Do you answer the door to uninvited strangers?

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I do answer my door. I always have a little something with me or nearby in case of trouble but I'm not going to live in fear.

My neighborhood has a an elementary school and a lot of churches. People do knock and ask for directions or they are looking for food drive donations or something. This doesn't bother me at all. In the summer, it's not unusual for people to knock just to compliment us on the yard!

The three Shelties make enough racket to wake the dead and then they stand there growling. So far, only the pure of heart have managed to stand up to the Sheltie Security Service. :D
 
I guess in a real bad neighborhood one could always drill a 12 ga. port next to the peep hole to discourage unwanted visitors. :neener:

I don't get many visitors I don't know at my house. I live out of town on 5 acres on a dead end street so don't get many casual travelers. I have answered the door with a pistol stuck in my belt behind my back in the past. If somebody really wants in all they have to do is open the door, it's never locked. I don't even know off hand which of the keys on my ring is the house key. Keys are in the trucks outside as well. That being said, if you are silly enough to pound on my door at 3am or some such time you can be sure of running into a real grumpy guy with a cocked and locked pistol in his hand that wants an explaination! :fire:
 
Seems like I answered the original question once before ... what did I say last time...? :p

Those of you who go armed in the house and/or to open the door... is it because you've identified specific threats in your life or based on general caution?
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A little bit of both. We had a bad situation on the neighboring property that we were unaware when we bought this place. The guy is gone now (was in prison a while) but some of his felonious friends were still coming out here 6 months later, since the new owner lives out of state. Though it's been another six months since we've seen any of them so maybe they won't be back again. The new owner let us put up a locked gate across his driveway which crosses our land - that benefits him as well as us. Combination lock so he can let propane company and/or his friends have access.

We don't get many casual visitors or salesmen out here. If someone drives up our long driveway, it's nearly always someone we are expecting or at least know. I treat everyone I don't know with some degree of suspicion. I guess that's just the way I am anymore - too many rotten things have happened that have made me that way.:(

I look out the windows before opening the door to anybody. If it's someone I don't know, I make a judgement call on how they look and how close they are to the house when I see them. Sometimes I leave the doors facing the driveway locked and go out the door on the opposite side of the house and come around the corner to meet them - that keeps some distance and keeps them from just pushing in.

I carry my revolver all my waking hours, whether in the house or out on our 40 acres, or out hiking or riding horseback. Why...? Why not! If I'm going to have a gun for defense then it might as well be on me. We are 25 miles from town which translates to at least 30-45 minutes for a sheriff response.
 
I check the video monitor and then 'answer' the door via electronic intercom from the safety of my double hardened safe room. The front door is entirely fake. There isn't anything but a hardened brick wall behind it, so it would take someone a very long time to kick it in. If someone makes it past the electric (and electrified!) 8' iron fence in the back, through the dogs, and up to the iron gated (and electrified!) back door, I'll just use the tunnel under the house to escape to a secret location.

OK. OK. I'm kidding.

I usually just answer the door naked.

Nio
 
Not opening your door to a stranger is not being a coward as some have implied....it's just smart....
if you're itching for a fight...go down to your local bar and you can get all the fights you want.
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Watching someone choke to death in a resturant is smart, you might get sued for trying to help. The same with pulling someone from a burning car.

Listening to someone get mugged in front of your big city apartment building is smart. You might get hurt, the muggers might have friends that will retaliate, if you try to stop it.

Letting that kid in the hoodie sell crack in front of your house is smart. Like muggers, he's got friends that will retaliate if you report him.

People get the kind of neighborhoods they deserve. For some people, not answering the door is the right thing to do. For a healthy, armed AMERICAN, get up, grab your piece, and see what that idiot wants at 2 AM. Your neighbors might thank you.

If you give up the responsibilty of keeping your neighborhood clean, you will quickly loose the right.

Well, I'm off to the bar, knuckles dragging. I hear that's a good place to find a fight. :neener:
 
In college, I lived in a studio apartment with a bathroom right next to the front door. One morning, I heard the JWs coming as I was standing there in my boxers shaving. When they got to my door, I just opened it with the razor in one hand and shaving foam all over my face and said "What?" They took off fast:evil: .

Anyway, I usually open the door. A doorbell starts the Shepherd and Lab charging the door barking loudly. The machete and Louisville Slugger in the front hall closet are within easy reach if some yahoo decides to take them on. It's usually one of my neighbors with some legitimate issue ("can you help cut this tree that fell across the road", "could you jump start my car", "want the excess fruit off my tree?" for example), and why be rude to them?
 
I live in a small, nice, but un-gated apartment complex. I don't wear a gun at home, but one is immediately available. I'll look through the peephole, and if I don't know them ask "Who is it?" Usually its a soliciter, or some religous type. I just call "No thankyou" thru the door, and walk away. Kind of hard to sell or proselytize at/thru a closed door.
 
I have been living in a barn converted to an "apartment" so to speak for a little over 3 years now, in a rural area. On the plus side, not many people recognize it as a residence, as it looks like a barn 200 yards from the road. On the minus side, it is 1/4 mile from a major interstate highway. Still, I cannot think of one time I answered the door and did not know the person knocking. Still, unless I can identify the person before opening the door, I answer with a Taurus 65 during the day and a Remington 870 at night. Both in full view, I have nothing to hide. Most of time it's my dad :neener:

My neighbors came home not long ago and found a man sitting on their porch. Said he broke down. There was no car anywhere in sight. Neighbor went inside, came back with a 12 gauge and a cordless phone and offered the use of the latter. The man left immediately :scrutiny:
 
Depends upon what ya mean by "answer". I generally call out "Who is it?", then look out the peephole. If I know 'em, I open the door. In any event, I'm armed.
 
What I dont really understand is why somebody WOULDNT answer their door armed if they had a handgun in the house. I keep a "mousegun" loaded by the front door just for the occasion, tucked away where nobody would want to look. I guess Im paranoid, but I feel its better to stand on the side of caution...
 
Those of you who go armed in the house and/or to open the door... is it because you've identified specific threats in your life or based on general caution?
Click to expand...

It's just general caution. I like to know what's going on in my neighborhood and to know my neighbors, and it's just generally disrespectful to refuse to answer the door just because of someone's appearance. Therefore, I always answer the door.

However, there is a criminal element in my neighborhood. There is drug activity, and there have been several vehicle break-ins. I consider the possibility of a crime high enough that I have a plan for it. That's not paranoia. That's being prepared.

If the person at the door is not a crook, having a gun in my pocket in no way prevents me from being civil to him. I am the same man whether I am carrying or not, and I can still jump-start his car, let him use my phone, or whatever. Having the gun just keeps my options open if he is up to no good.
 
Original and "Other" Questions

Question #1: Open your door for a stranger in the daytime?
Answer: No, tell 'em to get lost.

Question #2: Open your door for a stranger in the daytime who will not disappear after telling 'em to get lost?
Answer: See answer to Question #4.

Question #3: Open your door for a stranger at night?
Answer: No, tell 'em to get lost.

Question #4: Open your door for a stranger at night who will not disappear after telling 'em to get lost?
Answer: No, get your weapon, go out the backdoor, walk up behind them and then ask them what they want. By not doing what they expect you have the element of surprise, not them. Take appropriate other steps as necessary.

SUMMARY: DO NOT OPEN YOUR DOOR FOR A STRANGER.

Other Questions:

(1) Someone choking in a resturant? Apply the Heimlich Maneuver.
(2) Someone in a burning car? Get them out by all means possible.
(3) Intercept a mugging? Yes.
(4) Drug gangs in your neighborhood? If the Police don't do anything, join neighbors who will.
(5) Start a fight in a bar? If under age 25: Yeah,why not. If age 25 and over: You should have better things to do by then.

Signed: a healthy armed AMERICAN
 
Obviously a man that doesn't open his door. :D
Sorry, I should have more paid attention to your other post. You obviously answer your door or you wouldn't be able to tell someone to get lost. Not opening it is your perogative. You could certainly find out what some idiot wants at 2 am without opening your door.
Not answering your door at all is another matter. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I was pushing 30 before I "had something better to do". It just takes a little longer for some of us.
 
Of course not. Also I walk down streets with a scowl on my face and glare at anybody who tries to talk or look at me, then I run home and hide in my house surrounded by arms for the rest of the day because I am sure they are going to try to kill me. If someone calls me or my house and I don't know who it is I also go into my safe room and prepare for a fight for the next 2 weeks. I don't have a lot of friends. :D :p
 
Okay, for all of you who are so paranoid that you refuse to answer your own doors, try this one on for size:

A man pulls up in a van, driving rather quickly to your house, slams on the brakes, jumps out, and runs to your front door and starts pounding on it, yelling "ANYBODY HOME!?"

Now insert your reaction here.....
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Okay, that lunatic was me, coming home from vacation a month ago, pounding on the door of a house because flames higher than the roof were shooting out from the garage. Two sets of grandparents and two young boys in the house, never had a clue about the fire. In fact, the one grandpa told me, "You must be mistaken, we don't have a fire here.", and then he looked outside, and panicked. Only one case of slight burns, saved the house (wife had dialed "9-1 and had her finger on the "1" as we weren't sure until we turned the corner.)

Then again, maybe where you live, people don't stop for house fires.

If you are living in an area where you are afraid to answer your own front door, you aren't living, you are existing, and a pitiful existence it is indeed.

Yes, we have thieves and murderers in Nebraska, but they don't set the tone on how we run our little piece of civilization. We even have self serve vegetable stands, where the produce is set out by the road with a price, and you put the money in the ice cream bucket for what you take, make your own change, if need be. Comes up long more than short. One town even has a self serve coffee shop, 30 keys passed out, all on the honor system.

This thread reminds me of the scene in "Dances with Wolves" when the three Pawnee Indians are talking about some smoke they see in the distance. One wants to go investigate it, and the other two try to talk him out of it, because it might be Sioux or even White Men, maybe soldiers, maybe a lot of them, maybe with guns. They argue for a bit, and the first one turns his back on his partners and leaves them saying "I would rather die than be afraid of a single line of smoke in my own land."

I guess that sums up my own philosophy on the matter.
 
I open the door to invited people. I also open the doors if I KNOW the uninvited person.

However, if the person is NOT invited and I do NOT know them, I will not disable my defenses at their request. This is not a fear. Infact I do not need them, they need me.


I'm thinking about putting a sticker right next to my door handle that amounts to:


"- No solicitors.
- No trespassers.
- Here is my phone number if you need to contact me immediately."


Leaving the door unlocked is equivalent to opening the door to anyone who rings the doorbell.
 
I try to avoid it. Nine times out of ten I will simply have a firearm in hand and wait for them to leave. In my experience nothing good ever comes to your front door unless it's in a flat box, covered with cheese and you just ordered it twenty minutes ago.

I also don't engage in discussions with people through the door. I don't say anything. Why should I? If I know you, you know how to reach me and it ain't by pounding on my door.
 
Wow, I'm surprised no one has mentioned HOW they open the door...

I'll open the door to see who is there, but the following apply
1) I may be dressed in a towel, but I've got at least my left shoe on (I'm military, so I've always got at least one pair of combat boots by the door I can slip on my left foot)
2) Left (shod or booted) foot is braced against the door as far as I allow it to open (3 inches until I find out what's up)
3) Armed, somehow - gun in hand/belt, OC in hand, OC right behind door where wife and I toss them as we come in house or maglite flashlight

The boot on the door is important to prevent someone from pushing way in. This will eventually become second nature - kind of embarrasing when the pastor comes to visit, and you forget you're bloking the door...

If you're gonna leave boots by the door, like I do, make sure they are the largest person's in the house. My wife can easily slip on my combat boot to answer the door - I can't get into her shoes too easy though. She has come to realize that fashion takes a back seat to safety. She used to think I was paranoid, now she is glad of it, after home invasions in our town.
 
If you guys think three barking dogs behind a fence or inside a house is frightening, you should meet this guy I know in Sacramento. He has ramps from his back yard to his roof, so when someone rings the doorbell, they have barking, snarling dogs coming at them from above!

My mom is an idiot about this. She always opens the door, and never checks first. She also does dumb stuff like leaving the house unlucked while she walks the dog for 30 minutes around the neighbrhood, or leaving the garage door open while she runs a quick errand. When I was a kid, someone stole my bike out of our own garage when she did this. I tried to tell her once to just lock the doors and take the keys with her when she went for a walk, and she acted like what I was asking her was the most incovenient, ridiculous thing imaginable. She always leaves the doors unlocked, too. On an occasion or too, visitors who knew someone in the house would just open the door and walk in if no one answered the door!

Personally, I feel it's pretty easy to profile someone to tell whether or not they are dangerous, but I usually don't open the door anyway, just because I don't feel like being bothered.
 
I never answer the door. Nothing to do with fear.

Folks who know me well enough to be invited into my home know to call beforehand.

Why do I do this?

I am not willing to waste my time answering the door for folks who, 99 times out of 100, are there only to further waste my time.
 
I just did.

Wound up buying a 'support your local kiddie athletic team' gift card from a ten year old boy and his dad (who was watching from a respectful distance). <shrug> A quick glance out the peephole to make sure it's not obviously unsafe, the barking dogs driving away anyone who's not truely interested in being there, and a loaded pistol about four steps away - I'm ok with all that.
 
"specific threats in your life or based on general caution?"

I live in Richmond, Virginia. Downtown Richmond Virginia at that. But there are crazies everywhere. Even the peaceniks are armed these days.
___________________________________________________________

"A well-known Richmond couple and their two young daughters were found bound with their throats cut yesterday afternoon in the basement of their South Richmond home.

Richmond firefighters made the discovery about 1:45 p.m. after responding to a 911 call reporting a fire at the home of Bryan and Kathryn Harvey at 812 W. 31st St. in the Woodland Heights neighborhood.

Investigators said the family members had invited friends for a New Year's Day chili party that was to start about 2.

"Murder and arson -- for chrissake! -- in this neighborhood?" exclaimed 54-year Woodland Heights resident Stephen W. Tarrant, who lives across the street from the Harveys."


The perp just got the death penalty. Claims he was on PCP and the door was open. Took a computer, Bryan's wedding ring and some cookies the little girls had made.
 
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