> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Jan Coffey
... > Everyone here is imaginative enough to write fiction I assume. So > Imagine a > situation where someone brakes into your home and quietly sneaks into your > room while you are asleep. Then you wake, and see a large man standing in > your room. Quickly you run to the gun closet and extract the > rifle, then you > run to the "elsewhere" you have the bolt locked in. Now to the ammunition. > Then you load the weapon (yea like you could do all that with a > 220 pound man > attacking you, but let's pretend you could). Now the home invader > is 2 feet > from you too close for you to pint the business end of the rifle > at him and > still be able to pull the trigger in such a way that you are sure > you won't > be blowing your own head off. He is bigger and stronger than you and so he > takes the gun from you and pummels you to death with it. > > If only you had a loaded handgun within arms reach... > > Back to reality, what do you do? Don't think it can't happen to you, it's > happened to me twice. I'd hate to be the firefighter who comes into your house to rescue you, after you've been breathing enough smoke to have trouble making sense of things. Sounds like he or she would stand a good chance of taking a round or two. You'd be astounded at the crazy things people do, mostly involving hiding from the scary firefighters, when they're woken up abruptly in the middle of the night, partially poisoned by smoke. Sesame Street found that preschoolers hide from firefighters; other studies found that adults often do, too. Even without smoke, strange lights and noises, plenty of us wake up less than alert, especially in the dead of night. Lock your doors. Get an alarm. Have a webcam that sends photos of intruders off-site continuously, so they'll know they'll be recognized eventually (yeah, doesn't work so well for banks and 7-11s, but it helps). I think it's a bad idea to suggest that most people can wake up in a very, very frightening situation and immediately be aware enough of what's going on to handle a firearm. Trained professionals make serious mistakes when they're wide awake! There are some institutions, such as the Coast Guard (I'm told) where one is considered legally insane for the first 30 seconds or so after being woken up. Dial 911, for heaven's sake. I've been utterly terrified by the sound of fighting cats (in the next room) in the dead of night, leaving me confused for minutes, a sound that by day wouldn't surprise me at all. I mean cats in a serious fight, not the play-fighting they do when they like each other. And a couple of strong earthquakes that woke me out of a deep sleep also left me less than rational for a little while. This is not to say that I can't wake up and function quickly -- had to do that plenty as a paramedic. But this idea of going from sleep to handling a firearm in moments strikes me as asking for trouble. Spend the money on keeping the bad guys out, with all the ways that can be done, from stronger homes to better social programs. > How about this one: A young thug runs into your child's classroom > and points > a gun at him or her, his finger is on the trigger. And this happens how often? *Crazy* people shoot up schools, not young thugs. > You would prefer your child's teacher to: > A) fullishly believing that the gun must be fake becouse they are illegal. > B) be running from the room screaming. > C) be ducking under his desk trying to reason with the boy. > D) have a large cumbersome rifle he is trying desperately to > unlock from the > closet across the room. > E) be brandishing a 40 caliber automatic pistol pointed at the thug in the > manner he was trained. > F) be dead on the floor becouse the thug clobered him from behind just 45 > seconds ago and took his gun. How about just what the cops say to do in any such situation -- cooperate? Add hope and prayer as you wish. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
