Ever wonder what the psychological impact on the householder is when they kill someone trying to burgle them?

Well, I can tell you the psychological impact it had on at least one person.

When I was younger I worked at a family-owned go-kart track out on the beach a couple of summers. I got to be good friends with the owners and towards the end of my second summer the owner related this story to me.

This occurred during the time that his wife was pregnant with their son, who is close to my age, putting these events around 1980. I don't remember the reason he told me, but they were going to have to make a large cash deposit the next day (money from the business) and it had to go home with them that night. This was several thousand dollars back in 1980, so quite a bit of money. His brother, concerned for his safety, loaned him his hand gun for the evening.

They were awoken that night by noises from downstairs. A group of men were attempting to break into the house. My boss got downstairs just as they got the back door open. He threw his weight against the door but since there were several of them on the other side he knew he was fighting a loosing battle. He hollered out "I have a gun! I'm going to shoot through the door!" They continued to push, so he unloaded his gun through the door. The burglars fled, all except one, who was lying dead in the doorway.

The cops came, he was taken downtown for questioning, but let go by the next morning. They said it was cut and dried self defense. The burglars had been armed with knives and at least the dead one had had drugs in his system.

My boss told me that to this day he can still see the kid's dead face staring up at him (the one he killed was about 17). He said he wasn't at all proud of what he had had to do. He never wanted to kill anyone.

"But my wife and yet to be born son were upstairs. I wasn't worried about the money, though undoubtedly that’s why they were there. I'm glad my brother loaned me that gun that day. I don't regret pulling that trigger. I'd do it again if I had to."

So yes, you may be haunted for the rest of your life, but how much more would you be haunted if your wife and kids were killed and you had done nothing about it?

In response to the case in point, a friend of mine caries his gun in a safe under the seat of his truck, it would have been well in place to be used. As far as the point that if he had had a gun he would have been dead, I think the point that most robberies aren’t armed ones is a valid one. More importantly however it has been hammered upon over and over (especially by d33zY) that if you have a gun you should be trained to use it. How many criminals do you know that get trained to use a gun? If he had had a gun and the proper training that day, I think he would be very much alive right now and possibly have more of his stuff.

Can't say that I'd ever want to be in that position.

Of course. Nobody ever wants to be in that position. But sometimes you don’t have a choice in the matter.

I think a lot of good points have been raised here. I admit that people that feel the need to arm themselves to the teeth scare me a bit (I do know many people who don’t feel a need to however, they just enjoy firearms). On the other hand, people who encourage us to just bend over and take it from the criminals frighten me much more.

I would own a gun except I currently live on a college campus where you can’t have any weapons.