[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Masklinn: [QB]Cerek : Quote: look towards our house, reach behind his seat and pull out a rifle

So this guy was dangerous cause he had a gun...therefor you feel the need to have one yourself for protection, then the bad guys can't do bad stuff without guns cause all good guys have one, so they get themselves one etc...etc...[/QUOTE]Yes, the man was dangerous - even more so because he had a gun. If he had just jumped out of his truck and ran into the woods, I wouldn't have felt nearly as threatened. However, he looked towards the house, then pulled a rifle out of the truck, then looked BACK towards our house. At that moment, I honostly didn't know if this guy was going to shoot at the house, use the gun to try to force his way in, or what. I DID know that my father was watching his every move from the living room and had his own gun out in case the guy tried to do any of the above. And I most assuredly felt "safer" knowing that fact than I would have if we had NO guns in the house and would have had to face this guy unarmed.

It turns out that he was being chased by the police and had come down our driveway by accident - so that makes him even more dangerous. I am certain that he briefly considered trying to break into the house and prepare for a standoff with the police. However, I live in the Southern part of the U.S. - where many people DO own guns and WILL shoot you if they feel threatened. Apparantly, this guy had a sudden attack of common sense and fled away from the house rather than towards it.

Originally posted by Masklinn This is a vicious circle. And that results in more domestic accidents like this one.

Sorry, but you're wrong here. It is not a "vicious circle" because most of the "bad guys" have guns already. The only thing that kept the guy from coming towards our house that night was the thought that we MIGHT have a gun too...and that we would use it if necessary. As it turns out...there was NO violence at all that night. Neither the "bad guy" nor my dad had to fire a single shot....and the police managed to catch the guy without incident the next day.

As for "more domestic accidents" - I've grown up with guns. We always had one (or more) in the house....and I've never had any "accidents" with them. That's because my father taught me how to handle a gun safely at a young age. He also let me know that I was NEVER to touch the gun unless he was with me - and I never did.

I've kept a loaded gun in a house with children for 6 years now. My boys have never gone near my guns, even though they know where they are. They also know they are forbidden to go near them. I know they won't always follow that rule..so that is why I will most likely keep them unloaded from now on and keep the bullets in a separate (and safe) place. That means I'm "compromising" my ability to defend my family from an intruder - to a certain degree anyway, but that's a trade-off I have to consider making.