6:20am brother knocks on bathroom door and says "hurry,get your fashlight and gun"!

[mg27]

What a start to the day! This morning at around 6:20 Im just done shaving and I get a knock on the bathroom door saying to get my flashlight and gun, that when he turned on the living room light he heard the lawn chair that is on the patio move and thought he heard footsteps like someone was running.. Now he is a calm person who is usally not startled easy.. So I grabbed my flashlight which is a bright one, and holstered my firearm in a blackhawk serpa.. Anyway I think I made some bad mistakes and wanna post this to help someone learn from my mistakes... First off I had the gun in condition 3, mag in but not chambered, Secondly, instead of lookng out the window first to see if there was a threat we just opened the door and went out to see if anyone was there. I didnt see anyone on my area (houses are real close together) so I shined the light in the bushes of the neighbors and around their houses.. Now my bro had the dog with us and he says "did you hear that"? behind the car across the street? I didnt hear anything but I THEN chambered the weapon, finger off the trigger and snuck up around the car with the light off until i came to the area where he says he heard leaves moving.. NOTHING. At this time Im thinking Its an animal like a racoon or something. One neighbor was looking out his door and when he saw the gun went back in. So I reholstered, checked my windows for any evidence of an attempted entry and NOTHING! If this happend again I would first of all, stay inside. Go to the up stairs window and shine the flashlight around. I would of had the gun chambered and if there was a unwanted person on the property, call the cops, they are fast responders here. Now I dont know if how I handled it could cause me to loose my permit to carry but if the cops came I may have had a problem for leaving my property, I dont know. I dont think we are to persue a threat though I live in PA.. Also this could have been a set up and there could have been more than one person if this was not waht I now assume was an animal.. I dont know about the footsteps, mabey there was someone and I got down to late.. Good learning experience, first time in 14 years of carrying that I ever drew my weapon and it was dark out...

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[zenger]

Yea whole lot of wrong there.

Why you take upon yourself to go across street with unholstered weapon in the neighborhood ?

But at least you know what you should have done. Adrenaline gets to us all

tapp tapp tapp tappatalk

[mg27]

It was holstered until I approached the the area behind the car. Unholstered for less than 10 secs.. Bad decisions all the way around.. If a cop drove by he might have thought we were the BGS.... I think it was combo of just waking up and the fact that my brother was hyped up. Didnt have too much time to think.. Believe me Im not trying to make excuses, in fact I wouldn't of even posted this but for the fact that I'd like to think it might help somone else and let them see and think about all that could have went wrong, when all I had to do was stay secure inside and cover the area from the top floor of the house..

[Mike1956]

You are very fortunate, on several levels.

[JDE101]

It appears from your self critique that you learned from this experience. Good. Keep on learning and stay safe.

[mr.stuart]

It appears from your self critique that you learned from this experience. Good. Keep on learning and stay safe.

True,learned something and will do it different next time. Many people in my area are real quick to draw a gun. There is a mind set for some Texans that they can whip out the gun if somebody is on their property.

[mg27]

Thanks for the replys, I'll just say Im in a close nit neighborhood, im just glad it was dark and most people were asleep. Like I said I only had unholstered to clear the area around the car and then back in the holster, I worried more about looking out for the neighbors houses to make sure noone was getting burgularized, but Im not a cop, I did get my act 235 but that isnt real defensive training, its basicly just learning not to infringe on peoples rights and lethal weapons training.. I give myself a F for the way I handled this today and honestly im disappointed in myself, I know better.. Well I look forward to hearing any input, im gonna step back and listen and learn..thnx

[Yoda]

If my brother told me that it would be because he just saw a coyote or other critter that needed to be shot.

[wingryder]

I appreciate your critical honesty. I am not gonna criticize you because I am not sure that I would do any better in the "heat of the moment". I just don't think that I would leave the security of my home to venture outside or off of my own property. That would be legally much harder to explain... but again, it is sooo easy to criticize you from the safety of an internet forum... I am just glad that you and your brother are safe and it was a non incident.

[dukalmighty]

There is a mind set for some Texans that they can whip out the gun if somebody is on their property.

During hours of darkness they can !
As far as OP,Stay in the house look out from darkened room for any threats,if you believe somebody is lurking call the Cops,if they decide to invite themselves into your home then you have a much better defense for self defense if you have to use deadly force

[Pistology]

....Now I dont know if how I handled it could cause me to loose my permit to carry but if the cops came I may have had a problem for leaving my property, I dont know. I dont think we are to persue a threat though I live in PA.. Also this could have been a set up and there could have been more than one person if this was not waht I now assume was an animal.. I dont know about the footsteps, mabey there was someone and I got down to late.. Good learning experience, first time in 14 years of carrying that I ever drew my weapon and it was dark out...

The law is available for each citizen to refer to it. Be careful. You could be up the creek without a paddle.

TITLE 18 PART I. PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS § 503. Justification generally. (b) Choice of evils.--When the actor was reckless or negligent in bringing about the situation requiring a choice of harms or evils or in appraising the necessity for his conduct, the justification afforded by this section is unavailable in a prosecution for any offense for which recklessness or negligence, as the case may be, suffices to establish culpability.

It's not illegal to investigate or even use the appropriate level of force "when the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary: (1) to prevent or terminate an unlawful entry or other trespass upon land....". But walking around like a cop isn't the first option for the armed civilian.

Another thing that occurs to me is that you might want to apologize to your neighbor, and explain that you know you were wrong - and it won't happen again. It would probably ease their mind. You might make a new friend.

[mg27]

pistology~Another thing that occurs to me is that you might want to apologize to your neighbor, and explain that you know you were wrong - and it won't happen again. It would probably ease their mind. You might make a new friend.


Yeah that will be somthing I'd like to do asap, I dont really know him, Not possitive if he saw anything but the flashlight, but I'd like to let him know why we were out there and see what he says, like i said 14 years i never once investigated anything le alone unholstered my firearm.. I truley was looking out for the people, but I know that from now on, its , Gun comes out only if I or my family is in direct threat and feel my life is in danger, By staying put I could have avoided that.. Im greatful that there wasnt a guy out there, and no one got hurt..

[Hoganbeg]

Some parallels here with the Zimmerman case down in Florida. Not something I'd want to go though.

[mg27]

Im not one of them wanna be cops like zimmerman seems to have been, It was my house that seemed to have someone walking around on from what my brother told me, I believed i did have the right to investigate that, Though it was dumb to go out in the dark. However I made a mistake of trying to find the person(s) that may have been out there, and more of the mistake of walking off my property.. I was on my own property 4 and a half out of the 5 minutes I was out... and the gun was concealed all but the one time to check behind the car.. I made a bad choice. It wont happen again.. I dont look for trouble,I been carrying since 1999 without any problems. If I were the type that was always trying to play hero, Id of lost my right a long time ago..

[Hopyard]

To MG27, we all learn from our mistakes and you have clearly recognized yours and
learned. You are to be commended.

I want to focus on just one tiny part of your thread, "Secondly, instead of lookng out the window first to see if there was a threat we just opened the door and went out to see if anyone was there." Been there and done that, and fortunately no one was there. I learned to keep the doors locked and use the video monitors which are
quite remarkably sensitive to sound as well.

This caught my attention because yesterday I had been away from home for half an hour
and when I returned my wife was upset. For unknown reasons two separate motion detectors
signaled a problem in our garage, and the alarms repeated. She opened the garage door
leading out from the kitchen to the garage, and thank G-d those were false alarms.

When I asked her why she didn't check the security video I got a deer in the headlight look.
"I didn't think about that," she said.

So, we all tend to make the mistake of instinctively wanting to see what's going on. And in
that instant we ignore other options we have. It takes a bit of willpower to resist the temptation
to investigate.

Mrs H knows she could have gotten herself killed if those alarms were the real deal.
She just didn't think when she opened the door.

(Neither alarm has malfunctioned since and I have no clue what that was about-- electrical
interference probably.)