I commented in one of Miguel’s previous posts, CSGV: Fantasy vs. Reality regarding the similarity between having a gun and a fire extinguisher.  

Miguel made the comment:

“Example of that, my house. Mom had a grease fire and she used the small fire extinguisher we had in the kitchen. She was equally upset about the fire and the powder messing the stove.”

I was tempted to respond to his comment, but I decided to turn it into a post.

A few years ago I was living in Rapid City, SD, going to school there.  I lived in a terrible little community on the east end of town, right near campus.  The community was a collection of duplexes that were old military housing from when Ellsworth AFB was a SAC base.  The housing was sold off by the USAF to a developer who turned it into apartments.

What you need to understand about renting in Rapid City, is that most of the property managers who owned “affordable” rented the maximum units allowable to government subsidized tenants.  It was low hanging fruit.  Why did I live there?  I was a grad student married to another grad student and there weren’t many options for a place to rent near campus that was pet friendly and affordable.

The neighborhood was rough.  The police were out regularly, one of my neighbors was arrested at least once a week.

It was the middle of winter, in my last year in Rapid, and an overnight blizzard was underway.  Snow was coming in sideways, double digits below zero with the wind chill, final snow fall was in excess of 20 inches.  It was early am, maybe 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning when my dog starts going nuts.  I get out of bed at the prodding of my wife and I hear it.  Someone was pounding on my door.  I yell through the door something along the lines of “who’s there, what do you want?”

What I get back is “LET ME IN.”

“NO”

“C’MON MAN, IT’S COLD.”

“NO, I DON’T KNOW YOU”

“IT’S COLD. I GOT NO POWER MAN.  LET ME IN.”

I looked out the window and see that some of the houses in the neighborhood are dark.  A transformer had gone out in the storm (not uncommon) down the block and rendered about the community without power.  I still had electricity and have the habit of leaving the kitchen light on 24/7.

“NO, GO AWAY, I HAVE A DOG.”

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR DOG MAN, LET ME IN.”

“I’LL CALL THE COPS.”

What’s important to understand at this juncture, is that during a blizzard, there are no cops.  Emergency response is non existent.  Your house could be on fire and there is no way of getting to you.  When you live in blizzard country, especially in rural blizzard country, it’s a fact you must accept.  Viability is zero and the cops or fire department can’t plow their way through more than a foot of snow to get to you.

“F*CK YOU.  F*CK YOUR DOG.  F*CK THE COPS.  YOU HAVE POWER.  I’M COMING IN.”

The guy then starts punching the glass pane in my front door.

“HEY, STOP THAT.”

“F*CK YOU.  I’M COMING IN.”

Punching continues.

So I go hurry back to the bedroom and grab my shotgun.  At this point my wife is freaking out, on hold with 911, and the dog is barking her head off.

I go back into the front room, shoulder the shotgun at the front door and yell

“IF THAT GLASS BREAKS I’M GOING TO BLOW YOUR F*CKING HEAD OFF!!!”

Lo and behold, he stopped punching my window.  He went from aggressive to sheepish right quick.

“C’MON MAN, I’M SORRY, IT’S COLD, LET ME IN.”

“GO THE F*CK AWAY.”

And he trudged off into the dark and the snow and the cold.

So yes, I have pulled a gun on somebody.  I didn’t fire a shot.  I didn’t have to.  He found himself eye level to the muzzle of a Mossberg 500 just on the other side of a single pane of glass and decided that he didn’t need into my house as badly as he thought he did.   I don’t know what he would of have done had he gotten into my house.  I don’t know if he was sober.  I can’t imagine a completely sober person venturing out into a blizzard just because his power went out.

Problem solved.  No SWAT team necessary.  Cops couldn’t have made it up the hill I lived on in a blizzard anyway, had my wife managed to get through to them.

The antis can tell you that no property is worth your life, just give the bad guy what he wants.  The Newspaper of Record can tell you that “The modern man has no need for a gun.”  Bloomberg and the CSGV can tell you that you are more likey to kill your whole family and then yourself with your gun in a ham-fisted comedy of errors than defend yourself with it.

At that moment I needed a gun.  I had a gun.  I USED my gun, and everybody came away alive.

And I’ve also put out a fire with a fire extinguisher and didn’t end up in a burn ward afterward either.

When some pearl-clutcher tells you, you don’t need something, and you will just hurt yourself with it and just leave your self reliance to the professionals.  Go out and buy what they tell you not to have.  Go out and buy two of them.