What would you do in this scenario.

[AnthonyG 36]

Since I have become a firearm owner I always think back to a scenario that actually happened to me a few years back. It was about 230-3 in morning and someone rang my door bell, I turned on the porch light and it was a girl around my age 24-25ish in her pajamas no shoes and holding a dog. Not to mention this was winter and it was easily 30 degrees or colder out so I opened the door slightly, she says something to the effect. I am so sorry your house was the only one with a light on and I am house sitting 2 doors down at my uncles house and the alarm went off so I grabbed the dog and ran I need to call my uncle.

 

You cant really trust anyone especially at that time at night and I have heard of diversions set up like that to get people to open their doors to supposed "victims" so I told her to stay there Ill get her phone to call.I did so and once I realized it was a genuine situation I opened my door to her gave her my coat and my slippers, this was before I owned a gun by the way.

 

Once she called her uncle and he was sending a friend over I said ill check out the house for her and I went over and saw there is a motion detector in the house and the dog must have tripped it. Whoever she called was sending someone and I checked out the house so I told her I was glad everything's ok and keep the coat and slippers till tomorrow cause she had to wait for whoever to deactivate the alarm.

 

My question is this if a neighbor ran to your house and said someones broken into my house would you get your gun? Better yet say they get to your house and tell you my family members are still inside would you approach their property with your gun? I have a conflict in myself about this from time to time thinking about it, even with how illegal as I know it may be. I couldn't live with myself if I stood by and did nothing while my neighbors family might be getting attacked or killed. So what would you guys do?

[Mr.Shoot_It_All 13]

I would never (without proper licensing) leave the house strapped it stops at the front doorway

[PK90 3,573]

Call the police. It is their job, not yours.

[djg0770 481]

Depends.

[GregV 7]

Depends...........was this young lady hot? And did the door bell awaken my old lady?

[hd2000fxdl 422]

1st off, it's good that it was a real problem and not a setup for a rush on your home, it's not uncommon, unlocked door, alarm system probably off and one person in the home controlled. Just something for everyone to think about.

 

Now as far as clearing a house, I won't clear my own home unless one of my family members was not accounted for. A call to the police and wait in your best location to defend yourself. So if you would like to know if I would go clear another house, NO, a call to the police and let them respond. Now your neighbor, they can do what they like but I am keeping my family safe in my own home.

 

Harry

[vladtepes 1,060]

I would never (without proper licensing) leave the house strapped it stops at the front doorway

 

for me as well..

 

[/thread]

[XDJohnTact 49]

I would not open the door unless it was a neighbor I knew. At that point I would just get her into my house and lock the door. Then take my phone and call the cops.

[vjf915 456]

If I recognized the neighbor who was knocking on the door, then I would cautiously open the door. If I didn't recognize the person, no I wouldn't open the door, I'd just call the cops. In either scenario, I wouldn't approach my neighbors house with my firearm REGARDLESS of whether I legally could take my loaded firearm out my front door or not. That's just opening up a whole can of worms that I WON'T get into. I don't care if it sounds cold......but me and mine come before my neighbors.

[AnthonyG 36]

The police force is a joke in my town there are a total of 40 cops for 65,000 people, at night there might be a handful of cops actually working at that hour in the morning.By the time they got to my neighborhood based on where the PD is the robber(s) would be done and gone with whatever they wanted to do. I am not putting down the cops by any means they are good cops but they are severally under staffed and can not protect my town and they even say so themselves.

 

Back to the scenario, in my situation that happened there was no need to bring a gun and I even now being a gun owner would have not gone over with my handgun because there was nothing to protect, it was just a house and I agree with what some of you are saying.

 

If however I knew someone was being attacked or about to be murdered by an intruder 2 houses down I could not stay in my home. I would rather go to prison knowing I saved a good persons life then live free knowing I let someone good die.

 

I don't understand how others say they could remove themselves from such a situation, I respect everyone's opinions and decisions but there is a point where our humanity and what makes us human which is our mercy and compassion for other human beings should override laws created out of political agenda.

[AnthonyG 36]

Depends...........was this young lady hot? And did the door bell awaken my old lady?

 

She was pretty attractive but my actions would be the same regardless, I am not married yet but I told my gf about it after she was mixed about what happened lol, proud of me but wished the girl was a bearded man.

[vjf915 456]

She was pretty attractive but my actions would be the same regardless, I am not married yet but I told my gf about it after she was mixed about what happened lol, proud of me but wished the girl was a bearded man.

This is what's wrong with women. They hear a story like this, and their reaction is driven by how attractive the person was that you helped. Does she hear that you went out of your way to help an innocent person who could have been harmed? Nope.

 

Flame suit ON!!

[TacGuy911 25]

What happens if you go in the house and get hurt? What happens if you hurt someone that belongs in the house?? For example you take/don't take your gun.. You go over to the house that this girl claims someone broke in.. She tells you that the only people that belong in the house are her younger sisters.. You go in the house to make sure they are ok and get them out till police arrive.. You are walking through the house and all of a sudden a guy emerges from a room and attacks you.. (Scenario 1) You brought your gun.. You shoot the man... He dies or is seriously injured.. (Scenario 2) You don't have your gun.. But you fight the attacker and grab an item near by and strike him with it.. Turns out the man was the girls father/brother/cousin/boyfriend/acquaintance/relative's acquaintance.. Girl did not know at the time he was in the house or forgot he was staying with them.. What happens now?? You go to jail for a very long time.. Unless the guy is barely injured where he may be willing to just let it go as you had good intentions which I highly doubt will happen.. But on the flip side.. What happens if you get shot by a legitimate homeowner?? Or hurt seriously in any other matter.. Who is at fault?? You are in someone else's home.. It definitely is a tricky situation.. Because you want to help people who are in need.. But at the same time by doing so you put your future and life on the line.. To be honest.. Your best bet is to contact the police immediately.. Give any and all information you can.. That is pretty much all the advice I can give on this.. You going in only causes more problems..

[Anselmo 87]

Ironic that some people are worried about using force in their own house against an intruder and you want to head to a neighbor's house to confront an intruder.

 

I'm not trained to confront an intruder/bad guy/criminal person. I know who is who in my house and who doesn't belong. At my neighbor's two houses down, I don't know if the scuffle is a home invasion or a drunk, angry brother-in-law.

 

In the scenario presented, owning a gun does not bestow additional moral or ethical responsibility on you to go save your neighbors in violation of state law.

[alowerlevel 77]

I would never (without proper licensing) leave the house strapped it stops at the front doorway

 

 

Call the police. It is their job, not yours.

 

 

My thoughts exactly, stay inside my house with the guns and call the cops.

[AnthonyG 36]

Ironic that some people are worried about using force in their own house against an intruder and you want to head to a neighbor's house to confront an intruder.

 

I'm not trained to confront an intruder/bad guy/criminal person. I know who is who in my house and who doesn't belong. At my neighbor's two houses down, I don't know if the scuffle is a home invasion or a drunk, angry brother-in-law.

 

In the scenario presented, owning a gun does not bestow additional moral or ethical responsibility on you to go save your neighbors in violation of state law.

 

I understand where your coming from there's always the risk of potentially making a mistake or getting myself or someone innocent killed. I also agree with your statement about owning a firearm, firearms are protection of ones self you have no responsibility to others safety, a gun or not though I would not be able to stand by if I knew for certain something bad was happening.

[heaterbob 53]

pics?

[Malsua 1,422]

It's interesting how I'm divided on this one.

 

Where I grew up cops were simply not even a choice if there was an immediate problem. At any given time there were 2 deputies on duty for a county of 504 square miles. The only response you could get in under 20 minutes was fire but that was volunteer, so basically, it was your neighbors ANYWAY.

 

My immediate reaction to "There's a problem at the neighbor's house" is to grab a gun and go. You would call the cops, but they would show up 45 to 90 minutes later.

 

Now that I live in NJ, I have to break that instinct since even in my town, the cops usually respond within 5 minutes. Only if I saw someone about to be executed would I get a gun and leave my property and I'm more likely to grab the AR and put a bead on a bad guy's head....from a window.

 

The caveat to this situation would be a bear.

 

My neighbor 2 houses down had a full on bear entry. Husband was at work, she was taking a shower and a mid sized female bear entered the home and was ransacking the kitchen. She left, called the cops, all is fine...but what to do if the bear is actively chasing/mauling? You have to intervene, or at least, I would, damn the consequences.

[e80hydro 120]

Not that I need another dog, but, I would have taken the dog from her to make sure he or she was safe, and told the woman to get lost before I call the police on her.

[AnthonyG 36]

She left, called the cops, all is fine...but what to do if the bear is actively chasing/mauling? You have to intervene, or at least, I would, damn the consequences.

 

This is my point exactly

[Babaganoosh 192]

Not that I need another dog, but, I would have taken the dog from her to make sure he or she was safe, and told the woman to get lost before I call the police on her.

 

Whaaaa?

[NJScott 15]

This is my point exactly

 

Even though the neighbor in this story could not save a woman's life, I would hope I'd have the poise and cool-headedness to react the way he did:

 

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/crime/2009-09-16/story/flagler_deputies_investigating_apparent_murder_suicide

 

This one hits home as we lived in Palm Coast for a couple of years in the early 90's. It had a surprising amount of violent crime for a "small" town back then, and seems like things haven't changed much for the better. I guest-shot at a range on the outskirts of town a few times back then and mostly saw old time locals there. Since many of the new arrivals to PC were transplants from the northeast (mostly Long Island, where ITT had a real estate sales office), gun ownership and range shooting were not big attractions in general for them, apparently. But God Bless Carl Martin for arming himself and defending his family and home, or they could have become victims in this sad case.

 

Regards,

Scott

[Dan 177]

I would treat the 2am unknown knocker as a potential threat. Call the cops. I would not leave my home or property with my gun outside of exemptions except under very limited circumstances. Circumstances in which a) you know you will go to jail, b) loose your right to ever own a gun again, c) potentially loose your life or be seriously injured... basically circumstances in which a family member/loved one is actively being attacked in a life threatening situation close enough off my property for me to get to them, and the cops would take too long to get to... and using a gun is the only way to save them. This is an extreme hypothetical situation, but demonstrates how I feel its a bad idea to play vigilante.

 

Also, remember NJ laws state "property", so technically it is legal to be outside your house on your property with your gun. Even so, in an active threat situation, unless something meets the criteria above... no reason to go outside.