Don’t Be a Victim in Your Own Home

Remember Beverly Hills: 90210, well… it’s more like Buckhead, GA 30327. Buckhead consistently ranks near the top of the rankings among surveys in the southeast for highest median incomes and real estate prices. It’s a target rich environment for the predators of the world and this fact couldn’t have been more evident this past-Saturday evening.

According to WSB-TV the ABC News affiliate in Atlanta, a home invasion turned into a robbery and kidnapping. WSB reported that the owners of the home, both husband and wife, returned home Saturday evening as the perpetrator was inside their home. The homeowners were robbed of their possessions, kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to an ATM, where they were forced to withdraw cash. The full story can be found here.

Whether you are present (home invasion) or not (burglary), it’s not a good feeling to know that someone else was or is in your home. So, what can you do to prevent something like this from happening? First off, an alarm system is a good start, but what happens when you’re home and you don’t arm the system for “stay”? Or, you run out to the restaurant around the corner to grab some take-out and in the blink of an eye, your house gets burglarized. Even worse, you come home while the burglar is there and you get put into a situation where these Buckhead homeowners found themselves. Being armed during an encounter like this may have ended the crime.

In early December 2014, a Brookhaven, GA resident was home at 1030 a.m. when a burglar rang the resident’s doorbell several times. The burglar kicked in the front door, presuming the house was vacant. In this case, the resident was home and shot the burglar once, striking him in the head, ending the home invasion. Some nay-sayers would believe that the crime didn’t justify the outcome and to them I ask, have you ever been a victim of a violent crime? If the resident wasn’t armed, would he or she have been another murder, battery, or rape statistic?  The fact is: a burglary occurs every 15 seconds in the United States!

Where Do I Keep Firearms at Home?

So, where should you store firearms at home? The political answer is a safe or lockbox, somewhere unauthorized person(s) cannot access it; this includes your children, nanny, handyman, dog walker, etc. Somewhere strategic also helps, but unfortunately a firearm in a lockbox may still take too long to access during a home invasion. So, unless you’re taking our Vice President’s advice and schlepping around a double-barrel scattergun, why not keep it on you? Some of your friends may laugh at you and call you paranoid, but who cares? Lets see what they do when their neighbor’s house gets burglarized.

Carrying a pistol on you while you’re at home keeps it away from unauthorized person(s). Instead of leaving four or five pistols under couch cushions, you just need one to keep on you (or maybe two). Theoretically, it’s quickly accessible and it’s a safe place, so long as you keep your booger hook off the bang switch until fate dictates otherwise.

It’s important to know your state’s laws on carrying a firearm (even inside your home) and I do not advocate carrying at home unless your state law allows for it. Also, even thought the majority of states have a form of the Castle Doctrine enacted, make sure you know your state laws regarding defense of your habitation, as some states are quite anti-second amendment.

So, as long as you practice, train, know the law of your state, and you are a responsible gun owner, why not carry on?