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Original poster

To feel scared in my own home?

144 replies

Colabottle10 · 28/03/2016 20:08

Last November we were burgled. During the daytime, I came home minutes after they'd fled.

We live in a rural village, it's a drive through as in not a dead end, and is a through route to the local town.

Took me a while to feel better about being in the house and slept with a shotgun under the bed for a long time.

The culprit hasn't been caught.

Friday just gone I noticed a car driving back and forth through the village very slowly with two men inside eyeing up all the houses. I saw it again tonight parked up at one end of the village. DH went for a drive to see if he could see it and found it just outside the village at the other end and stopped and asked if they were lost (man and woman this time). They said they were trying to get phone signal. I called 101 and logged it.

I feel scared again. I want to move.

OP posts:
Dawndonnaagain · 29/03/2016 13:52

We have the exact same laws you do regarding going into a school and shooting kids. Namely, we don't allow it. But some people do it anyway, and as correctly pointed out, most of the crime happens with illegally acquired guns, so changing a law would have no effect on it.
What tosh. The fact is it's easier to get hold of guns in a gun toting society, we have had two school shootings. That's it. Two.
You've had 31 since Columbine in 1999.
128 since 1970.

SylviaWrath · 29/03/2016 13:53

You would think that. And I suppose if we disagree you could always shoot me.

It's not really a matter of opinion. You are advocating for laws that kill lots of people, including children. We are advocating the ones where people stay alive, and our toddlers don't shoot each other.
One simply IS more civilised than the other. End of story.

CockacidalManiac · 29/03/2016 13:55

Chilled seems to want to turn the OP's village into the one in Hot Fuzz?

problembottom · 29/03/2016 13:56

DP had a horrendous burglary - woken up at 5am and threatened with a machete for his car keys - and was adamant he would move house afterwards. It took time but he's fine now. I subsequently moved in and when DP goes away for weeks at a time for work, I'm not scared. Time really does help.

What also helped us was getting the house as secure as we can - a great alarm system we put on at night and when we go out, and front and back doors with metal through the middle so they can't be kicked down, which is how they got in last time.

Burglary is horrible, I really sympathise.

chilledwarmth · 29/03/2016 14:01

No Sylvia, I'm not advocating for laws that kill lots of people, what an ignorant and disrespectful thing to say. We all seem to want laws that will help save lives, we just disagree on what the best laws to achieve that goal is. Disagreeing with the laws you want doesn't mean the person wants people to die, it means they want people to live, and think that their laws would be better at doing that.

Sorry to hear about your DP's experience problembottom. Yep securing your house is a great move to make. You can't completely stop a determined person from getting in but burglars aren't really like that, they just want the lowest hanging fruit, which in this case is houses with no alarms, and no visible security. If your house looks even slightly "troublesome" in terms of security, they will likely move on to the next one.

lertgush · 29/03/2016 14:04

Chilled - why is the rate of gun deaths in the US so much higher than in the UK?

multivac · 29/03/2016 14:06

they want people to live, and think that their laws would be better at doing that

Regardless of what you think, you are empirically, demonstrably wrong. What you actually mean is that you don't care how many people get killed, as long as you can feel convinced it will never be you. An argument that is as stupid as it is selfish.

KayTee87 · 29/03/2016 14:07

I don't understand how there could even be a difference of opinion on which law saves more lives considering the numbers ...

multivac · 29/03/2016 14:08

Oh, and not a single one of my American friends - and I have many of them - is in favour of US gun laws as they currently stand.

lertgush · 29/03/2016 14:12

Oh, and not a single one of my American friends - and I have many of them - is in favour of US gun laws as they currently stand.

Even my American friends who own guns think American gun laws are stupid.

They want to see background checks, mandatory training, mandatory safety controls like gun locks and safes, limits on types of guns that can be sold, limits on the number of guns you can own.

chilledwarmth · 29/03/2016 14:13

lertgush, I don't have a definitive answer but what I do know is that a large number of the gun deaths happen in areas where it's already illegal to have a gun. So banning them would just be like saying it's illegal twice. It didn't work the first time, why do people naively believe it will work the second?

Multivac, you can think whatever you like but I do care about Americans getting killed. Well actually I care about anyone being killed, regardless of where they're from. I want as much lives to be saved as possible. If you feel that wanting to save lives is stupid or selfish, then you can consider me both, but that's what I believe in. And I quite believe what you say about your American friends. Theres hundreds of millions of us, so there's lots of different opinions among us, mine being only one.

UnderTheGreenwoodTree · 29/03/2016 14:13

I'm perfectly happy that we have the gun laws in the UK that we do. I'm thankful for them. I'm thankful that violent wankers like George Zimmerman are not allowed to walk the streets with guns in their pockets in the UK. Far too many guns and shootings in the US - check out the homicide figures in the US compared to the UK - it's disproportionately higher in the US.

multivac · 29/03/2016 14:14

chilledwarmth You have told me everything I need to know about you, thanks. As I say, all the people I like and respect think very, very differently from you on this issue.

UnusualPolarBear · 29/03/2016 14:15

For everyone quoting the numbers of how many more incidents there have been in the US than the UK, has anyone actually considered how many times bigger the US is than the UK...

chilledwarmth · 29/03/2016 14:15

And as someone who has done a training course in firearms I fully support a lot of what you mention lertgush.

multivac · 29/03/2016 14:19

UnusualPolarBear

Erm, yes. The statistics are just as convincing when presented as percentages - of which the UK and the US both have one hundred each.

UnderTheGreenwoodTree · 29/03/2016 14:20

For everyone quoting the numbers of how many more incidents there have been in the US than the UK, has anyone actually considered how many times bigger the US is than the UK...

Yes - the gun violence is the US is disproportionately higher, as is the homicide rate in the US.

lertgush · 29/03/2016 14:21

For everyone quoting the numbers of how many more incidents there have been in the US than the UK, has anyone actually considered how many times bigger the US is than the UK...

Good grief... seriously?

bloodyteenagers · 29/03/2016 14:24

But your law kills an awful lot of people every single year. Your law allowed 64 school shootings last year alone.
Your laws don't save lives.
Your laws create more crimes.
Your laws affect more families than our gun laws.
Your laws, statistically show that a home invader will carry arms more than our hime invaders.

Yet your law is there to protect citizens and to save lives. Confused

Another figure. In the US 60% of all murders were gun related. 31% in Canadian murders gun related. 18.2% in Australia. 10% in the UK.
Canada, UK, and Australia don't allow all their citizens to bare arms. They have controls over who can have a license. They have conditions about how the arms are kept.. The figures are there. That's a lot of deaths in a country that has a law to protect citizens.

UnusualPolarBear · 29/03/2016 14:25

Well I've seen some staggeringly stupid posts on here so thought I'd check Wink
Not pretending to have done the research myself.

UnderTheGreenwoodTree · 29/03/2016 14:25

And chilledwarmth, do you just have to hijack every thread with a gun law debate? You did it on the Dunblane thread too, and I find it very distasteful.

chilledwarmth · 29/03/2016 14:27

Hey bloodyteenagers, our law didn't allow 64 school shootings. Every single one was a crime, and where possible anyone who commits such a crime is rightfully either imprisoned for life or put to death. Because contrary to what you suggest, our law does not allow people to go and shoot innocent children.

bloodyteenagers · 29/03/2016 14:31

If your laws didn't allow innocent people to be shot, then there would be stricter controls.
The numbers are there. Your laws don't save lives.

lertgush · 29/03/2016 14:32

The difference fundamentally is that in the UK the gun laws actually do prevent shootings, whereas in the US the gun laws don't prevent them.

Yes it's illegal to shoot someone in the US, but it's very easy to get hold of a gun to do so.

In the UK it's not only illegal, but it's extremely difficult to get hold of a gun to do so.

The difference is gun laws.

MaudGonneMad · 29/03/2016 14:34

Because contrary to what you suggest, our law does not allow people to go and shoot innocent children.

Your gun laws facilitate the shooting of innocent children. Anyone with half a brain cell can see that.

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