DGU

Over at Daily Pundit, Bill relates a classic example of the unreported defensive gun use. No shots fired, no one injured. Just knowledge that the intended victim was awake and armed was enough to send the cretins the other direction.

He wasn't the only one, though.

Last night after supper, MrsZ and I were sitting on the couch (a large green affair, very comfortable) reading. Out of the blue, our vicious guard cats (siblings, gray and white, one looks Siamese and I think is kind of special) went nuts and bolted to the living room window, where they sat snarling and growling. I got up and peered out the window but didn't see anything. The cats settled down and I went back to my book. Thirty seconds later, they were back up there and hissing at someone outside. I grabbed a flashlight (my Leatherman Serac S2, always in my pocket) and shone it outside, but still couldn't see anything.

Then I decided I wasn't going to live my life in fear.

I picked up my carry gun (a S&W 642-1 no-lock, with the original factory stocks, and stoked with 5 rounds of Federal HydraShok 129gr +p) from the coffee table, hefted it in consideration, and set it back down. I opened the safe and considered my options. The front row of long guns holds two 12ga shotguns (a Remington 870 with 26" vent-rib barrel with a modified choke, and an Ithaca 37, also choked modified) , a 20" AR (Anvil Arms lower with a DPMS LPK, 20" DPMS 1/8 upper and match A2 sights), a .270 boltgun (Remington 710), and a .22LR boltgun (Savage MkII BTVS w/ Nikon scope). None seemed appropriate at the time, so I picked up the S&W 4053 (with night sights) and slapped in a magazine full of 180gr WWB JHP.

I headed for the back door while MrsZ remained on the couch as my backup, the entire contents of the safe within easy reach for her. I looked out the door and to both sides before opening it, keeping my strong side back from the door and one foot behind the door to prevent someone from trying to slam it out of my grasp. The deck was clear.

I stepped out onto the deck with the pistol held down by my leg and flashlight in my weak side hand. I'd gone two steps and heard someone running for the back edge of our property. I flicked the light on and swept the area just in time to see a black and white cat disappear into the woods.

No shots fired, no one hurt, and successful home defense!

(No MS Paint, sorry hivemind.)

:-D

(Seriously folks; go read Bill's post. I'm not a fan of the "racking the shotgun always scares away bad guys" mentality, but it is step one to "9 pellets of #00 buck stops bad guys" and that I am a fan of.)
(And if you didn't catch that this is ArfCom-esque tongue-in-cheek, I'm sorry.)