[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by Envitro

I'm not talking about someone "walking onto my property" and thinking that I have the right to shoot them. This isn't "Texas".

Not at all. All I'm saying is that at 3am in the morning, someone has broken into your house, and your two little kids are at risk because someone is coming up the stairs and towards their room. How are you going to feel about that?

If you confront them and they refuse to retreat and leave, and make aggressive moves towards you or your kids, what are you supposed to do? In Canada you are not required to "retreat" from your home, and case law precedent is clear that if your life is in danger you can use deadly force. You will be thoroughly investigated and scrutinized if you choose to use lethal force, and most likely charged so that a court will have to sort out the details of whether you were justified or not.

The last thing I'd ever want to do is to make the choice whether to pull the trigger or not, and I never expect to have to do so living where I do.

But to say that you have ZERO fear of someone breaking into your house, is a bit foolish IMHO. Everyone should have that little bit of fear because it's a possibility, and that fear should not paralyze you but make you analyze your home layout and figure out a plan. Just like you would for a fire-escape plan.

It doesn't need to involve a firearm, maybe a lockdown plan, or an improvised safe room. It's not likely to happen, but the risk is not zero either. If as a father/parent you've never thought "what would I do if someone broke-in in the middle of the night?" then all the best to you and I too wish to live in this world that you imagine.

Cases like this happen in Calgary and area, more often that you think. Just because it doesn't end up in the most extreme outcome (i.e. someone shooting an intruder), doesn't mean that the threat isn't there.

I'm not going to say anymore about this.
We can see the world in different ways, all I'd say is I don't want to derail this thread anymore.

I would be much more worried about the 2 little kids living in the house with firearms. The risk of a poorly secured firearm leading to "an accident" seems massively higher than the risk of an armed intruder looking to do harm.