The Clutter home was not an unarmed household…but the guns weren’t where any of the victims could reach them in time. Capote wrote that the police “found some shotguns in a closet.” They didn’t do much good there when the murderers, armed with a hunting knife and a Savage 12 gauge shotgun one of the parolees had taken without permission from his parents’ home, caught Herb Clutter alone and unarmed and forced him to lead them to the bedrooms where, one by one, they bound and then murdered his wife and his son and his daughter, and Clutter himself.
A gun you can’t reach in an emergency is useless. When I read that book as a high school kid, it struck me that since I had long possessed guns in my bedroom including a loaded Colt .45 automatic, I would have had a lot more options than Clutter’s son did when the homicidal intruders entered his bedroom…and, knowing my dad, in Herb Clutter’s situation my old man’s regularly-carried Colt Cobra .38 revolver would have probably gone into action long before things got even that far.
The guns tucked away, the people were murdered. Meanwhile Mas’s home was heavily armed, and ready-at-hand (Mas even carried concealed as a minor in his father’s Jewelry store for safety and security), nobody was hurt…even by accidents.
There’s a LOT of data in just that one quote.
Next to what gun should I buy, the next most common question I get is why do you carry at home?
This would be why.
We had 2 home invasions this week. One in a neighboring town and one in my town. 2 masked men armed with knives or bats go into the house, tie up the folks, and steal there stuff. So far no one has been hurt, but should they break in here, that statistic will change.
I definitely carry at home and also have guns at hand in every room. That and a locked door will give you all the time you need.
And this is why “safe storage” laws should be ridiculed as the petty authoritarianism they are, and abolished wherever and whenever possible.
There is no safe that allows access as quickly as a drawer or a holster.
But the antis keep telling us that we can get our guns out of the safe, reassembled, and loaded in enough time. Uh huh.
I add a dog who loves her family but growls at strangers to my layers of security, but I keep guns handy, too.
I have no desire to own a dog. I care for animals for WORK, adding a dog to that would just bother me.
That being said they are FANTASTIC security if you get a good one. I’ve heard so many story of people KNOWING something was up because the dogs were going nuts. A few stories have been people snooping around the yard or attempting to break in….another good one was Bob’s dogs warning him his car was on fire.
I also have a cat who lets me know when something’s up. He dives for cover.