Comlacency

[average_shooter]

Complacency

I wanted to relate something that just happened around my house, as yet another reminder to always be aware of what's going on around you. I realized tonight how complacent I've become recently. Please don't get like me.

The situation:

I was in the backyard with the dog, minding my own business while she did hers when I saw police lights down the street coming my way. Usually this doesn't concern me as the police station is down that street about four blocks. Often cars come to our corner and turn to go across the tracks, which are two blocks in another direction. Yeah, this is one of those towns with the stereotypical "wrong side of the tracks."

However, while in the back yard I first heard the sirens stop and then heard the screaming and realized the cop had not turned, but stopped just kitty-corner from my house, in front of a house about 50 yards from mine. And then about four more cars showed up, cops exiting while drawing guns, immediately followed by shouts along the lines of "Show me your f------ hands! Get your g------ hands out of your f------ pockets! NOW!" As is often said, this all occurred in a matter of seconds.

This is the point at which I realized INSIDE would be a much better place for me, and the dog, to be. Upon reaching the side door to the house (away from all the action) another family member was holding the door open, having seen what was going on.

Then I realize something relatively "big" is happening next door, serious enough to bring in no fewer than five squad cars and an ambulance, and I was totally unprepared had I somehow become "involved." I do usually carry, I usually carry around the house too, just in case something like this happens. But I wasn't tonight. After all, it was family movie night, and this is a relatively quiet suburban town. What did I have to worry about, really?

Anyway, I ran to my bedroom, retrieved my carry piece, because I figured if someone's running from the cops, I don't want them coming into my house trying to get away.

Then I started thinking, I learned some lessons tonight.

When I took the dog out I left the side door open because I was just going to the back yard. I always make sure the doors are locked, but I realized how lax I was when letting the dog out. This concerned another family member who realized anyone could have come through that door in the short time that these "events" occurred.

I wasn't carrying at the time because I was home and felt safe. I have no idea who was running, or where from, or where to. If they had come over my fence trying to hide while I was in the back yard I would have been entirely too close for comfort with nothing to defend myself with. And I don't count a lab puppy as anything to defend myself with.

Once inside I was curious to watch the goings on, as I saw through a bedroom window they had cuffed the guy and put him in the ambulance. As I opened the front door to just get a better view of what was going on in my neighborhood I found my keys which I had left in the door a few hours earlier after coming home from running errands. Dumb...dumbdumbdumb...:banghead:

So, I got a little shake tonight, smacked back into the reality of the world today and am vowing to be much more aware of my surroundings and what I do.

Just a reminder for everyone, just because you think you're safe, doesn't mean you actually are.

Now I'll stop my rambling and let you get back to your regularly scheduled programming...

 

[STARR15]

Glad your family is OK. Thanks for the reminder. I feel if I do carry too much , my son's friends might mouth off too much of nothing to the neighborhood. My Glock stays in the safe. It worries me. I do not want to become a victim again.
Always learning -Thanks to The Highroads.

 

[BlackHand1917]

I own a couple of dogs that have that habit of refusing to go into our fenced-in back yard unless I go with them. I almost always bring a little handgun with me. The wife thinks I am a little cracked for doing so.

 

[Ringer]

Yeah, it's easy to get complacent around the house, so don't beat yourself up. Good reminder though. Maybe a bit off topic but it always baffles me when people don't understand why others (of us) carry around the house. For me it's the one place I'm MOST likely to be carrying. Like you thought I'm guilty of leaving doors open or unlocked while doing everyday stuff.

 

[winston smith]

Now I live in a safe neighborhood, i.e., middle class, 20 houses, 3 miles from anything else... Ten years here. Before that, I spent 38 years in a hellhole of a ghetto-city famous enough that I will skip the name. There I had a loaded gun next to my bed, and carried it daily.

Now my gun is in a pistol safe, and I never carry it. Somedays I leave the front door unlocked.

Bad, very bad. Good times weaken us.

 

[ByAnyMeans]

Don't worry about it OP. You are safe and learned a valuable lesson. If you fall complacent again then you have a problem. I try to keep the doors and windows locked, p3at on me at all times if nothing else, and most importantly a clear and observant mind. I also have an American Pitbull who while a sweetheart still doesn't take kindly to strangers coming out of the shadows at her master. The lab will be a force to reckon with soon enough.You had the last now just handle the rest and maybe some other precautions that others can add.

That's funny Winston Smith, I'm the complete opposite. I lived in Queens NY and could only keep a shotgun by the bed because of the ability to get a longgun permit over a pistol permit. Not easy at all, just easier than a pistol permit which is very hard. Forget a carry permit. I now live in the mountains in PA, great town on a dead end street with large plots of land. I carry all the time and at home. Don't get me wrong, at home it's a little p3at in my pocket but it's always there. I would have in NY as well but never had the chance. I figure if it's less than a pound loaded and the size of a pack of smokes then why not have it available. When I go out I upgrade the pistol, it's just to get me to that shotgun anyway.

 

[jakemccoy]

I carry at home. Think of how silly I'd look if I couldn't protect myself in my own home after spending all that money at the range.

 

[chris in va]

Think of how silly I'd look if I couldn't protect myself in my own home after spending all that money at the range

Glad I'm not the only one that thought about that.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Hmph. Now I dont feel such a silly for carrying inside my home.

Im just glad that these stories come out as a reminder/refresher and a shake off of the sleepies from time to time.

A scanner would be nice. But think most LEO's who are hunting are tatical freq anyhow.