Someone tried to break into my home last night

[The Willow Sword]

not the break in or the thoughts afterwards or anything like that(glad you and your family are okay) is the comment " i immediately went to my weapons rack and tried to decide what weapon i wanted to grab.

we are all Martial arts geeks



PEACE,,,,TWS

[YinYangDagger]

heeeyyyyyy, nothing wrong with that

I'm not just a gun lover, I have numerous blades and just about every type of weapon imaginable. For you non-gun guys, go over to www.coldsteel.com and order there Special Projects catalog. Awesome, hard, and very sharp weapons! Order the DVD of their weapons demo (IT'S FREE BY CALLING THERE 1-800 NUMBER) and you won't believe the punishment those weapons can take (and dish out). I have one of there short spears and next I want to order there Battle Hammer.

[kungfuyou]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
I'd rather have a gun and not need one than need a gun and not have one.

Has anyone watched the movie "Bowling for Columbine"?? Great movie, especially for those of you who DO own guns!!! I'm not against them, but have the same opinion as Gene.

[GeneChing]

Most of my weapons are stashed in one room ...my room (although there might be a few in my garage, etc.) I was talking to a friend about the break-in and he launched into great detail about how he has strategically placed weapons all around his home for the greatest tactical advantage. I find that a bit of overkill, personally, and this is from someone who dealt with a break-in only a few days ago, so it's still real fresh in my head. Hell, I still haven't replaced my broken screen. In truth, I probably did the same in my younger days, placing weapons everywhere, but much of that went the way of my bachelor sense of interior decorating. Bachelor decor, well, admit it, it's based on being able to get to your beer quickly (or whiskey*, or whatever), unless you have a queer eye, I suppose. At some point, weapons in the house gives into paranoia. Or fetish. It becomes an expression of insecurity. And to quote Herbert, fear is the mindkiller. OK, I'll cop to the weapons fetish.

Surely, it would have been better to go out after that burglar with a gun and if I had one, I might have. But I'm not going to spend a lot of time rehearsing for some paranoid assault scenario. I already do kung fu. There's enough rehearsal for stuff that will probably never happen. I suppose everyone has their personal comfort zone and I certainly respect each person's individual choice. But I'm not going to put weapons in every corner of the house. They'd clash with my kid's stuffed animals.

*I'd rather have a shot of whiskey and not need one than need a shot of whiskey and not have one

[rubthebuddha]

gene -- better make that two or three shots, just in case. you never know when you might need them.

[red5angel]

I was explaining to my wife one night that you can "strategically" place weapons all over the house just by integrating them into the decor.

[Becca]

My father does that, too. He has an impressive of decorative and not so decorative swords. The way he put them up, walking into his home feels like walking into one of those old English country manors.

[red5angel]

exactly Becca. My wife decorates that way so it all works out. She hangs everything and I make sure I can pull it off the wall quickly if I need to!

[Arhat of Fury]

I thought about that to, having "a weapon wall" where I could display all of my weapons would be cool, but it would suck having someone break in and kill you with your own weapon.

I dont have mine "strategically placed" but in drawers and above door jambs, places no one really looks. of course all that will change when my daughter gets a little older

Nothing prepares you for a break in. I just hope I have a straight enough mind to do whats safest for the family.

I dont like guns cause there is too much room for error, especially with kids.

[GeneChing]

As I write this to you now, I'm surrounded by weapons. After all, it's a martial arts magazine office. I have about 20 swords and other devices within arms reach. If anyone every attacks me here, I think I'd use extend-a-chuck I have sitting on my desk to hold books open. I'm not sure why. I'm not that great with chucks. Maybe because it's the smallest weapon I have near my desk.

I used to work at American Fencer's Supply in a shop where I had even more weapons with in easy reach, plus power tools. During the summer, our slow period there, it was my job to draw images of the swords, jackets, etc., for our catalog. I did that upstairs, in our premium weapons room, again surrounded by thousands of dollars worth of sharps. There was this little goofy statue up there, about two feet high, of a man in armor. If anyone every attacked me in that room, I had planned to use that statue to defend myself. My reasoning was that because it was so absurd, no one would ever expect it. There were a lot of noxious fumes in that shop and maybe it muddled my thinking.

Somehow, I doubt I'll ever be attacked at work. Too bad, really. Maybe that's why I don't decorate with weapons so much anymore. I'm associating them with work too much.

[Chang Style Novice]

Knife enthusiasts - I've posted this link before, and feel okay about doing it again, since their stuff doesn't really overlap with the stuff Gene peddles.

http://www.himalayan-imports.com/

Supersweet khukris (and other stuff) in a variety of styles and sizes.

[dodger87]

About 4 years ago when I was 13, for some odd reason two burglars decided to break into the house through the backyard. The reason I say odd is because it was about 9:30 - 10:30 and you would assume most people aren't asleep at that time. Anyway, my parents would often come home and find our security light unscrewed and just thrown onto the lawn unbroken. You'd think that if a robber wanted to get rid of your security light, he'd break it so that you couldn't just simply screw the security light back in, which was what we did. But the robbers learnt the lesson and I think they actually stole our security light after they unscrewed it as we couldn't find it anywhere.

Well that night I went to bed at around 9:30 (can't remember the times so well, as it was 4 years ago), and as I lay in my bed unable to sleep I heard little noises as if someone had jumped our backyard fence. But the noises stopped so I just figured it must have been my imagination. Still unable to sleep I lay in bed with my eyes open and stare around my room. Now usually you wouldn't be able to see anything through my bedroom window at night. But as luck had it a car had drove past and its light and shone on my window, making out clearly the shadow of two figures carrying some sort of tool in their hand. Must be a screw driver. Able to realise what was going on I ran to find my dad. He was in the toilet at the time but as I told him that I had just seen two robbers sneak past my bedroom he quickly got out of the toilet and ran out to my backyard door, turned on the backyard light and shout something in a very loud voice, I can't remember what it was, must've been some swear words in Vietnamese. At the instant we saw two tall skinny men run out of our backyard and jumped the fence.

[GeneChing]

On the toilet, eh? Talk about getting caught with your pants down!

So, I'm a little confused. You had someone repeated unscrew/steal light bulbs, prior to this?

[Becca]

That's no so wierd, Gene. I get vandles who break into my house every so often. They have never taken anything but some cheap julery and my spare set of chucks. Never any money. And a few times, there was money in the house when they chose to break in.

[Banjos_dad]

Glad you're okay, Gene.
I was at home one night when I heard glass falling, many years back. I rented part of an old divided house then.
Went out there because it was a skinny homeless guy w/a huge backpack, standing there holding our rake from our yard, near a different part of the house. A pane of glass was broken.
I was a fearless karate guy then. I just said, "what the f... are you doing here. Set down that rake this second before I shove it up yr @ss..." Had to tell him a couple of times. He put it down I told him to split, don't let me see him again, etc...
I was set to sidekick (& combination) him if that rake moved one mm though...

I called the cops to tell them about a guy breaking in, they wouldn't do sht because "you didn't see him break the glass..." I heard the glass break & looked, here's this freaky dude w/our rake & a broken window. Was someone driving by & shot it out w/a slingshot as the guy stood there like an idiot with this rake?

Called the landlord, he was more interested.

We have dogs now, they announce anyone who comes whether they know them or not. Good big dogs. That is one hell of a commitment. Quality times for them & plenty of attention & love. Picking up poo & vomit. Minor paw cut in glass in the forest = $172.00 & late to work. Hair on everything. Surprises.

Burglar/scam artist "solicitor" bypassing our place because of dogs on alert?
Priceless.

I read & posted on the side thread on home defense weapons first, d'oh! I decided I would favor nice robust nunchaku in the confied space of an apartment, or my sharpened forged steel jian outside. I have guns but I imagine waking up to the sound of someone AS they enter the house...I doubt I'd be quick enough to go retrieve a hidden or secured gun, prepare it to fire, & aim. I do in fact own several long firearms & enjoy shooting.
When we go stay at my girlfriend's grandma's cabin in the country we bring something since it would take the cops a minimum of one half hour, if they were dressed & ready to go, i imagine, to arrive if we had to call them. The muzzle blast of a 7.62 x 54 bolt action Moisin Nagant from WWII would send anyone in their right mind running for their life if not paralzed with shock...Sounds like lightning hitting your house, or a bomb going off maybe.
Probably frowned upon in Fremont, if its anything like Hayward where my grandma Daisy used to live, on Amador.
Guns & any weapons do bring up the possibility of your own weapon being used against you.
I don't feel sorry for people who would come and violated the sanctuary of someone else's house. But I definitely would not want to be someone taken by surprise by Gene, you all, or me, breaking into our stuff
Anyway, I hope that is the extent of your bad luck for a long time, Gene.