A few years ago around bedtime our security alarm went BEEEP.
I got the AR-15 with attached light just in case the electricity failed, but I left the interior lights on. I briefly considered venturing outside but then thought....
Whatever-whomever's out there will see me back lighted and they'll be in darkness, Maglight or not.
So we called 911.
I swear, in two minutes the PD had a helicopter overhead, scanning with its searchlight. The gal at Dispatch was marvelous—calm, focused, even a bit funny.
Air One reported nothing visible.
Dispatch said two officers would arrive shortly. I asked for a name. She provided one. (Separate story, see below.)
Doorbell rang and I played Whodat thru the door.
"Officer Stimpson."
Correctomundo.
We checked the perimeter (I being unarmed then) and found nothing. Opened the electrical panel and...
A magnet had failed, allowing the alarm circuit to close. Hence the BEEEP.
All was cool.
Separate Story:
I asked where Officer Stimpson was from, and he said Utah. I said dog-gone one of my best Navy ace friends was a Stimpson from Utah. No relation that we could discern.
Semi-semi related: Charlie Stimpson (16 kills) sported a Victory Model .38 with imitation bone grips. Somewhere I may have a color pic. One of his squadron mates (semi-POW of the Vichy French in Saigon) said he preferred the .38 and I asked why. He said, "Have you ever carried a .45 all day?" I confessed that yes, I have, but didn't go into details.
Anyway…
I take the threat of home invasion seriously. One of my cherished friends—a two-war Marine Corps veteran--was murdered by a teenage POS who broke in late one night, demanding car keys. The deputy who called to inform me said that the “suspect” was from a logging family with criminal backgrounds. That came as no surprise—I’ve dealt with the type.
The murderer was tried and sentenced to death but then Oregon’s POS leftist governor suspended all death sentences for the remainder of his term. (That governor later resigned in what passes for “disgrace” among Democrats. The next Demogovernor commuted all death sentences to life.)
The trend continues. Just this week during a crowded public safety meeting in Encino, California, police responded to two nearby residential break-ins. The meeting was spurred by increased home invasions, notably the double murder of TV personalities this month.
A philosophical aside:
There are two kinds of people: grass eaters and meat eaters.
Or…there are copers and non-copers.
Both varieties are easily found on internet forums, usually preceded by libs who whine (and I’m quoting here) “Why don’t gun owners leave the house during a burglary? Are their possessions more important than a life?”
Well, snowflake, consider this:
How much value does a criminal who invades your home place on his life?
Never thought of that did you?
No, of course not.
Yet frequently the bleat arises again: “Why doesn’t somebody do something?”
Well, why don’t you do something like getting a gun and learning how to use it?
During the LA riots in 1992, some well-known entertainers sidled up to film writer-director and NRA board member John Milius (Dirty Harry, Conan, Apocalypse Now, Wind and the Lion, etc.) asking to borrow one of his firearms. Reputedly he replied, “They’re all being used.
Moral: get your own. And learn how to use them.
So…back to the bump in the night.
I’m excerpting a couple of passages from a former California police professional, previously one of my editors:
“For my pistols, if I need a light, I just turn it on and leave it on. I also turn on all the lights in the house, outside lights, everything. No need to be sneaky because I'll be yelling to get out of my house or my dogs and I are going to kill you!
“Dry firing? Turn the light on and aim things at the target and dry fire. At the range? Do the same thing. If you haven't done it much, with some loads, the smoke really shows up in the light and messes things up. Best to see that in person before you do it for real!
“My fighting guns are all iron sights. But two lights on the rifle, a light on each pistol. The AR is a flat top, pencil barrel, old school fixed GI buttstock (I've had the collapsible ones collapse).
I always also have two lights in my pockets. I've been in the dark before! I once started a felony hot stop with my early Streamlight. It died. Then I went to my backup light I had on my gunbelt. It died. Then I finally ended it using a small pocket light I had.
“And I can speak from personal experience, when I pulled my gun on bad guys, my eyes were on the bad guy, not on the sights. Yes, I was indexing the gun, looking over the sights, but there would have been zero time to "transition to irons" if needed. It's silly stuff touted by people who don't know the real world. I agree, they're dandy for competition.
“But just that.”
