Home Invasions: Is it Time to Get Your Guns?

After the Patch top news about , more than a few commenters suggested a call to arms.

More believed it was time to get back into . The latter suggestion is probably the more prudent one given the circumstances. Despite what appears to be an upswing in crime, Livermore’s still a fairly safe town in which to live and there’s no real proof that blowing away would-be home intruders is a deterrent to crime.

For proof, I give you Texas, a state where you can in fact shoot someone who seems to have come on your property uninvited even before you perceive a personal danger. Once I joked with TV’s Texas Justice Judge Larry Joe Doherty about the urban legend that Texas had the “He needed killin’ “ defense. Turns out, that defence still actually works in the Texas justice system according to Doherty.

My son John, who lived most of his life here in Livermore before moving to a town near Ft. Worth, was a little shocked by the local news reports that almost always had some account of people shooting folks who were trying to break into their homes.

I thought he was exaggerating until I watched a newscast the last time I visited.

The local news played a 911 tape with a woman who sounded like she was well past retirement age. She told the police that a man was scoping out her house and that if he came on her property she had a gun and she was going to shoot him.

The man then came on her property while she was on the 911 call. She told the dispatcher that if the police didn’t arrive before the man got to her sliding glass back door, she was going to have to shoot him.

“You’d better hurry,” she said as the dispatcher kept asking her to be patient, that help was on the way.

“He’s walking up to my backdoor,” she warned. “You don’t have long. The minute he touches my door, I’m shooting.”

And then you heard the gun blast.

“Better tell them to bring the ambulance with them now,” she said.

The woman wasn’t charged with anything. She did what she was supposed to do: Call the police and when they didn’t arrive on time, take matters into her own hands. In California, she probably would have faced a harsher response from the police due to her timing.

Homeowners can reasonably defend themselves and their property under California law. If you are in your home when an intruder enters, the self-defense law kicks in because it is presumed you had a reasonable fear of imminent harm or danger.

But by that time it could be too late.

So in Texas, the gun-toting granny could blaze away before the person actually entered the residence. Here, the courts might think she acted a bit too hastily and should have waited until he broke through the back door. In this case, she probably could have delayed her reaction given the fact she already had a pretty good bead on the guy as he began to break in.

Most people aren’t in that position. Most people don’t know someone is in their home until it is too late. And at that point, having a gun might do no good whatsoever.

Which is why it’s probably better to have some watchful neighbors looking out for you. If you see people hanging around who should not be there, call the police immediately. 

A few years ago, my  I tracked down the person who did it by going to the locations this person had used my credit cards. The Livermore police eventually caught her during a routine traffic stop and found one of my credit cards on her. Because she had prior offenses and I had the Dollar Tree surveillance camera footage, I was told she was hit with the harshest sentence.

I not only commend Dollar Tree for helping me, but the manager became aware of some protocols not being followed and was able to discuss those with his employees afterwards. It all worked out swell.

It takes some time to do follow up and to be observant. Look out for your neighbors rather than opting to grab that gun as a first response. Having a loaded gun in the house is not the safest option for you or your family.

And from what I’ve seen of Texas justice, it isn’t much of a deterrent. There are still the regular reports of people shooting would-be burglars, yet it doesn’t seem to make them stop and think that perhaps this isn’t something they should be doing.

After all, if we were dealing with bright people, they wouldn’t be engaging in criminal behavior.