I've never had to draw my gun in self defense....Until now.

[Catbird]

Via Xavier Thoughts: Here is a first hand account of using a gun in self defense, written just after it happened.

11:30 p.m. EST I'm in the family room watching 300. Daughter #3 (11 yr old) fell asleep on living room floor watching a DVD. Her mom dozing off on the couch. Daughter # 2 (21 yr old) in her bedroom getting ready for bed.

Front door is mostly closed but open enough to let cool night air in until my own bedtime.

Daughter #1's Good Infidel Dog (feisty little fox/rat terrier) is visiting for a couple weeks while said daughter is taking late night classes in Philly.

Suddenly that dog goes absolutely apeshit.

Groggy wife thinks he needs to go out and do his thing. Leashes him up, opens the door. . .

and is face to face with someone getting ready to come in. As she describes him a light skinned male wearing a hoodie with hood up. Best look she can get in the dark.

She let's out an "Oh Jesus Christ!" and slams the door. Daughter # 2, who came to the living room when she heard the dog, screams at the top of her lungs. Daughter # 3 keeps sleeping.

>>link<<

This account is a good reminder to take into account the reactions of your dogs when considering a defense scenario, especially in the home. The dog always knows when someone or something is there before any humans do.

[Dedicated_Dad]

While I'm glad everyone is OK, and it sounds like all-in-all he handled himself well, it could also have been a perfectly innocent moron meaning no harm.

Kid starts up walk, dog goes berzerk. Wife opens door just as kid reaches to knock on the door.

Gnome-sane?

Just a thought... While I want everyone safe, and want criminals safely-DEAD, I don't want anyone I "know" to end up on the wrong end of a mistaken-identity shoot...

DD

[Aglifter]

Admittedly, my back ground could be different, but I've never encountered someone innocently coming up to a house at 11:30 at night.

[rightisright]

Admittedly, my back ground could be different, but I've never encountered someone innocently coming up to a house at 11:30 at night.

I think kids are a lot dumber these days!

[Flintlock Tom]

Triple Bacon Rations Tomorrow

Good dog, good dog.

[Guncrazy]

Admittedly, my back ground could be different, but I've never encountered someone innocently coming up to a house at 11:30 at night.

I've done it, actually. Although not quietly--didn't want to seem like I was sneaking.

Went parking on an unpaved, little-used road out in the sticks, and got stuck. Had to wake somebody up, because nobody had cell phones back then, and I had to get her home before midnight.

Actually, I guess you're still right. I wasn't exactly "innocent"...

Never saw the shotgun, but I'll bet it was behind that old guy's cracked front door.

[Erik]

I've had that happen to me. I lived way out in a rural area, and someone came knocking on the door very late at night. This was also before cellphones, and he was stuck with his car in a pile of snow half a mile down the road.

And yes, I had something behind the door when I opened, and he never saw it either.

But to get back to the OP, if that was an innocent guy walking up to the house, I would expect him to stick around, if nothing else then to avoid causing a police alarm. Maybe go back to the road or something, and stand in plain view so the people inside can see who he is, and he can sort out any misunderstanding. That's what I've always done the few times I've happened to cause concern somewhere.

[chrisb]

Walking up to someone's front door with a raised hoodie, when it is not cold out, is a good way to get shot at.

[workinwifdakids]

Walking up to someone's front door with a raised hoodie, when it is not cold out, is a good way to get shot [strike]at[/strike].

[Aglifter]

From my youth (also involving getting a young woman.) Before cell phones, and there still isn't any coverage out there.

Pull up to rancher's house -- this means I've already driven well off the road, down his driveway. Step out of the car, and yell, "Hello in the house!" Hands out, away from my body, and visible, I remember the headlights were off, might have left the parking lights on. Hear some crunching noises, smell a dog, keep facing forward, until the rancher gets behind me, and says hello.

I fully expected him to have the shotgun on him, and that he'd have the dog w. him. Unfortunately, when the young lady had gotten lost, and stopped to ask directions (she saw the lights on at his house from the road, so she drove up), she saw the revolver in his hand, and took off running back to her car, and proceeded to get herself really lost. (Yes, if I had been a gentleman, she would not have driven herself out to my ranch, but I was a teenager, not a gentleman.)