I'm like Nigel...a target shooter. I'm from the South, and I inherited lots of guns from my family, and added to the collection. Since selling my farm in 2000, I haven't shot a gun once and don't plan to.

I'd gladly give my collection up with no compensation expected if there were a way to assure that a total effort to reduce the number of guns and the crooks would work. Most of my pieces...over 100, are single shot or hand-made...not ideal for defense. Intentionally, a few are.

There have been two times in my life when I needed a gun for protection, and, without them, either my mother or I or both would have been seriously hurt. I was seriously injured by a
drug addict 7 years ago at my warehouse, by a fellow I had befriended, and the only thing that saved me was a pistol I keep in the office.

I was 6 in Fairbanks, Alaska when a guy, high on drugs tried to break into our home. My dad was in the military, on alert at Ladd AFB. My mom was flat on her back; restricted to bed at 8 months pregnant. I was the oldest of three children. After several hours of attempts at different windows, the guy finally broke the one into the kitchen. I had brandished my little 410/22 over and under, but that didn't seem to make any impression. There had been several rapes and robberies in the area, which was fairly desolate. There was three feet of snow on the ground and no phones.

When the guy advanced, I shot him in the knee with the 410 shotgun barrel. When he got up and continued his aggressive movements, I shot him in the other knee. I watched over him for three hours until the sun came up and then sent my younger brother to get our neighbor.

I was required to see a psychiatrist at the base. When asked if I had any regrets, I said I wish I had hurt him worse. If he had gotten up again, I would have shot him with both a slug round and the 22. I had used # 8 (bird) shot to stop him previously.

The psychiatrist thought I was fine. I saw the guy many times, limping around downtown Fairbanks, snarling at me.

But, guess what? He never bothered us again, and finally was caught and convicted committing a rape and robbery.

No 6 year old should have to go thru that kind of thing.

I hope I NEVER have to hurt anyone again, but if I were in a similar circumstance, I certainly would.

That said, even though I'm a southerner, I agree with Chas on this issue. That's probably because he's bigger than I am!


Russ

I don't even own a gun. I don't see why they should take my neighbor's gun because some crazy person shot people 1000 miles away. If my neighbor would have been there he would have shot the evil doer. I am for not selling a gun to an idiot, and I agree that background checks should be used. I don't want any loonies walking around with guns either. It's not the gun, It the �ASSHOLES� holding the gun.

Exactly Boo, it is those assholes that need to be prevented from obtaining guns. But the NRA don't even want to make that concession and that is the problem. Your neighbor with a gun would probably pass that check. If he didn't well so be it.

Only once I have had to threaten with a gun. 20 years ago there was a knock at our front door and it was a woman saying she had been raped and that 3 men had her car. She got away by telling them she needed to go to the bathroom and was let out of the car outside of our place. I rang 911 and reported it. A few minutes later there was a knock at my door and it wasn't the police. It was the 3 men who she accused of rape. I just tapped the barrel of my 9MM Beretta on the frosted glass on the front door and told them to leave or I would shoot. They left. The 9MM was actually broken at the time and wouldn't have actually worked, but they left and were stopped a couple of minutes later by the police. But I could have probably tapped anything metal on the glass and threatened to shoot and they would still have gone away.

...and yet the insanity plea is the first thing they come up with.

Captain Russ, that is quite a story. To go through something like that is as bad as it gets at any age. Especially as a young kid. The reason I hate guns is I from Bosnia and trough war some days in a day you see a lifetime of bad stuff.

Taike, from what I usually see on tv or internet those people with guns that you mentioned that go to bars or a churches with their guns and call their second amendment is usually the only amendment they heard of .

All this gun-related violence has nothing to do with illegals yet illegals get blamed for everything that's wrong with the US. The reality is that this is American on American violence. Be glad you're living in Canada, Mirza.

Having a gun in the house makes one feel safer? How so? Does one, upon hearing the door bell, open the door carrying a cocked gun? Also, even a background check doesn't guarantee anything.

Although not recent, it should give you a good idea of what's wrong with having a gun in the house:
http://nyagv.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Accidental-Shootings-NYAGV.pdf