We returned from a three-day trip and found out we were robbed.
They didn't take much, but broke a back door open to get in. Lost a few things (ipad, camera, laptop, etc.) but that's not what I'm asking about.
If it happened when we're home, I'd be worried about personal safety. In fact, personal safety is the *only* thing I care about.
Googling, I see a 9mm or a revolver is a decent choice. But I don't know where to buy them.
What's the best place to buy such a handgun in California?
Hi Jim,
I would presume to look up gun stores in the yellow pages.
A revolver is a a better choice if you are not going to be doing a lot of fussing with it. They just work when you need them to.
An Auto (9mm) an be a lot more deadly when you need it, but they do require a lot of upkeep and more training.
I would recommend that you go to a gun store that is also a shooting range, take a course and try various guns.
Me personally, I am fond of .45. Fits my hand perfectly. And it has a devastating kill power. Plus there is not end to the customization. To me a revolver is like holding a door know -- very awkward in my hand. But everyone is different, so try them out.
-T
I agree with Todd about a revolver.
They are much more reliable than a semi-auto where stove-piping is not uncommon.
Get a lot of practice at a shooting range and keep your targets.
Post them on your front door as a deterrent. :-)
Look at why your house was targeted. I lived in a dicey neighborhood in Abq, NM. The robbers would just skip the houses with security and hit the easy targets. Guns won't stop the break-ins unless you are on-guard
24/7. I'm not against owning guns but you have to think about what really works. Security, Beware of Dog signs and security sticker on your windows. My neighbor had a big alarm right on the front of his house. Good Luck.
I've become rather fond of my FN Five seveN lately. Accurate, reliable, high capacity, and a high velocity, light weight round that tends not to over penetrate through walls and whatnot.
Open the yellow pages under "guns" or maybe gun store. Go in person to four or five of these stores, and tell them what you just said, here.
One or two might be idiots, and the rest will be common sense men or women who know just what you mean, and will be very polite and helpful. They will ask questions, so they know how to best meet your needs.
- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus
I agree, I'm sure the house was staked out and robbed because no one was home.
When my wife and I go on vacation we have a friend come and house sit.
Security cameras might do a better job than a gun.
Jim,
Andy makes a very good point. Practice is important with handguns. Unless you go out to the range regularly, buying a handgun is a waste of money.
Dave M.
Same ballistics as .22 Mag but more expensive ammo.
As others say, look for a gun shop. I also agree with others that a revolver is a better choice for someone that does not put in a lot of practice time as semi-automatics are more prone to malfunction. An even better choice for you may be a shotgun. A good pump shotgun can be had for maybe half the cost of a handgun and there may be less hassle to buy in California.
As others have said... first thing to do is harden the target. Good locks, signage indicating alarm system in place (you can buy ADT, etc signs on EBAY).
Gun? If you will only have one gun for in-home self-defense choose either a home defense shotgun (short barrel in 12 or 20 gauge) or something like a Taurus Judge in .45 Long Colt/.410 shotgun
The latter is a 5 shot revolver chambered to fire either .45 cal or .410 shotgun. Reliable and the ammo manufacturers are making some very devastating personal defense loads.
Don't let the caliber dissuade you. A friend bought one and his wife, a little slip of a thing who's all of 5 foot nothing, has "appropriated" it for her own personal firearm at home on their ranch. She loves to shoot it and it makes a great snake gun.
With either the shotgun or the Judge, you have a reliable weapon that doesn't require a lot of practice.
You don't have to be good, you just have to be CLOSE!
Much cheaper, legal more places, and you can actually get some use out of it if you DON'T get robbed - shoot skeet on the weekend, for example. .
On the other hand, can be awkward to maneuver inside a house, and at inside house distances there will be no spread, you are essentially shooting a loose slug. So you'll have to aim.
Outside the house you have no business engaging - that's what the police are for.
In California? I think trade shows still allow instant purchase. For reliability, revolver, that's why ALL police are issued revolvers, However, *IF* they get certified [whatever that means] with an automatic of their choice [long list of possible entries] they are allowed to carry that weapon into service. [at least, that's what I was told when I asked.]
PS: at close range, a perp can simply push the slide on an automatic rendering it unfireable. And in an emergency can reach OVER the top of a revolver placing the index finger/thumb webbing between the hammer and the ?? firing position, rendering a revolover unfireable [at a cost of cutting the webbing of the hand. PLUS, and this is an important consideration ANY weapon can be taken away and then used against you. So arm your self with 'soft pointy' cushions.
Now back to the matter at hand.
For less than ?? you could have lined your home with cameras and a controller that records ALL images that are then useable in a court of law. Try SuperCircuits in Austin, TX We have an 8 day/night camera system and trip inputs with the ability to connect to the internet and your cell phone, so when the doorbell rings, you are called, and when you answer [with the person on camera] you sound like you are there!
Contact Info: Supercircuits, Inc. 1.877.995.2288
11000 N Mopac Expressway, Suite 300 Austin, TX 78759Just put the controller out of reach so you can retrieve the images.
Also when you're gone use those programmable light switches. Get several. On off lights in a pattern look like you're going bathroom then bedroom and then nighty night. Plus, a TV [[more difficult to do today] Something about a flickering light that REALLY deters. Your home will be avoided, Not many burglars want that type of felony.
From experience, if you're not there the burglar [as long as he has no swag] can claim he broke in to gain shelter for the night, which is a misdemeanor! Even works *if* you're there, too. We used to live in a 15 room home in CA [meaning so large couldn't tell what was happening in some of the home] and someone broke in unbeknownst to us. In the morning, I left to go to a client's and my wife was awakened with the sound of the guy going through my closet! Upon being confronted, he ran. [You do NOT want to be on the wrong side of Ms. Macy] He was wearing my favorite suede leather jacket, she had just bought for me as birthday present from Saks, too. yechh! sweat spots all over it! As he ran out the door a passing San Jose bus driver en route, stopped his bus of passengers and personally apprehended the guy!
The police told me the story he 'volunteered' about looking for shelter for the night with his intent to avoid felony charges, etc but they didn't believe because he was wearing my jacket.
[Further note: the bus driver, an unusually brave dude, became nationally famous as the bus driver who refused to drive San Jose buses that had become unsafe from lack of proper maintenance. causing a bruhaha that never ended, yet did cause the city owned bus service to straighten up their act regarding maintaining safer buses.]
Doesn't hurt ot test the alarm or let it go off by accident once in a while, so anyone nearby knows it really functions.
The last thing burglars want to do is meet the people who live there.
In that regard, they seem sane compared to those who rob people on the street. Even though most of those don't go out of their way to harm people, they set themselves up for a situation in which they might.
The first summer I was here, 31 years ago, went out for dinner from 6 to
8 or so Sunday night. Came back and found the front door kicked in. Nothing taken. Perhaps the dog next door, who barked when I was trying to go to sleep and before I was ready to wake up, barked and scared him away. Stayed home from work the next day and rReinforced the door frame and put in a slightly longer (all I could find) dead bolt. Finished installing the alarm, with siren. Some poo-poo sirens, saying neighbors don't care, but afaic even if most don't, the burglars don't know that none of neighbors care. and especially if they're not in the house yet, why would they stick around with the siren going? Included wood-and-glass** breakage detectors, to set the alarm off before they're in.The seller of the house told me there were bars on the basement window, only about 12" high, because a thin guy had been breaking those windows and robbing the house that way. It took me 20 years to notice that the window was plastic, meaning this house was one of those robbed. He didn't tell me that part!
Pieces of wood or conduit in the sliding glass door channels, to keep them from opening when I'm out of town. Broom sticks above the sliding doors to keep them from being lifted out of the track, although Im' not sure one could do this when the door is closed. And OTOH, they could just break the whole door or window. I never hear about anyone breaking a sliding glass door to get into a house.
**This is sort of funny. I put in another doorbell in the basement, and then had to but a bigger doorbell transmitter. This made the ground floor doorbell louder. I found out later that every time someone delivered a package or a certified letter and rang the doorbell, it set of the burglar alarm, which was on a timer and stopped making noise long before I got home. Most of my townhouse neighbors are away during the day too, and the ones who knew about this didn't know me or just didnt' tell me. I didn't want to lower the sensitivity of the detectos, so I put a variety of reistors in the ground floor doorbell circuit until it didn't set off the alarm anymore.[snip]
You could not be more wrong. Since the mid-80's there has been a transition by law enforcement (city, county, state and federal) to semi-automatic pistols with pistols by Glock far and away the most widely selected due to a number of factors - high among them capacity and reliability.
With pistols there is a much greater need for training in the use due to the ease with which they can be fired.
BTW, despite the image in movies, most home burglaries are in the daytime when people are away, not at night when they're likely to be home and cause problems.
We had another string of burglaries 20 years ago. The guy would ring the doorbell, and if no one answered, go around back and break in there. In one case, the residents were both at work, but the mother of one of them was visiting. It took her a while to get up, put a robe and slippers on, and go down stairs to answer the door. By the time she'd done this, the burglar had gone around back, where the ground level was one flight lower, gotten in, and was walking up stairs from the basement. They both heard each other and both fled the way each had come, she up to the bedroom and he out the basement door.
Later, the police somehow figured out who he was, and staked out his home in the morning. They followed him until he got here, watched him ring the doorbell and go around back, and while he was inside, they called another car or two, including a police dog, and I think they put the helicopter on alert. But they got him as he was coming out the back door. The owner was annoyed that they let him rifle through drawers, but I didn't hear that he caused any damage. The police wanted an iron clad case, not just for b&e but for stealing. I believe he went to jail. It's been 20 years and he's probably out by now, but no burglaries here for years, afaik.
hmmm, you mean 'more wrong about' that's what I was told? or, the 'answer' I got? I believe your comment aobut Glock being preferred, since I found an obviously well-used one in the door of the man who stopped by to quote earth moving around our home here in AZ. He also was wearing a piece, and had another in his truck's glovebox. Oddly I saw no extra ammunition, which I think is necessary.
Anyway, not culpable for presenting, as you claim, erroneous statement. Plus, I did add the caveat that the information was what I was told when I asked. So go after the officer who explained all to me. He never said anything about auto's easier to fire, so need training to 'prevent' that. Again, he explained the transition to auto was requested by the officers, not by upper management bringing it upon them.
Your protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, you presented it thusly...
" In California? I think trade shows still allow instant purchase. For reliability, revolver, that's why ALL police are issued revolvers, However, *IF* they get certified [whatever that means] with an automatic of their choice [long list of possible entries] they are allowed to carry that weapon into service. [at least, that's what I was told when I asked.]
PS: at close range, a perp can simply push the slide on an automatic rendering it unfireable. And in an emergency can reach OVER the top of a revolver placing the index finger/thumb webbing between the hammer and the ?? firing position, rendering a revolover unfireable [at a cost of cutting the webbing of the hand. PLUS, and this is an important consideration ANY weapon can be taken away and then used against you. So arm your self with 'soft pointy' cushions.
Now back to the matter at hand. "
That is a direct quote from your post, nothing removed to change the context.
Nowhere therein do you have any caveat about the source, etc. nor do you mention what it is that "what I was told" applies to. It could have been all of it, it could have been merely the part about additional training. In any event, the information is wrong and anyone who cares to check it out can easily discern what is factual and what is not.
The ONLY reference you have with regard to a police officer telling you ANYTHING is the anecdote about the goof claiming he just went into the house for shelter.
Mossberg , among others , makes a short barreled version of their pump shotgun specifically for home defense - and other barrels are available if you want to use it for skeet or hunting . I have one , with a laser mounted they know you're on target ... something about the sound of chambering a round , then that red dot on the chest has a tendency to make burglars loosen their bowels ... I use task-specific home defense ammo , lower velocity so it has less chance of going thru walls .
PLUS, and this is an important
A good reason not to own a weapon unless one is thoroughly versed on all possible methods of self-defense.
BTW: Here is how a friend of mine handled the situation:
Case 1)
Case 2)
After what happened in "case 1" no one expected anyone would be dumb enough to try to rob the guy a 2nd time. There is no limit on stupidity however.
BTW: I put published a book on the place a few years ago.
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