]

I keep a 5' non-olympic barbell with a single 5KG plate on one end. I tried practice-swinging with a 10KG plate but it's just double the effort for the same amount of death.

 

[memyselfandi]

There's a multi-D cell heavy metal maglite in a drawer in my room ... but that is more for being able to navigate around in the dark if the light circuit trips (and has been used for such before).

If someone broke in ... well I'd probably make a lot of noise and push the chest of drawers in front of the bedroom door whilst phoning the Police.

When next door got burgled (for car keys) the Police were there in under 3mins apparently, it helps living <100yards from one of the main and largest police stations in the city. Of the houses which have been burgled in my street it seems to have been those without burglar alarms which have been hit and the ones with haven't (I have got one) ... it's not necessarily the case of being paranoidly secure but just more secure, and hence a more problematic target, than the others around you.

 

[stufflol]

Racist

 

[isonomicjedi]

Is his toilet a 15 minute walk away in the middle of a council estate? :/

Just cracked me up when I read this.


+10000000000

 

[Soundood]

I have a hammer, in my bedside cabinet, and also one by the front door

I have three kids and a wife to protect, if someone breaks in during the night, I am prepared to use it on them, if I need to.

if they run, great. If they want to have a go, or try and do a 'tie up' on the family, the better pick a god very quickly.

I have never been, nor do I intend to be, the victim.

prep is everything

 

[MrMoonX]

No.

I live in a nice house, in a nice area .

+1

So many people here pretending to be hard! I'm sure the reality when faced with an intruder would be to wet your panties, you don't need weapons to grow your epeen

 

[Biohazard]

I like the thinking that living in a nice area excludes the possibility of a house break in.. if anything it's rather stupid.

If I'm a robber I'm not going to target people with nothing.

 

[valerian]

IN uk a sward, in USA 45 ACP in very list... one of my girls says i sleep with a shot gun. Sometimes thats true.

has it got a hair trigger ha ha

 

[Akagi]

'It's just a torch, Your Honour. In case there's a power cut and I need to get up in the middle of the night.'

 

[Derek W]

I have a hammer, in my bedside cabinet, and also one by the front door

I have three kids and a wife to protect, if someone breaks in during the night, I am prepared to use it on them, if I need to.

if they run, great. If they want to have a go, or try and do a 'tie up' on the family, the better pick a god very quickly.

I have never been, nor do I intend to be, the victim.

prep is everything

What happens if they break in and around your front door. Havent you just armed them with a hammer?

 

[[DOD]Asprilla]

Having a weapon doesn't make you any more likely to be burgled and doesn't make it any less likely that they'll flee if disturbed. And you'll still be left stranded if you get a puncture and you don't have a spare.

As was mentioned earlier by someone I think keeping your loved ones safe is perhaps the best course of action. You seem to be assuming having a weapon means going Rambo on an intruder and I guess this could be the inference, but it's not what I'd do or recommend. There were a few break-ins very close to where I live a while back, and when I hear a sound now I usually pick up something to hand and check it out. Funnily enough just a couple of nights back I heard what sounded like the recycling bin being clipped, but most likely it was some glass stacked up that had slipped, that time I didn't take anything when checking.

I suppose I have the choices of not investigating or going unarmed, but I don't really like the idea of either of those, I'm not sure that any intruder who wouldn't tackle someone unarmed would go "Oh look he has a baseball bat, I was going to flee but I think I'll try and take it off him to beat him up". More likely people get injured in this way when they go mental and find that they are out of their depth.

I don't care about the prospect of being prosecuted, that old line is popularized by the Daily Mail et al jumping on every case, not that they aren't right to for those involved, but it distorts the reality. Generally you would only need to worry if you prevent them from leaving and then employ the weapon or use it excessively.

One thing I've got from this though, I probably don't make enough noise when I go to check things out. Still I'd rather not ignore things altogether and I'd rather not go unarmed.

What would you consider the best course? Do you think picking up something invites being attacked by an intruder?

My point was that in 99.999% (figure plucked from air) of burglaries or attempted burglaries there is no confrontation and burglars don't want one. If disturbed they will leg it.

However, if someone is expecting a confrontation they will come armed and if you are similarly armed then it makes a fight more likely. They are most likely more prepared for it than you. This puts your family at risk. Intruders don't want you or your family, they want your stuff. If they are that determined then let them have it.

 

[davejh666]

There was a program on a little while ago, can't remember what it was called, but it was all about cars being stolen, and more specifically how thieves are breaking into houses to steal car keys to get the cars.

Anyway, one doctor (who lived in a very nice area - so for all those saying it is only **** areas where there is trouble) had his house broke into whilst his family and himself were upstairs asleep. The definitely took the car keys (stole the car) and I think some other little bits (might have been laptop/purse/wallet etc).

The doctor said when interviewed on the program how he wished he had kept his keys upstairs with him. The advice he got from the 'expert' was that his car was stolen to order, and as such if the keys had been upstairs, the thieves would have come upstairs to find them and therefore his family would have been in 'harms way'.

I think if I heard anyone downstairs I would just leave them to it whilst quietly calling the old bill and getting in the kids room and pushing the bed against the door. I don't think going downstairs when you don't know how many there are, or what they have armed themselves with is a good idea.