How security conscious are you?

[ericad]

We live in a very rural area, on 5 acres off a dirt road, way off the beaten path. The likelihood of being victim of a random act of violence is nil, simply because of how many "lucky" turns a person would have to take to stumble upon our house, not to mention that it's pitch black with no street lights (since we have no street, lol), full of free roaming neighbors' dogs who bark at everything, etc.
We would see someone coming from a mile away unless he/she just happened to have night vision goggles too. We also have 2 very large dogs of our own, who are almost always indoors, and they are very scary looking and hate strangers

If someone were to victimize us, it would most likely be a targeted stalking type of operation, and in this case the person would find a way in, regardless of a locked door or window.

But even given the above, I do take reasonable precautions. I am in the habit of always locking doors behind me, even during the day when I'm going in and out and at home. It's just automatic. And I'm very good about locking everything up when we leave the house, though I'm far more worried about what can happen when we're home, and less about what can happen when we're not. When I'm home alone with DD overnight, I set the alarm, and I always check all doors and windows before going to sleep each night. This mainly stems from my paralyzing, crippling fear of someone snatching our daughter - It's my big obsessive worry.

DH is WAY looser about these things than I am. I often come home to find that he left doors unlocked, windows open, etc. And when he's home, going in and out, the doors are never locked. I don't loose sleep or freak out about it, but I'm far more cautious than he is!

 

[TooPatient]

(didn't have enough time to finish my earlier post)

Anyway, I just took and passed a test to carry a concealed handgun. It was a long day of learning about laws. Not only that but our instructor asked us "can you really shoot another person. Can you live with what you might do" The entire class was eye opening.
We practiced and talked about what to do when confronted. And we discussed our reactions. But of course you never really know what your reaction might be. We discussed dangerous situations and how to recognize body language. I'm not even touching on all the discussions and lessons, but intense it was ! I left wondering do I really want to even carry a weapon now! I passed my shooting test with flying colors, but who knows how accurate you can be in a stressful situation.

Our instructor was a veteran police officer, high rank, BTDT kind of guy. No doubt retired military the way he barked commands in the shooting range. By the end of the evening, we were all drained from the intense day. I will be attending more gun safety classes just because I want to know and I want to handle my gun better. I can shoot just fine, but in a stress filled dangerous situation, you don't have time to think, you have to respond. I do not have plans to keep my gun on me at all times. I was amazed at the number of people going through these classes every weekend. People are afraid these days. And according to our instructor, we should be.

I'm not saying this is for everyone. I grew up with guns in our home. My dad hunted and used guns for target shooting. I was shooting
in my early teens. My husband owns and shoots guns as well. So for me this was about personal protection.

Hey Bebe --
You should come visit the "A different kind of shooting" thread and tell us more about your class.

We had a guest speaker at our gun club meeting. I'm going to post a quick summary of what he shared with us and you might find that interesting too. (he was a law enforcement officer, now owns a well respected firearms training school (and instructs there!), and has a law degree)