http://www.philly.com/philly/news/201308...alone.html
This one is a toughie. I was raised to shoot at a young age. Supervised. The supervision dropped off to observation then to nothing somewhere around the age of 14/15. The test for my father was "whether I would clean the damn gun after shooting it"... (he is of the "you must clean after every bullet fired"-type).
When I worked in my grandmother's office alone when I got my hardship DL at 14, I would sometimes have to drive from my parents house across to the next county over to the town my grandmother's house and her office was located, which is a distance of 56 miles. An hour's drive on I-37, but that's still a significant distance.
When I had to do this my mother showed me in which out of the endless file drawers the .38 special was hidden in, which was always kept loaded.
I was told 'someone breaks in, you EMPTY that revolver and then run to the police station' (two blocks away... it's faster to go talk to the police or Texas DPS in person than it is to deal with county dispatch). You take that gun with you and give it to DPS and you sit there and wait for us to come down.
At the house, when I was left alone, I knew precisely where the key to the gun cabinet was to get at the ammo, and there was a .357 Mag sitting on a wicker shelf ready to go should I ever need it. Didn't hit me until I was about 13 that I'd have to prepare to use this option if needed.
There were a couple of times a strange vehicle would come up the driveway and I would spot it from either in the house or from acres away up the pasture.
Now that I'm in a highly urban environment I don't really think in that paranoia anymore since I've got video surveillance cams and security, plus a lot of insurance. But I dunno... if I had a 13 year old son this is probably the time I would be hauling him to the ranges to get him to shoot and if he's in my house alone and I'm away on a trip I'd definitely want him armed.
You?
Quote:A 13-YEAR-OLD BOY was confronted by three armed home invaders in Upper Darby on Monday morning, and it wasn't the first time the teen had faced down at least one of the intruders, according to police. About 11:30 a.m., the boy was alone at his house on Littlecroft Road near Marshall when a noise led him to his mother's room. There, he saw a man climbing through the second-floor window, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said. The boy went to get a phone to call 9-1-1, but the alleged intruder, Daniel Taylor, 28, of Philadelphia, was able to grab the teen by his arm, police said.
This one is a toughie. I was raised to shoot at a young age. Supervised. The supervision dropped off to observation then to nothing somewhere around the age of 14/15. The test for my father was "whether I would clean the damn gun after shooting it"... (he is of the "you must clean after every bullet fired"-type).
When I worked in my grandmother's office alone when I got my hardship DL at 14, I would sometimes have to drive from my parents house across to the next county over to the town my grandmother's house and her office was located, which is a distance of 56 miles. An hour's drive on I-37, but that's still a significant distance.
When I had to do this my mother showed me in which out of the endless file drawers the .38 special was hidden in, which was always kept loaded.
I was told 'someone breaks in, you EMPTY that revolver and then run to the police station' (two blocks away... it's faster to go talk to the police or Texas DPS in person than it is to deal with county dispatch). You take that gun with you and give it to DPS and you sit there and wait for us to come down.
At the house, when I was left alone, I knew precisely where the key to the gun cabinet was to get at the ammo, and there was a .357 Mag sitting on a wicker shelf ready to go should I ever need it. Didn't hit me until I was about 13 that I'd have to prepare to use this option if needed.
There were a couple of times a strange vehicle would come up the driveway and I would spot it from either in the house or from acres away up the pasture.
Now that I'm in a highly urban environment I don't really think in that paranoia anymore since I've got video surveillance cams and security, plus a lot of insurance. But I dunno... if I had a 13 year old son this is probably the time I would be hauling him to the ranges to get him to shoot and if he's in my house alone and I'm away on a trip I'd definitely want him armed.
You?