Screen Shot 2016-03-17 at 9.25.10 AM

Many scoff at the idea of home carry. Why bother with it in your own castle, they wonder, when you can quickly get your gun if you hear a bump in the night? Answer: sometimes that bump in the night is a knock at the door. “A Zionsville, (Indiana) man was shot Monday night by a man claiming to be a stranded driver. Police said the man knocked on a door in the 4300 block of Creekside Pass in the Austin Oaks subdivision shortly after 9 p.m. and asked to use a pair of pliers. The homeowner said he went to get the pliers and when he returned, the suspect tried to get into the house. The two got into a fight and the suspect shot the homeowner in the leg.”  . . .

The homeowner has been identified as George Thomas Eyrich, 58, of Zionsville.

The shooter was described as a black man. He is about 5 feet 8 inches tall, about 160 pounds and was wearing a black jacket.

You may recognize leafy Zionsville as the suburban Indianapolis home of Shannon Watts, the doyenne of civilian disarmament and well-paid lacky of Michael Bloomberg. That’s a place where incidents like this one don’t happen. Or aren’t supposed to.

Neighbor Viska Sasic said the shooting has her unsettled.

“It’s scary,” she said. “It’s really scary. You cannot trust people, basically. You never know who might be behind the door.”

If there’s a better argument for home carry, we haven’t heard it.

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

64 COMMENTS

    • My dear sweet wife tried “telling me otherwise”. Eventually, she just gave up, and got over it (other than perhaps rolling her eyes occasionally).

  2. From the looks of the photo, it looks like a really nice neighborhood … the kind of neighborhood whose residents have resolutely declared that such things cannot ever happen in their neighborhood.

    Live (sometimes) and learn, or not.

    As for me and my house, we will … home carry.

    • It’s a nice neigborhood, but it’s a suburb of Indianapolis and there’s a lot of crime in Indianapolis. The solution to this is if you live within 30 mins of Indy and a black man knocks at your door, unless you know him or he’s a UPS driver, don’t answer the door.

      Anytime past sundown, either don’t answer the door or don’t answer it without a gun if it’s someone you don’t know.

      • I live in a big enough city for lots of crime elsewhere in Indiana, and all the thugs have been white, like me. If you don’t know them, period, carry or don’t open the door.

        Had a well dressed young man in a monogrammed Carrhart show up for window selling, still made him give me ID to look at from his company. Race is irrelevant. Dress is irrelevant. Although clothing will certainly give you a good idea regardless of race.

        • Youngest daughter is at IUPUI and while black hoodlums are not alone in thugging along, it usually is not a bad bet.

      • Correction to a previous commenter: no matter what color the midnight UPS driver is…..don’t open the door. Call your backup (police) while you stay vigilant and armed. This is simple life lesson stuff here, people.

      • Even when we’re specifically expecting someone, like guests, UPS/FedEx, or the chinese food delivery guy, we still look out a window away from the door to confirm who’s there. Plus, we answer armed.

      • a black man knocks at your door, unless you know him or he’s a UPS driver,
        Black UPS driver killed off gun store owner by daughter’s house near Muscatatuck Nature Reserve.

  3. Pro-tip:

    You have no obligation whatsoever to open your door to and/or assist a complete and uninvited stranger, especially at night. Proceed with extreme caution.

    If you do decide to assist, it would be wise to keep a LOT of distance between you and your stranger and to constantly look for accomplices. Oh, and be armed with a pistol that you can produce quickly and easily, even if it is a sub-compact handgun.

    • Especially watch for companions. A common method is to have a female do the knocking and then two males hit you from the sides when you open the door.

      But you can’t defend with deadly force unless actually under attack.
      Google Ted Wafer Murder Conviction to see what happens when you shoot the distraught female and she’s the only one standing on your porch.

  4. I have two pistols and a shot gun. One pistol is with me everywhere. If there is a knock at the door after dark it is upholstered. If before dark the holster is released and ready for draw. I live in the country sort of and my neighbors are nice. Its the other one needs to be cautious about.

  5. A co worker was murdered after answering a late night knock on the door. The 2 that murdered her saw her drive buy as they were stripping parts from a stolen car. Afraid she would call the cops that decided to be preemptive. Did she see anything? If she did she made no calls.

    Think on that for a minute. You drive past someone on the street and they murder you cause you might have seen something?

    That one there will make you carry a gun.

      • Yep, that’s why we know their side of the story. Anybody that had driven past them that night was subject, in their minds, to murder. And this was not a lonely, isolated spot. It was the san francisco bay area.

    • Link to Youtube not copying properly – See Youtube – MrMuscleilly – “Don’t Answer The Door”. Advice by Mas Ayoob.

  7. Home carry if you want! But at SOME point you get to such an impossibly small chance event that we’re in the probabalistic range of getting eaten by a shark.

    As for me, I’ll just grab my gun if I need to answer the door to a stranger. He can wait. Or if he can’t, that’s okay.

  8. I’m sorry, but why are people opening the door for anyone? I’ll never understand this. I only open the door when I’m EXPECTING company. NO EXCEPTIONS EVER.

    • I’m the same way. I haven’t opened a door for a stranger in my adult life. And I laugh at every one of these stories.

      Let’s face it: if they have a warrant, you don’t need to open the door. And if they don’t, they need to get one. Everyone else calls ahead of time.

  11. Cameras aimed at all three entrances of my house and the doors never open until we have viewed the monitor and I won’t answer the door without my pistol in my hand , if I don’t recognize you . I prominently display when the door opens and if you look just a little off on the monitors , you can knock and bang until the cops pull up .

  12. I don’t know that home carry is the issue here although it certainly might have helped this homeowner. Rather, I question his decision to “give” the guy pliers in the first place. If you don’t know who is knocking or have any doubts, don’t open the door. Its really just that simple.

    • Right-hand column of every page has a “Contact TTAG” entry…though to be fair it’s not on the top banner where one might first look.

      • “I know THAT!”
        Kenneth Williams, in just about every Carry On film.

        But i’m lazy and don’t want to need to log into email account etc just to drop a quick heads up, so a form would be much appreciated.

  14. I home carry, being a woman alone all day. I wear an ALICE belt under my tee shirt with pepper spray, my cell phone, my pistol and two extra mags. I wear it when I am gardening and I am waiting for my CHL to arrive and I will carry it everywhere. You cannot trust anyone. I was glad I was when I was outside in my garden and a couple of dogs approached me growling. They got pepper sprayed. Sorry, a man would have seen the pistol and probably run off like a little girl crying for his mommy. Don’t leave YOUR life in the hands of others, especially the police. It took them 20 minutes to get here when my cat set off the panic alarm. I would have been raped and dead if it had been real. It CAN happen to you. Don’t answer your door to strangers and don’t look thru your peephole. People have been blinded and killed by sharp objects shoved thru it. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY. Michael Bloomberg will not nor will his cadre of armed body guards, the hypocrite.

    • Tina,

      I have another suggestion for your personal safety: do NOT use your real first and last name on a public forum such as this site. And do NOT tell people what hours you keep at home and what your armed or disarmed status is on a public forum such as this site … unless you use an pseudonym that cannot easily be linked to your real identity.

    • usually pocket carry a small gun and always carry an assisted opening folder around the yard, too. not worried so much about human assailants, but for the off chance of an aggressive stray dog. live in a big city but have 3 acres, 1/2 woods.

  15. How about (as others have stated above) we just don’t answer the friggin’ door. My friends know to call first or I don’t answer.

    • H’mm.

      Haven’t heard from Dirk (or Shannon, thank God!) in quite some time now.

      Do you think that maybe they finally…

      *snicker*

  18. Every time we see a sad story about someone who was foolish enough to open his door to a stranger late a night, it’s used here at TTAG as reason to home carry.

    Honestly, that’s the wrong response. Being armed will only slightly improve your chances of prevailing in an encounter where the perp has the element of surprise, is already close enough to get his hands on you, and may also be younger, quicker and stronger.

    Armed or not, opening the door to strangers is a dangerous thing to do.

  19. Dang it.
    The home invader went to the wrong house.
    He should have gone to Shannon’s house.

    • I’m not usually one to laugh at the misfortune of others, but I would honestly have laughed if that happened.

  21. Young black men banging on my door were an impetus for me to become a GUN owner. They crashed into the neighbors tree and wanted to use my phone. I just yelled at them and said I was calling the po-leece. Which I did. I realized other than a knife and a baseball bat I was unprepared. Sorry-you’re a dumbazz if you open your door to a stranger after dark. Always be armed…

  22. Knocking on my door at night is the great equalizer: physical attributes don’t matter. Too much to lose to help the “Helpless”. Ask Jerimiah Johnson how that turns out.

  23. If someone knocks on your door at oh-dark-thirty, get your gun, call the cops, and tell the stranger that you have done so. If he is honest, they can help him. If not, he will be gone by the time they arrive. Either way, don’t open your door until you see that the cops have arrived.

  24. you can get medievel on someone’s ass with a pair of pliers. shoulda used during the fight, before the shooting.

    or had a gun in his hand.

    or gun AND pliers.

    • If you are pro-gun, Shannon would not invite you over even if you met Waffen SS standards.

      • Bullshit. The only reason Dirk can’t score with Shannon is he won’t use the kapo bloomberg approach. A bag full of money.

  26. My solution to this problem is I just don’t answer the door. I know if I am expecting a package that I am required to sign for (and I usually opt to pick those up at the UPS/Fedex/whatever store). I don’t answer for salespeople, charitys, politicians, etc.

  27. That’s where a huge German Shepard with a ferocious bark comes in handy. Works like a charm every time at our house.

  28. Just out of curiosity, why open the door for someone you do not know? doors don’t do anygood if you leave them unlocked or open them.

  30. Small world observation: Austin Oaks is also the neighborhood that Jared Fogle (of Subway infamy) lived in.

  31. This is one of the reasons I have a video camera on my porch with with an excellent view of whoever is at the front door (I have one at all my doors). I look at the monitor and I can tell whether it is the UPS man, a Jehovah Witness Couple, or a “broken down motorist”. I saw so many felons in 18 years on the circuit court bench that I can spot them with my eyes closed. You can buy decent video camera kits with a hard drive that will record for 2 weeks from $299 to $499 that is with 4-6 cameras. Get the wired kind as there is so much electrical interference from other devices.
    The front door is a real danger point. I tried many cases where homeowners went to the front door, looked out of the peep-hole only to have the door kicked in on them. If these thugs see you at the door through a side light for instance they will kick or punch the door down. God help anyone who has a home built with Dryvit as a steel toe boot or small sledge hammer can pound a hole through the outside wall. The media seldom covers these crimes but they are frequent.

Comments are closed.