If you had owned a gun....

[Jordan]

Let me say that I live in a pretty decent area of South Florida. I was not attacked, raped or mugged during this scenario. However, firing the gun into the ground did stop my generator from being stolen during post-Wilma '05. I own a registered 9mm ruger and a pump action 12ga mossberg, both typically kept in a locked glass case. For 3 weeks after Wilma that case was empty and the guns were readily available.

There had been a rash of generator thefts in the neighborhood. The thieves would turn on a lawn mower, cut through the lock, turn off your generator and cart it back to their truck leaving the lawn mower running. I'm usually in bed around 4am so I was awake when they came by my place, which is probably the only reason I caught the difference in the sound. I couldn't shoot someone unless my life depended upon it. However, being 6'4, 220lbs I can easily scare the crap out of someone if necessary. I deemed it necessary that night.

Were they armed? As it turns out they were but luckily their guns were all in the truck. I caught the first half of their plate and the color of their pickup, they were caught 2 days later and the partial id I'd made helped to confirm them. yeah, I'm glad I had my firearms but not so pleased that i had to use them.