Had to "Clear" my Backyard Last Night....now a Question

[DirtyLawyer]

That ^^^ is the smart, safe, relevant thing to do.

If your so called perp... who says 'perp' anyway If your noise was a prowler, and was armed (more likely NOT armed)... one of two things happens...,

1. You shoot the guy dead - he is ARMED or NOT, you go to prison. Wife and children lose daddy.

2. The prowler guy shoots you dead. Wife and children lose daddy.

Oh ya... that's a win-win situation alright

Sir... friend... seriously... stay inside, ya sure... arm yourself, protect your family. But please call 911 and let trained Officers deal with the outside stuff. You protect whats inside. NOt worth the possibilities that are just simply NOT in your favor when you go outside with a gun...!

+100000000000

[Firerescuebatt07]

I don't know which is worse, lying in wait to kill some 16 year old kid trying to steal a DVD player, scaring the crap out of your family over a noise out back, or go hide and call Police, Obama and his boys will save us.

Just my opine..no reason to get all defensive. Do as you feel best doing.

sorry that you feel that way...also sorry that you had to get political for some odd reason... like I said....I will come to alert if the noise is loud enough in my backyard... after looking out the windows and hearing more noise from the backyard or worse downstairs my response will be the same... my family means more to me than your opinion of a 16 year old trying to steal a dvd player... quite frankly I will deal with all intruders in my house the same way regardless of what they are after because I am not going to ask them...hey you want the tv or my life? but maybe you feel that you must walk downstairs, leave your family and see what the intruder wants... to say something silly like laying in wait for every single little noise is just plain silly. Unwanted people in my backyard or home requires me to get "all defensive"... I guess you will handle things your way when it comes to the safety of you or your family and thats fine... I will handle things the way I do as well... If I go down and somehow hurt or worse my wife although knowing how to use the gun is still somewhat afraid to use it. So yes, I will lay in wait if someone is in my home, while my wife is on the phone calling 911 hoping Obama or better yet Romney from his basement after his defeat to come save me...

[STAGE 2]

You shoot the guy dead - he is ARMED or NOT, you go to prison. Wife and children lose daddy.

Exactly what is improper about defending yourself from an armed assailant who is tresspassing your backyard?

On the other hand, would you admit that the OP's "response" lacked proper experience and was therefor useless?

Barring things that are blatantly stupid I don't like to tell others how to go about ensuring their safety and the safety of their families. It's Monday morning quarterbacking of the worst sort for a variety of reasons. We don't know the specifics of other peoples neighborhoods. We don't know their personal tolerance of danger, and we don't know what things they have had to deal with in the past.

Saying "don't go outside just call the police" isn't exactly constructive if you live in a neighborhood where the response time is too long or non-existent.

What the op did may have not been textbook, but I submit that barring what I said above about blatantly stupid things, there really isn't a textbook. Lots of people here keep bringing up the cops as some sort of standard when in fact the reality is much different. Your average cop isnt some fountain of tacticoolness. Odds are they will never actually use their firearm in their entire career and most only shoot to qualify once or twice a year. In short, a homeowner who is quite familiar with his backyard and goes to the range every few weeks is going to be much better off dealing with a threat than a cop who is seeing your property for the first time, in the dark, using a pistol that was last trained with in early march.

As far as what I was talking about above its just pure ridiculousness for people with zero experience to make judgements on the op's actions as if they are speaking from a position of authority. You might not do the same thing and that's fine, but it doesn't make someone else's choice wrong either. Self defense isn't a zero sum game and anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant, trying to take your money, or both.

[Firerescuebatt07]

Exactly what is improper about defending yourself from an armed assailant who is tresspassing your backyard?



Barring things that are blatantly stupid I don't like to tell others how to go about ensuring their safety and the safety of their families. It's Monday morning quarterbacking of the worst sort for a variety of reasons. We don't know the specifics of other peoples neighborhoods. We don't know their personal tolerance of danger, and we don't know what things they have had to deal with in the past.


As far as what I was talking about above its just pure ridiculousness for people with zero experience to make judgements on the op's actions as if they are speaking from a position of authority. You might not do the same thing and that's fine, but it doesn't make someone else's choice wrong either. Self defense isn't a zero sum game and anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant, trying to take your money, or both.

this was very well said brother.

[therealnickb]

a lot of snips, please forgive but please read.

noise from the backyard .

Unwanted people in my backyard (snip) requires me to get "all defensive"...

I will handle things the way I do as well...

"Backyard" is the issue with most critics here IMO. You live in CA right? Good luck with leaving your home to chase a noise and "getting all defensive".

Just trying to be prudent here.

[therealnickb]

Exactly what is improper about defending yourself from an armed assailant who is tresspassing your backyard?



Barring things that are blatantly stupid

So we agree.

[Firerescuebatt07]

"Backyard" is the issue with most critics here IMO. You live in CA right? Good luck with leaving your home to chase a noise and "getting all defensive".

Just trying to be prudent here.

totally understand this... I wouldnt leave my home... I would never run outside with a firearm... hell to the no...(no dont get crazy with the what if someone you knew was being killed stuff, I would of course run out with my gun then....covering my bases here...some folks love to be literal like that) but yeah... I think you're right... most people are talking about going outside to investigate...knowing my luck the cops will kill me and the bad guy lol

[locosway]

I check out noises all the time, why? Because that's my job as man of the house. If I had the family all huddle up into a room and take up defensive positions every time someone farted, well.... Let's just say we'd probably never leave the room.

I know our house and our yard better than an intruder. While it's never a good idea to solo clear anything, it's also not a good idea to call the cops for every noise.

A lot of force-on-force training happens in unfamiliar rooms against people who are equally trained or equally willed. This is FAR different from real world where your average intruder is a high school drop out who's looking for some drug money.

For the OP. If you haven't done tactical courses, it might be a good idea. If you don't have a weapon mounted light, you might want to look into that.

[Supertac916]

I've never had to clear my backyard and I personally wouldn't leave my wife and kids alone in the house. The reasons being were already mentioned and if someone is in my backyard they could take the BBQ or umbrella. If they try to enter my home is when I will use deadly force to protect my family. Some will agree and others will disagree, but putting myself in a dangerous situation over a few material possessions isn't worth it to me.

My girlfriend did have to pull her gun on a man in our backyard years ago. She came home and all of the windows and backdoor were open due to our stupid roommate. My girlfriend goes to our bedroom and begins undressing, than notices a shadow from our window. A guys standing there watching her undress. She screams, threatens him, grabs the phone to call 911, and grabs her .357. The only thing he reacted to was the sight of the gun. By the time the operator got on the phone the guy bolted. Too make a long story short there was no police response because they were called to another more important call. They didn't even come by to take a report.

In my opinion, my girlfriend did everything I told her to do. Stay in the house, grab your gun, barricade yourself in the bedroom, and call the police. The guy enters the home you fire until the threat is stopped. I was so impressed that I married her

[locosway]

I've never had to clear my backyard and I personally wouldn't leave my wife and kids alone in the house. The reasons being were already mentioned and if someone is in my backyard they could take the BBQ or umbrella. If they try to enter my home is when I will use deadly force to protect my family. Some will agree and others will disagree, but putting myself in a dangerous situation over a few material possessions isn't worth it to me.

Right, and if someone were in your backyard and made a noise, they could stay out there all night waiting for you to go to bed before slaughtering you. Why? Because you never checked on that noise.

It goes both ways. I know what my limits and capabilities are, and I'm comfortable checking on noises in the backyard or other parts of the house. If you aren't, then that's fine too. If I go outside of a noise, there are many other guns inside which my wife can use if there's something I'm unable to handle.

However, I sleep much better knowing that noise was a broken branch and not someone testing a window in the kids room.

[fiddletown]

Right, and if someone were in your backyard and made a noise, they could stay out there all night waiting for you to go to bed before slaughtering you. Why? Because you never checked on that noise....

I'm sorry, but I have some trouble with this.

[1] You've stated (post 128) your belief that:

...your average intruder is a high school drop out who's looking for some drug money....

Is he really going to sit in your yard all night waiting for you to go to bed?

[2] How easy is your house to break into? Don't you have an alarm? Haven't you invested in stout doors and good locks? Sure, no house is impregnable, but is a "high school drop out who's looking for some drug money" going to take the effort to break into a reasonably well hardened, alarmed house when he knows someone is home?

BTW, is this you.

Some of you might enjoy a couple of videos of a couple of simulator exercises in the first level handgun class at Gunsite: here and here.

[STAGE 2]

So we agree.

I'm not sure. If you're saying what the OP did was blatantly stupid then, no. If you're saying that everything is situational aside from the blatantly stupid then yes.

I'm not sure where this mindset of "you have to let the professionals handle it" or " you cant possibly know what your doing unless you've taken this course where we were doing mag changes with our pinky toes while doing barrel rolls in the dirt". The right kind of training undoubtedly helps (however not all training is the right kind) but the idea that everyone is useless and incapable of defending themselves competently without it is ridiculous.

Tactical training for regular joes(and even law enforcement) is a relatively new concept in the grand scheme of things. Likely for most of us, grandad never watched a magpul dvd, had no idea what a tactical reload was, but was terribly proficient with his firearm and wasn't one to be effed with in that area.

Get a good gun, use it, exercise a modicum of common sense, and ignore what the rest of the internet experts have to say. It worked for granddad and hasn't let me down yet.

[paul0660]

confronting a potential trespasser

The penalty for potential trespassing is.............nothing, the same as first time trespassing if not in a vehicle.

As far as the technical aspects go, bright lights and lots of bullets are the best.

[STAGE 2]

Is he really going to sit in your yard all night waiting for you to go to bed?

Can you say with 100% certainty he's not? Can you say that he's only there for drug money? Of course you can't. Neither can I. A bump in the night is an unknown quantity. It could be completely benign or it could be the worst thing in the world a la the Petit family. However since you seem to be resting on the odds, the odds are that simply confronting a perp will scare them off. If not, odds are confronting them with a weapon will do the same, so there's no harm according to your standards in doing so.

[fiddletown]

Can you say with 100% certainty he's not? ....

Of course not. But then again, one can't say with 100% certainty that he's "a high school drop out who's looking for some drug money" or that "confronting a perp will scare them off. If not, odds are confronting them with a weapon will do the same" or that he won't be savvy enough and desperate enough to successfully ambush you.