Another reason to Home Carry - or Carry Home

Gun Watch ^ | 16 February, 2015 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Matthew Haight survived an encounter with a burglar, but not by much.  He acknowledges that he made mistakes, and they cost him a great deal.

Link to video at kirotv.com:

Haight come home from watching the Superbowl on Sunday night, the 1st of February, 2015 in Snohomish County, Washington State.   When he walked up the stairs to his apartment, he discovered that something was not right.  The door was unlocked.  That is when he made a mistake.  He went inside to investigate.  This is an easy mistake to make.  Sometimes people forget to lock doors.  Sometimes they give keys to other people.  It is impractical to call the police every time that you simply find a door unlocked, unless you are rigorous in your security protocols.  Matthew does not say if there were signs of a forced entry.  If that were the case, a call to 911 is a good idea.  At least you will have backup on the way.

There are things that you can do differently, of course.  If you have a dog, and they do not greet you or come to you, your warning level will rise significantly. 

You can have a weapon with you.  Matthew had not taken his pistol with him, but had left it in a closet, unloaded.  Some would say that was the second mistake.

Matthew entered, and ended up face to face with the burglar.  It is not clear if he could have accessed his pistol from the closet before the encounter.  From kirotv.com:

Haight says he acted on instinct by running to his closet to grab his gun and load it.

"Unfortunately for me, everything went south,” said Haight.

The burglar followed him and they struggled.

Sometimes acting on instinct works.  Many times it does not.  This was one of those times.   We cannot know if there would have been a different outcome if the pistol had been loaded, and we are not told how long it took to load it.  But with a hostile on your tail, a fraction of a second can be too long.  It was in this case.  Matthew says:

"I wasn't able to raise the gun up in time to aim at him."

A little training in retention techniques or hand to hand might have helped.  We are not told if Matthew had any.  They struggled. Matthew felt the gun twisting in his hand; then it was fired and a bullet went through his stomach and colon and out his back.  He faces a long and painful recovery.   The burglar dropped the gun and ran off.

There are several lessons to be learned.  First, avoid this kind of encounter if you can.  If you think that there may be an intruder, but are not certain enough to call police, arm yourself first.  To this end, if you are armed on the way home, you will not have to enter the house to access a weapon. 

Perhaps you have a neighbor who can assist you.  Calling a neighbor is a lot less hassle than calling 911 on a non-existent burglar.   Maintaining good relations with your neighbors almost always results in substantial benefits.  Burglars are less likely to attack two or three people.

I like the idea of stand off barriers to provide more security.  They also make it harder to forget to lock a door.   Forgetting one door; almost everyone has done it at least once.  Two?  Not so likely. 

I have a neighbor who hoses down her driveway every morning.  There is dirt between the street and her patio.  She sees a record, on the dirt, of how many people have come up to her door every day.  Cheap cameras and remote control are making video records of your door relatively easy.  There are systems that would allow you to see the video on your smart phone.  If your camera(s) were disabled, that would be a good sign that the situation was serious.  I recently had a camera shot off of a pole at a remote property, with a shotgun.   The signs were that the burglars left in a hurry, once they discovered that they were being photographed. 

Almost certainly, if Matthew had been armed, and had kept the weapon close to his body when he entered, he either would have been able to fire, or the burglar would have given up or run off.

I hope that Matthew recovers from his ordeal, and does not blame himself too badly.  It was an easy mistake to make.   I am glad that he survived.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[WayneS]

It is not clear if he could have accessed his pistol from the closet before the encounter.

But I'll bet he could have accessed it from a holster on his belt or under his arm.

Right now I carry about 95% of the time. I think I'm going to go ahead and bump it up to 100%.

[rarestia]

My wife is getting accustomed to the sight of me with a pistol on my hip in the house. We don’t live in a crime-prone area, but that’s even more of a reason to be vigilant. Criminals know where they have the highest chance for success.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: Perhaps you have a neighbor who can assist you. ::

This brings up an interesting scenario; I ask your indulgence.

For purposes of this exercise, let us say that the neighbor being contacted has a weapon which s/he is willing to give to the owner of the burglarized home prior to investigating the open door; the apartment owner has explained that his weapon is in his apartment and considered inaccessible.

The apartment owner then uses the neighbor’s “borrowed” weapon in defense of home and personal effects. Good news...the criminal is incapacitated and cannot leave the crime scene.

A better understanding of WA home-defense laws withstanding, I am curious how such a situation might play out in the courts after LEO shows up to “serve and protect” at the crime scene?

[trebb]

Lots of mistakes made - proof that training sessions on “what if” is very appropriate. Held such sessions with my wife years ago and it served her well - she came home to a kicked-in door (not the one she entered) and she immediately got out, put distance between her and the house and got her weapon in her hand, ready to fire. The perps left through the door that had been kicked in and out of her sight so she wasn’t faced with the decision of shooting someone - but she was prepared.

[Cry if I Wanna]

We have 2 loaded guns in the house, ready and accessible. I don’t carry when I’m wearing my jams but I feel pretty secure.

[Leaning Right]

Perhaps you have a neighbor who can assist you.

Unless you are out in the middle of the Yukon or something like that, that advice from the article seems crazy. Call the police. Don't borrow a gun from your neighbor, or try to convince your neighbor to go into the house with you.

The scenario you proposed, Cletus, is an interesting one. But so much could go wrong. Suppose you are the neighbor with the gun. And the apartment owner wants to borrow it because he thinks there's a burglar in the house.

But suppose it's not a burglar. Suppose instead the apartment owner is angry with his wife. Or suppose the apartment owner is a bit high (and you don't notice that), and there is no burglar in the first place. I could go on and on.

Unless we were in back country, if I were the neighbor, I'd tell the apartment owner to sit tight in my house while we call the police.

[ConservativeInPA]

The apartment owner then uses the neighbor’s “borrowed” weapon in defense of home and personal effects.

A knowledge of the law and regular use of the weapon needs to occur. I would not use someone's weapon unless in a life threatening situation. I shoot regularly with friends and we share weapons. There are often changes to weapons we share and there is a chance of a malfunction on any weapon at anytime. While I have confidence in handling malfunctions on my weapons, I would not want to deal with a malfunction or a change to a weapon in a non-life threatening situation that can be avoided. This is with weapons that I am familiar. A totally foreign weapon is even a worse case.

[River_Wrangler]

I came home to an unlocked door a few weeks ago. Opened the door and looked inside to discover disorder in the living room. Backed out and called 911. LEO arrived at my driveway where he ask if I was home owner and could show ID. I opened wallet and showed driver license which is next to CHL. He ask if I was carrying and I replied that I was. He ask me to disarm. I politely declined and said I would as a courtesy, after he cleared the house.

He checked part of the house, stated that he would start a report and I could fax any updates to the Burglary Division so they could complete a report that I could pickup 10 days after they finished it???

I canvased the neighborhood finding two witnesses that stated they could identify a stranger near the house that day at the time of the incident.(The window for the crime was less than 2 hours)

I tried to give my findings to the Police Department but they would not talk to me except to remind me that investigations were there responsibility.

There has been no farther contact from the PD.

When seconds count the police are hours away and are not your friend.

[TalBlack]

If, in this situation, for some strange reason, I went into a closet for my gun it would have been timed, KNOWING that the guy would be right on top of me and I would have used the gun not to shoot but to bash his brains in with. This guy wanted to have his cake and eat it too...

[Georgia Girl 2]

Mr. GG2 carries 101% of the time and every weapon in the house is loaded and hidden in accessable places. At home we are never more than 10-15 seconds from a loaded weapon.

[Dr. Prepper]

Agreed.

There is nothing more useless than a firearm left in the safe when you could be carrying it.

Something everyone should keep in mind at all times.

[marktwain]

“Unless you are out in the middle of the Yukon or something like that, that advice from the article seems crazy. Call the police. Don’t borrow a gun from your neighbor, or try to convince your neighbor to go into the house with you.”

Sure, call the police if you have a reasonable belief that your home has been invaded. The question was, what if you are not sure that the home has been invaded, say, if the door is only unlocked and there is no sign of forced entry.