I cant believe how far we have come as a country, and how emasculated we are when the majority of people on a gun board recommend that you dont even secure your own house. Yes I am aware of the legal complications involved with any shooting, but calling the police because a door is open? Sounds more like something that I would hear a do-gooder, pantywaist from NPR suggest. Come on! Unless I am sure there is someone in my house I am not calling the police. AS has been mentioned earlier, you are giving them carte blanche to search your house for one thing. (EBR's and ammo cans are frowned upon by many).
The main reason though? It is MY HOUSE. I am a sovereign, independent citizen. I am the man of my house, the King of my Castle. You can take it as sounding like a blowhard, immature, or whatever you choose to call it. Notice I am not talking about how to sneak up on an intruder and stab them so that they expire silently, but doggone it if I hear a bump in the night I will arm myself and investigate that bump. I have done it several times, so far it has always been perfectly harmless. My grandpa is pushing 80 now, and he has probably gone to investigate bumps, nois, and lights hundreds of times over the years. What are you gonna do, call the cops every time that happens? Especially when it will take them 45 minutes to get from town out to where you are?
If I leave the bedroom at night and go exploring, my wife sits behind the bed with her gun and her cell phone, ready to call 911 if I yell or start shooting.
Certain parts of this board have gotten WAAAY to PC. There is far too much dependence upon police and others being demonstrated here. As cliche as it sounds, and as much as I know it will be spun as being immature, I have to say it. Be A Man!
The airsoft scenario is fatally flawed. It makes quite a list of suppositions.
1. The bad guy is aware of my entry or presence.
2. The bad guy does not flee to avoid confrontation.
3. Both conditions above are met and the BG is smart enough to lay in silent wait for me as opposed to charging out to the confrontation.
4. The bad guy has enough force-on-force training, or experience, or guts etc... that he is able to hit what he is aiming at in a hurry, much less be lethal with whatever Saturday night special he is using.
5. The bad guy, who is in all likelihood untrained, unskilled, nervous, possibly strung out, and in unfamiliar territory, is going to be able to outwit, outmaneuver, and out shoot me on my own stomping grounds.
All this is even assuming that there is someone where to begin with, when that is SO rarely the case.
Also, I dont know it is where ya'll live, but around here they dont send the SWAT team, Green Berets, Seals, or any tye of paramilitary forces trained in dynamic entry. They send regular police. How many of you have ever trained with, or practiced with police officers. There are some who are very enthusiastic about the gun/warrior/sheepdog/whatever you want to call it lifestyle, and they have taken it upon themselves to improve their skills in many areas. By and large though, most of them rely on what they learned in the academy, and those 12 weeks of callisthenics's, classroom learning, and occasional range time or mat time dont begin to give them the same level of training or experience many here would try to ascribe to them.
A VERY good friend of mine is a police officer in the next town down from me. From what he has told me of his fellow officers, and from what their armorer has told me, my friend is the only one who has any type of real interest in firearms or H2H, and I know for a FACT that he hasnt fired his duty weapon in over a year, shoots maybe only 3-4 times a year with a .22. He is interested, but doesnt have the money to do much shooting, and doesnt make the time for it really either. That doesnt give me a whole lot of confidence in the rest of that department either.
Now I would say that our local sheriff's department has an unusual amount of skill, experience, and ability. There are about 4 guys on that department who I think could handle themselves in just about any situation that he face. (One of them has been kind enough to spend a lot of time with me, especially before I was married, and taught me a whole lot.) But you know what, none of those guys learned what they know from their LEO training. They are all hobbyist, exmil, etc... And as for the local PD? I would be afraid to go to the range with most of those guys
Aint no way I would want them in my house! Especially with the record they have had the last few years for theft, negligence, and drug dealing.
