Around 5:00 p.m. in a quiet California neighborhood (Lakewood, L.A. County), a man and woman were attacked in their own backyard by an intruder armed with an iron pole. The attacker, suspected of attempted burglary, delivered several serious blows before one of the two victims (it’s not clear from reports who) was able to get a shot off. That’s all it took to stop the attack and debilitate the suspect sufficiently for the police and an ambulance to arrive.
Both the man and the woman sustained injuries as a result of this attack. One received medical attention at the scene, while the other, along with the newly ventilated perpetrator, was transported to a hospital for treatment.
Even in Los Angeles county, one of the most gun-averse areas of the United States, at least one neighbor (Rodney Tidwell) expressed full support for the couple’s defensive gun use, saying: “Someone came into your backyard, you had a gun to defend yourself…you’re within your rights.”
Our headline is not sensationalized. Although we don’t have identifying information about the victims of the crime, even one strike with a metal pole can prove fatal or permanently disabling. Had these victims been unarmed, the attack would likely have continued. This story could have had a very different ending.
This is why we advocate for gun rights. It’s also why we habitually recommend home carry.
I always carry. S&W .40 shield outside carry on my left. Ruger LCP in my right back pocket. Always. You hope ‘the moment’ never comes. But if it does, it doesn’t happen when we expect it. Thus, carry always. In the home, in the yard, wherever and whatever you’re doing.
I truly hate cities. For the life if me I cannot understand why any would “live” in a place where they were constantly afraid for their life. Seems more like an existence like what a chipmunk or dumpster mouse should experience.
Me? I prefer the country where my nearest neighbor is a 15 minute drive away. Only reason to carry is when dumping kitchen compost. Bears are active right now pilling on the fat for winter.
Yea, sorry you can’t find a job here, or are scared of animals, but frankly, I’m glad you are were you are, and stay away from me. Cool. We got a deal!
Just pray some Libs don’t move in and start turning your bucolic paradise into where they came from!
Ah. Another “I hate people” contingent of the POTG. Some people like community. I’m one of them. I like talking with folks who are different and even difficult. By the way, that’s how converts to gun rights get made. You’re welcome.
Even so, I moved from the city to the country two years ago and upgraded from a .380 pocket gun to a rifle. Rabbits everywhere, not to mention coyotes and the odd bear going for our chickens. The minimum I carry is a .357. So I carry more gun now that I’m out of the city.
My new everyday/everywhere it’s legal carry is a 19X!!!!
I got two Gen 5 17’s
Waiting on a black 19X!
In my back yard there’s a pack of savage attack quail. If you get past them then you deal with a pissed off woman that thought the world of those silly birds. And she likes guns and really sharp knives.
And if you get past her that means I’m going to have to cook my own dinner. And that’s where you done fukked up.
I’ll see your quail and raise with two fully semi-automatic assault Geese.
Geese is good. But i really want swans. Them big angry mofos ain’t afraid of nothing.
A swan chased my uncle down the main street of his town. Using its wings to beat him it broke both his arms and he wasn’t a small guy.
Swans for the win.
No bs. I had to save 2 rotts from an angry swan protecting its mate and young. I had a call from a hysterical resident that the dogs were killing the swans. By the time I got there the rotts were glad to see me and dove into my security buggy for a quick get away.
strych9,
I am having a REALLY hard time believing that a swan can break healthy human arms. Their wings have a lot of surface area which necessarily limits (quite severely) how much velocity they can generate with their wings. And more importantly, their bones are hollow and very light to aid in flight. Hollow and light bones moving at a fairly slow speed is not a recipe for breaking healthy human arms.
Please recheck with your uncle and let me know if your understanding changes.
LOL! A long time ago I was on my “honeymoon” with my pregnant wife. At Brookfield Zoo near Chicago….a giant Canada goose started squaking loudly and flew to my wife’s back biting her(!). Ya can’t kill “em just shoed him away. Hilarious in hindsight(she was OK)đŸ˜„I carry Pepper Gel and a knife always. Sometimes my Taurus 709 in the yard.
Geese are crazy! I heard tales from the RC boat racers of kamikaze geese attacking the boats. Neither the gas/nitro boat nor the goose won. Keep in mind the geese are slightly bigger than the boats which are loud and very fast.
I hit a dang Canada goose with my truck at almost 30mph. Bastard caved in the front of the hood of my 09 Chevy, smeared dirt and feathers up my windshield, stood up shook it off and left the scene. Cost me $700 to get that fixed. I’m ready to take a 5 wood to the next one.
Ya won’t have to get so close with a 12 Gauge. Problem with a 5 wood, the goose might take it from you and thump your head.
“If you get past them then you deal with a pissed off woman that thought the world of those silly birds. And she likes guns and really sharp knives.”
Can you blame her for being perpetually pissed-off?
She has to live with you! đŸ˜‰
Nobody is more shocked than I am when I wake up alive every morning.
Seein’ as how my “yard” is a bit over 30 acres, mostly wooded and home to a variety of critters I’d rather not do hand to hand combat with, I absolutely carry. What works for them will work for the 2 legged variety also. đŸ™‚
Most days, going about my own business; I discreetly carry. Generally a Makarov or a Sig 2022. All I care is that what I have is reliable, accurate under stress; and doesn’t print on my clothing or get hung up on the draw stroke.
Being aware of your surroundings,who/what is in your immediate AO; HOW that AO IS is a useful bit of information to stay abreast of.
Other useful EDC items:1) Phone-obvious. 2) Flashlight. Something easy to carry and sturdy as well as throwing a lot of light. May be useful as an impact tool 3) A good folder or discreet fixed blade-YMMV as may your local laws. 4) First Aid kit in the car or nearby? Good to know.5) Back to the impact tool-assuming the light isn’t doing double duty: anything from a palm stick/fist load to a ” walking stick”-preferably one that is measured/sized to you. To paraphrase Freud ” sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”.
“Discrete fixed blade” … I love bragging on Texas! Does everybody realize that Texas recently dropped *ALL* laws concerning blades? Constitutional carry of no-shit SWORDS!? I didn’t even know anybody was angling for that, although I had become aware that folder length had gone from 3 1/2, to 4 1/2, to 5 1/2 inches over the past decade or so. A 5 1/2 folder is a BIG f knife, I ordered one just to see what that was like. Now I’m considering a sword cane.
Meanwhile, My gun goes on with my pants every morning, comes off with them every night. IOW, hell, I carry on my living room sofa, certainly in my yard.
I would love to have a sword cane. I inherited some canes from my FIL. One has a german silver head. I can use that one against werewolves. One has a ball on top. You unscrew the ball and a spring inside the cane pushes a beaker like vial with a cork in it up to your hand. That vial probably holds 2 ounces of whatever liquid you’d care to load in it.
I’d like a sword cane and I saw a .410 shotgun cane once. That would be cool.
man, i bought a makarov for a pittance in 2001, and later sold it for a pittance. what a mistake it was to part with it.
Stress usually has a lot less to do with the weapon as it does the shooter
Sig P224, in .40 or Bodyguard .380
Just like American Express…Never leave the house without it.
Yes, I home/daily carry every day so that includes the yard when I’m working outside. Recently there was a community notification that 6 “guys” on video and two armed burglarized a house a couple miles away, not during the day. I’ve increased my bedside to include a Beretta Cx4 Storm in 9mm with a 30 round magazine in addition to a Smith & Wesson M&P. Outside I carry an M&P 9mm Shield.
Carry in my yard??? Hell, I carry in my HOUSE! You can bet your bippy I carry in the yard.
I live in a rural area and I always carry. Not just for the two legged critters, but also for neighbors like bobcats, cougars and black bear. I simply don’t set foot outside without being armed, not out of fear but simply caution. This has been my habit for the last 47 years.
I wish senator Rand Paul had carried a gun when he was cutting his front lawn grass, before a Liberal lunatic attacked him.
I carry around the house all the time. I have opened carry while cleaning my house rain gutters last year.
The second amendment has NEVER been about hunting. Amazing how so many so called “gun owners” don’t understand this.
Open carry a .44 mag, but I live in the sticks so it’s normal.
I carry in my yard, my bedroom, my living room, my bathroom, my kitchen, my dining room, my place of work, my car, your car, your place of business, your home, the movie theater, Massachusetts, Las Vegas, Florida, New Hampshire . . . shee-it, I can’t think of anywhere I don’t carry.
Except I don’t carry when I visit friends in New York City, where only the criminals carry. And some of them wear blue.
I needed to drive through NYC a few years back. I was carrying. When I’m going to Canada (it happened once), I don’t carry, because 2A doesn’t apply there.
I used to carry 100% of my awake hours, in or out. I lived in a nice house in a not so great area of town (not bad, but not great). Now that I moved to Idaho and live in a very very low crime new upper middle class subdivision, I don’t usually carry if I’m just going out back because it’s fenced in and I lock the gates. I’ll always strap my XDs-9 on my hip if I’m going for a walk around the block or planning to spend time out front. The construction crews and their friends are probably the most risk to me and my neighbors.
Being semi-retired and living on a limited income forces me to live on the wrong side of the tracks. Shortly after moving into my current digs I let my dogs out to do their business only to find part of a police strike force in my yard trying to serve a fugitive warrant at my next door neighbors house. Needless to say, they were not happy with me and my rather large dogs intruding on their party. It could have gone badly, but quickly turned into a non-event when the felon was not there. Because I now have a much better understanding of HOW BAD this area is, I always open carry while in my yard. I don’t mind advertising to my neighbors that the OFWG with the dogs on the corner sports a .45 on his hip while he’s raking the leaves. I may not be able to physically fight you off, but I am not defenseless.
Dave, good for you. That .45 is a great way to compensate for those of us who have aged a bit. I call it an equalizer.
What’s your opinion of the cops’ attitude?
If an OFWG and two dogs was bad, would an OFWG, a gun, and two dogs have been worse, or no different?
The one standing next to my vehicle and nearest to me and the dogs was visibly uneasy. He was the only one I had any interaction with but he did seem to be mentally prepared for the unexpected neighbor popping out of their door. I tried my best to comply with his request to get the dogs back in the house but they were on a mission to empty their bladders and would not be deterred. It was over pretty quick and the dogs came in without bothering the cop. I really hate to think what may have happened if the dogs had approached him or if I had been packing. At the time I took it in stride, but I was not the one amped up on adrenalin, anticipating a gunfight so I’m sure he was far more upset by it then I was. I’m not afraid of the cops in my area even if they do occasionally harass me on my newspaper delivery route for “driving erratically”(damn it!, can’t you see I’m throwing papers? Idiot!) but that’s what dash cams are for.
Go big bore or go home…..I’ll carry my S&W model 500 if I should venture into bear country…..it will do quite nicely against 2 legged predators too……stay safe out there.
Just curious, but how often do you practice drawing and firing that howitzer?
Meh, I figure my .44 Magnum revolver with 6-inch barrel and appropriate cartridges should be sufficient to promptly stop any bear in the 600 pound class or smaller.
And I figure it would even do fairly well on bigger brown bears if I can get two or three shots into it. Of course being able to put two or three good shots into a BIG charging brown bear is much easier said than done!
2-3 shots very possibly would kill the Brown Bear, but the question is…Will it stop the Bear before it kills you. Killing and stopping are two different matters. Just like with humans, 22’s can certainly kill, but will they stop the vermin before it can kill you.
Marty,
“Will it stop the Bear before it kills you.”
That is an excellent and incredibly relevant question.
The honest answer: I don’t know for sure. Of course I am optimistic. Unfortunately there is not a lot of data to tell us one way or the other. I hope I am never in a situation where I have to test my theory!
For reference my revolver would shoot BuffaloBore 305 grain hardcast lead bullets at around 1,300 fps velocity which is 1,150 foot-pounds energy. Two such bullets would deliver 2,300 foot-pounds energy. I cannot imagine any bear, even a 900 pound bear, is going to be very operational after absorbing that (assuming good hits).
You and me both!
For reference I loaded that revolver with full-power 180 grain hollowpoint bullets and shot a 1-gallon plastic milk/water jug filled with water at a distance of about 25 feet. The water explosion was phenomenal: water went 15+ feet on either side of that jug and even made a cloud with fine enough mist to create a miniature rainbow. Needless to say the plastic jug was unrecognizable as a jug — it looked more like a rippled plastic sheet with odd holes and tears here-and-there.
That leads me to think that even a medium-power 240 grain jacketed softpoint cartridge would be gangbusters on a 350 pound or smaller black bear. And if I was concerned about even larger specimens, a full-power 300 grain hardcast lead bullet would have to hit like a Mack truck — and probably have similar stopping ability.
I live in a fairly uneventful part of town. Not much happens here, but there is a school nearby. Still, my car was broken into and my tools, plus a beloved .22short pistol were taken. As a result, I don’t fully trust those kids anymore, but if I hear trouble happening, I’ll be quick to respond. I also have a good many opinions that I like to share, so I stay armed at all times.
That last sentence almost killed me!
Absolutely! I carry in my yard and in my home. And for good reason: my neighbor diagonally across the street has three German shepherds, at least two of which are psychotic and have menaced me and neighbors multiple times. For whatever reason, that neighbor fails his duty to control his dogs and they get out about twice a month. The problem is: I never know when that will be.
Of course human predators are always a possibility and I am prepared for that contingency as well.
And my preparation: Smith and Wesson M&P 40 full size semi-automatic pistol chambered in .40 S&W, loaded with 180 grain Winchester Ranger bonded, jacketed hollowpoint bullets. If I cannot successfully fend of a few human or animal attackers with 15 rounds in the pistol and the 15 round spare magazine on my belt, it means my time on this Earth is up.
9mm Taurus PT111 G2 from the moment I put my clothes on. It’s on the nightstand until then. Yes, I have “better” guns in my collection, but this one is reliable after 2000+ rounds, and it fits me more comfortably than any other. If I can’t get ‘er done with 13 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense, my number’s up.
S&W M&P 340 ALWAYS in a pocket. Whatever room I’m in or whatever I go a 1911 is with me. No exceptions.
I’m living now on what was a 40 acre farm in a house that my grandparents built back in 1961. From time to time I go back into our northern woods that I used to happily play in when I was just a kid over 50 years ago. I’ve found it necessary to carry on my person a Glock 19 and a spare mag plus cellphone just in case I run into someone that is trespassing and is doing something illegal. As the city that I live near increasingly grows, more people are looking for places like my woods to do things that they are not supposed to be doing, carrying a gun becomes a necessity.
Gun is always in my reach when I carry. I have to be careful when working in my garage under car, etc.
The gun gets in the way but if I leave it out in the house or garage, someone can get to it or possible to forget it and walk back into the house to get water, etc.
Perhaps it’s time to put a small quick release gun safe in the garage wall, hidden like a wall mount cabinet?
Situation you describe, my main fear would be an attack of some kind while I was under the car (In my younger years, I spent MANY hours under a car in my garage). If I felt the need to be armed, I’m afraid I’d have to carry on me.
I have my Jericho FS 40S&W setup for just outside yard duty as its really when your most vulnerable other then the shower, as Rand Paul demonstrated. Open carry is not allowed in FL but that doesn’t apply to your own property and even that is true in CA.
that made me think about visiting “verborgen hectares” near yuma, wis. for the knuckle shuffle and humblecurt. i like to use the open shower in their yard (less imposition), so within reach, but not carried.
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