what is the best personal weapon of all time

Yes, and everything that doesn't hit him will only ruin your house.

Pain burned off the walls, slugs everywhere, pictures and wallpaper and whatever else was on the wall damaged... Might cost you a lot more to get everything repaired than what the burglar was ever going to steal. But then, hey, you defended your home.

 

Hmmm, maybe a shotgun isn't the best choice for home defence. Plus the risk of hitting unintended targets, they have powerful recoils that can knock you off your feet. And, they'll wake up the neighbors. Maybe I'll just go with an MP5, then. Pump about a hundred rounds into an intruder in seconds. But, pistols still remain the norm for home defence. MP5s and shotguns may be more intimidating, and cooler to have . However, they're more expensive, and you need special permits to own them. Same with pistols, though. But pistols are cheaper, and more compact. They also do the job. Even a vintage, single-action revolver is well above what most people have. Then again, all firearms need permits to own, practice to use well, and, are budget-hostile.

 

For intimidation-factor, the shotgun wins hands-down.

 

This is intimidation.If you have a place to store it in of course

 

I so want one of those things. Can't beat a Hellfire missile for home defence.

 

Indeed, and you'll only have to use it once - after that, you won't have a home to defend!

 

The Hellfire would overcook an intruder big-time...and demolish your house, which costs way, way more than what the intruder would have stolen. Your insurance probably won't cover all those damages either, while it would have covered all the stolen items. You guys go ahead and think of more extremely impractical home defence ideas, eventually coming up with nukes, which will vaporize everything within a 30-mile radius. I'm just gonna' settle for a semiautomatic pistol.

 

in america our intruders are often armed themselves...a wrench or knife may just piss him off....the cachunk of a 12 guage pump being chambered is deterence writ large... my brothers a cop an he says that lil lazer beam danceing on a pukes chest really helps to make him follow verbal instructions very well....

 

Or it will alert them to your presence and put them on the defensive.

A knife or spanner will do far more than just piss someone off, if wielded by a person of average strength a fishplate spanner (Imagine a spanner about a foot long with a head larger than a man's fist) will easily break whichever bone it comes into contact with, if that happens to be the skull the intruder will likely be killed, regardless of what they're armed with. Similarly a stab to the chest will kill or disable an intruder regardless.

The added bonus with such weapons is that you're less likely to find out afterwards that a shot has gone through a plasterboard wall and also through a loved one. Great, you've scared off the burglar, that'd be a real comfort if afterwards you found out you'd accidently killed one of your own children... I know I couldn't live with myself if something like that happened.

I agree with Blaster though, this is getting a little daft, an attack helicopter hardly counts as a Personal Weapon. As to what is a personal weapon, I guess anything that can be carried and operated by a single individual of no more than average strength. Anyone care to volunteer to try and pick up a Longbow Apache?!? :lol:

 

i want it to alert them ,simon.....the cachunk tells them that they are very near to god...and they should make a hasty egress at once....also my wife an kids have been instructed never to stand by any intruders when daddys shooting them....shot dosent penetrate well thru walls (another reason why every cop car in america carries a 12 ga and not a m1 garrand)....

 

Your wall will still be severely damaged, not to mention the mess you make of the intruder.

Seriously, burglars are usually after some easy money so they will scat as soon as they realize they will have to do any fighting at all, which means you can show up with a broomstick and it will have the same effect as your megalomaniac 12-gauge. You want to "warn" an intruder that you're about to cause serious damage to your own house in your attempts to tear the flesh clean off his bones, and you've instructed your children to stand back as you do so? That's just wrong.

 

The 'ca-chunk' of a shotgun chambering a round should give any intruder such a fright that he'll run as if the flesh was about to be ripped ff his bones...

It is highly unlikely that, having threatened somebody with a shotgun, you will need to use it*. There is a chance that Mr Burglar will risk a fight if your weapon appears piddly, or you look too weak to use it, or if he is holding a crowbar... but why would anybody, ever, want to argue with a shotgun?

Telling your family to stay out of the way is sensible if you're gonna be menacing people with a shotgun - it doesn't mean that you will shoot them, it just makes them think you will.



* Unless you are a farmer in Norfolk, but that's a whole different story...

 

Simon:
I'm surprised that, with the inherent lethality of a "spanner" they haven't been outlawed in England. Yet.
(Big Smile)

You can buy a Remington 870 Express pump shotgun in 12 gauge for $250-$350. (I dare say any "quality" man-stopping handgun will set you back quite a bit more.) I put a friend on to a Remington 870 12 gauge pump shotgun with an 8-shot extension tube, parkerized finish, and synthetic-stock for $250--used. A perfect home defense weapon.
You need a permit to possess/carry a handgun. Only a simple background check is required to purchase a shotgun from a dealer. On the used market, no paperwork is required.

Roel:
As for home damage from a shotgun blast...
I'd rather be scheduling some drywall work and various "home-improvements" than planning the funeral of one of my family. It's quite an easy decison in my mind. Here in the USA, most of us are very well-armed and willing to pull the trigger on a home-intruder. At least that's what we want the criminal-element to believe. In the meantime, you keep that broomstick next to your bed if it helps you feel secure at night...
hehe.

Tim

 

I already told you, I keep a falcata next to my bed, I feel quite safe...

Seriously though, in the eighteen years I've lived in this neighbourhood our house has never been broken into. In fact, my mother has lived here much longer than that, with the same burglary record. It seems that a good lock and thermal windows are a better deterrent than the possiblity that the house owner has a cabinet full of guns by his bedside.

Do you prefer to live in a house or in a fortress?

 

It has been statistically proven that most people who get shot during "home defenses" are in fact family of the defender. Nervous father, loaded shotgun under bed, daughter coming home late from a party...

I feel quite safe in my home. We have an alcoholic man in the neighbourhood who has previously attacked a neighbour physically, but I trust myself to be physically stronger than him. Besides, he would not do anything unless he was drunk (re: less coherent). If he tries something again, the entire male population of the neighbourhood will rally against him!

 

Burglars seem to be quite rare in Canada, where I live, so I almost never worry about break-ins. I live in a townhouse-type house, so my neighbors are in clear view of my house. Locked doors and secure windows seem to be enough for me. But it's still more secure to have a weapon. We don't plan on getting a firearm of any kind, though. They're too expensive, we don't know how to use them, and we'd rather not waste time getting permits, thank you very much.

 

actually panzerman those statistics were originaly posted by a couple of liberal nespapermen in the us in the sixties and have been completely debunked (yet the myth lives on...) even today news reporters love nothing better than an accidental shooting of a family member above all other gun related stories....for every family member accident storie you can dig up i will find yuo 10 where a privatly owned gun was used to deter or kill a home invader...and remeber most of these incidents will not be reported..the gun owner not wanting his gun confiscated and the would be burgler is also not going to report it...

 

Why would a Liberal publish a report like that? They are the great supporters of personal and economic freedom, they aren't likely to try to restrict gun ownership. I thought the heavily liberal Conservative Party always supports gun ownership?

Majorwoody, I think the greatest amount of would-be burglars fail because they are faced with a decent lock on the door, or because they can't find anything of value in their victim's house if they do get in. Running down the stairs in your pyjamas with a shotgun is an overreaction on the scale of using nuclear weapons against rioters.

 

Possibly a slight exaggeration...

Sledgehammer to crack a nut maybe.

Bear in mind that in Europe burglars are unlikely to be armed with anything more than tools (if that) whereas in America it is perfectly possible that they will have a handgun.

 

Roel:
Liberal Democrats would like nothing better than to disarm the American public, ban individual gun ownership, and overturn the 2nd Amendment. (ie. the Clinton administration as an example...)
Of course the NRA--National Rifle Association--does it's best to inform it's members of which politicians campaigninging for office--or re-election--are pro-gun, and which are anti-gunners. Not only by comments made in public mind you, but based on how they actually voted on gun-related issues in both the Congress and the Senate.

Tim