Do you keep a weapon by your bed?

Treppen

SuperSean11 wrote: »

Enjoy prison guys Voluntary manslaughter right there. Irish laws great

If there's no body there's no crime

Cupatae

When anyone mentions a baseball bat for home defense I instantly think of this scene

https://youtu.be/bjv7CVhZXNs

Cupatae

I find it strange here people with reasonable response to there home being invaded.. the last thing I would be is reasonable and the last thing I'd be worried about would be the law !

Protect your home and family first worry about that ****e after the fact.

Fortunately never had to experience such an event! I think dogs are great home defense aswell as being good pets everyone should have a madra!

Manic Moran

So this is from the 2006 Court of Criminal Appeals case I mentioned earlier. For background, a burglar and homeowner encountered each other. Burglar thought the home was empty. In the ensuing scuffle, the homeowner was killed.

A person who commits such a violation exposes himself to various legal penalties, if he is detected and convicted. But that is not the limit of his exposure. Although he is not liable to be killed by the householder simply for being a burglar, he is an aggressor and may expect to be lawfully met with retaliatory force to drive him off or to immobilise or detain him and end the threat which he offers to the personal rights of the householder and his or her family or guests. And this is so whether the dwellinghouse which he enters is, or appears to be, occupied or unoccupied when he breaks into it.

[...]

The considerations set out in the last paragraph equally explain why burglary must always be an act of aggression. In reality, it is amongst the worst acts of aggression the individual citizen is likely to encounter. Moreover, Mr. Forrestal was a country man whose occupation and interests alike constrained him to live in the country in a somewhat isolated position and was worse off to that degree than one who lived in an apartment or an estate of houses in urban citizens.

[...]

Degree of force.
We have already held that burglary is an act of aggression by its nature, and that a burglar may be met with retaliatory force to drive him off or to immobilise or detain him and to end the threat which he offers to the personal rights of the householder and his or her family or guests. That is easy to say in general terms, but in individual cases the question will immediately arise, what degree of force may the householder deploy to those ends?

It is, of course, impossible to lay down any formula with which the degree of force can be instantly calculated. Nor, in our view, would it be just to lay down a wholly objective standard, to be judged by the standards of the hypothetical reasonable person.

The victim of a burglary is not in the position of an ordinary reasonable man or woman contemplating what course of action is best in particular circumstances. He may be (and Mr. Forrestal actually was) aging, alone, confronted with numerous and/or much younger assailants (Barnes was almost exactly fifty years younger than his victim). In almost every case the victim of burglary will be taken by surprise. The victim will, therefore, be in almost every case shocked and surprised and may easily be terrified out of his wits. To hold a person in this situation to an objective standard would be profoundly unjust.

Equally, however, it cannot be left to every person himself to lay down for himself how much force he or she is entitled to use. There must be both a subjective and an objective component in the assessment of the degree of force proper to be used by the victim of a burglar.

[...]

force “such as is reasonable in the circumstances as her or she perceives them to be…” and an objective element - the provisions of s.1(2) of the 1997 Act which require a court or jury to have regard to the presence or absence of reasonable grounds for the belief that the level of force used was no more than was reasonably necessary in the circumstances. But it must always be borne in mind that the burglar must take the occupant as he finds him and that in many cases it will in practice take the deployment of grossly disproportionate force, or evidence of actual malice (as in the well known Martin case in Great Britain) to fix the householder with liability. He or she has, after all, been deliberately subjected to an experience which will shock even the most robust and might make many irrational with terror.

Tom Mann Centuria

Pepper Spray is illegal in Ireland I think, so I don't have a tin of that in the car and on my bedside table. My wife and daughter don't have a tin of it either.

Auguste Comte

Kylta wrote: »

So the would be victim gets his just desserts

He done some breaking in of his own so to speak.

Strumms

quokula wrote: »

Is this a thread to show your hard man credentials or are that many people really that paranoid?

I've a lock on my door and I can call the gardai if needed. In 36 years I've never needed to. I'd imagine the stress of thinking you always need a weapon at hand would take more years off your life than the vanishingly unlikely attempt that somebody decides to break into your house and attack you for no reason.

If they're just breaking in to steal stuff (which has also never happened), then like I said, I've a lock on my door, I've got insurance, and I can call the gardai afterwards.

I think when people work hard, collect and pay for possessions as fruits of that hard work which they want to enjoy, such as a nice widescreen tv, a nice car, jewelry, artwork and so on.. there should be an ability for them, if somebody forces entry into their home, compromising their safety, security and those possessions that they can use a reasonable amount of force to prevent possessions from being taken and to prevent injury to themselves.

If I get up at 3am this morning, going down for a drink, I hear a noise.. I’m not going to walk into the kitchen, saying “ahoy dear fellow, I’ll put the kettle on, we’ll have a chat, now Jaffa cake or a kimberly ?”

Somebody has used force and a degree of risk to be in your property , the probability is they they can and will use force and a degree of risk to get away.

Manic Moran

I'd imagine the stress of thinking you always need a weapon at hand would take more years off your life than the vanishingly unlikely attempt that somebody decides to break into your house and attack you for no reason.

I don't find that leaving a weapon by the bed causes me much stress.

However, I do know some folks who have been at home when a burglary has happened, and the amount of stress they went through at the time (and residual effects) appears to have been likely quite higher than anything caused by keeping a weapon to hand.

kowloon

Strumms wrote: »

If I get up at 3am this morning, going down for a drink, I hear a noise.. I’m not going to walk into the kitchen, saying “ahoy dear fellow, I’ll put the kettle on, we’ll have a chat, now Jaffa cake or a kimberly ?”

I expect a full fcuking spread, Strumms. It might be 3am but we're not savages!

Strumms

kowloon wrote: »

I expect a full fcuking spread, Strumms. It might be 3am but we're not savages!

3 courses or 4 ?

I Am Nobody

4 go all out with it.

Witcher

jimgoose wrote: »

Illegal. Ammunition is supposed to be secured separately. Has that been inpsected?

There's no law stating that.

Hairy Japanese BASTARDS!

Leg End Reject wrote: »

I am the weapon.

I wouldn't mind having you by my bed

johng906

A nice big torch, in case I need to light anyone up.

nj27

Feisar wrote: »

“They broke in my front door, so I broke in their back doors!” Harrington reportedly told the cops when he was arrested.

ablelocks

Just looking around my bedroom, if I had to confront a burglar, I'd have the option of a pair of scissors, a stapler or the hoover.

Not great choices. But I'd have no issue stabbing a burglar, so I suppose scissors it'd be. Then the hoover to try and clean the blood up, and the stapler to work on my tax returns and invoicing whilst I await the Gardai to eventually consider making an appearance at some point in the near future, if they have a car available.

punisher5112

Nail gun, hammer, some other tools which I could well be doing some DIY...

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Anyone got any ideas on what one could use; say an object that could reasonably expected to be in one's bedroom

Part of my training I had to pick weapons. I go with knives and staff because I figure of all the things lying around the world - these were the most likely to find lying around or quick substitutes lying around.

I've been learning to use guns through a friend with my 9 year old daughter recently but don't think I will ever want to own one. Going to use and train with them off site is fun - but ownership not for me.

The one time someone came into my house in the night he was cornered by the house canine and I found him sitting quietly in the corner - too terrified to try and leave - when I happened to come down for something from the kitchen. We had a surprisingly amicable wait for the guards to arrive.

TheChizler

I'm convinced that the type of person capable of burgling a house would be much more adept at using a weapon than the average groggy person with eyes not adjusted to the light.

WAW

Those salt lamps would made great weapons. Have one in the bedroom as a bona fide lamp. The weight of it and it's slightly jagged. Fell on my bare foot, definitely hurts!
I'd an uncle used to keep a meat cleaver in his bedroom

Bobblehats

ablelocks wrote: »

Yea I like to break out the eh, barbed truncheon, once in a while. In case any zombies come crawlin

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Part of my training I had to pick weapons. I go with knives and staff because I figure of all the things lying around the world - these were the most likely to find lying around or quick substitutes lying around.

I've been learning to use guns through a friend with my 9 year old daughter recently but don't think I will ever want to own one. Going to use and train with them off site is fun - but ownership not for me.

The one time someone came into my house in the night he was cornered by the house canine and I found him sitting quietly in the corner - too terrified to try and leave - when I happened to come down for something from the kitchen. We had a surprisingly amicable wait for the guards to arrive.

Asking for a friend

How far into one's training does one need to be before they 'get to pick weapons'? Does one have to be certified a black belt/expert in that discipline before they graduate to 'master'/ 'grandmaster' (or whatever the terminology is)? What I mean is, is there a waiting time in that martial arts field before a person can acquire the aforementioned "accoutrements", or can beginners get access to and or bring them home?

Going by some of your posts you wouldn't need much

Not much good for regular folk if there's a waiting period :pac:

suicide_circus

yep, baseball bat

vikings2012

I have two hammers one on either side of my bed. I also have a chair beside my door to ensure I hear anyone entering my room as I tend to be a deep sleeper. It’s a bit excessive but I had a terrifying experience when I was 16

Our house was broken into when my parents were away at a friend’s wedding. I was home in our house with my grand mother.

Back then I would go to sleep with the door open or could fall asleep with the corridor light switched on.

I woke to the noise of football rolling on the floor of my bedroom. When I looked up all I could see a man with a black hat and purple scarf covering his face. He was Beside my wardrobe reaching for a tin box on top of the wardrobe. He looked me dead straight in my eyes. I completely froze. I couldn’t even scream or shout. Thankfully he legged it!

This encountered affected me for months after. Especially when I would awake at night. When I went way for college I would lock the door. Even in hotels, I would leave a chair in front of the door.

I do feel that this experience has mentally prepared me for my next encounter. This time I will be ready and will make sure to face it down whenever it will happen.

MadDog76

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Anyone got any ideas on what one could use; say an object that could reasonably expected to be in one's bedroom that would satisfy for the purpose of defending oneself. It would have to be effective and not considered a weapon lest one gets fvcked on a 'voluntary manslaughter' rap.

There's loads of things........ that hammer you used to hang that picture in your bedroom and you just weren't arsed putting it back in the shed before bed.
The screwdriver you used to tighten up the curtain pole, the golf club you took off your kids because it was too dangerous for them to be playing with etc.
Don't worry, the Guards will help you you with your Statement, they're fairly sympathetic in these cases ......... been there myself.

Yester

I have a pencil.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

What I mean is, is there a waiting time in that martial arts field before a person can acquire the aforementioned "accoutrements", or can beginners get access to and or bring them home?

Depends what you want to learn I guess and where you live. There are people selling Bo Staffs on adverts.ie and amazon if you want one Call into whatever schools are in your area(s) and just talk to them about what is in your area. Bōjutsu is easier to find around Dublin I think. There is even a club in Dublin a friend of mine had some affiliation with that focuses on Longsword and also on Sword & Buckler It's all out there if you look around.

I guess the reason I like Bo so much is that I can pick up the handle off a mop and practice with it. At the end of the day it's just a stick. And I always loved that scene from "Coming to America" with Samuel L Jackson fighting Eddie Murphy

Rodney Bathgate

Yester wrote: »

I have a pencil.

Hope the burglar doesn’t bring his own eraser.

pawdee

Just a Gatling gun.

Strumms

Yester wrote: »

I have a pencil.

Ahhh you want to take down their particulars ¡

king_of_mayo

king_of_mayo wrote: »

Home security is a big topic. I wonder how many people have something by their bed in case they hear a noise in the night? If not, what's your plan?

I have a hurl by the bed. But the wife makes me clean it after pucking around, and even then it has to rest on a few sheets of kitchen paper. A friend of mine keeps a screwdriver in his bedside locker. I think my brother has half a snooker que as his. I don't know of any women which have something ready, which is concerning.

They seem very odd choices. Why a screwdriver and half cue? Cue would do **** all really and stabbing with a screwdriver is a it savage thing to do.

May as well just have a solid baseball bat and a knife

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Depends what you want to learn I guess and where you live. There are people selling Bo Staffs on adverts.ie and amazon if you want one Call into whatever schools are in your area(s) and just talk to them about what is in your area. Bōjutsu is easier to find around Dublin I think. There is even a club in Dublin a friend of mine had some affiliation with that focuses on Longsword and also on Sword & Buckler It's all out there if you look around.

I guess the reason I like Bo so much is that I can pick up the handle off a mop and practice with it. At the end of the day it's just a stick. And I always loved that scene from "Coming to America" with Samuel L Jackson fighting Eddie Murphy

Thanks, I saw "Coming to America" once - years ago. I don't remember Samuel L Jackson in it - must have been before he was famous :pac:
Earliest film I remember him from is "Loaded Weapon" with Emilio Estevez - probably made about 5 or so yrs after the Eddie Murphy flick.

Feisar

TheChizler wrote: »

I'm convinced that the type of person capable of burgling a house would be much more adept at using a weapon than the average groggy person with eyes not adjusted to the light.

Lads on here can't even speak with their neighbor, yet are fit to bust some moves when it comes to it:pac:

4Ad

6 iron under the bed..

Manic Moran

Manic Moran wrote: »

Sortof.

It was a clarification. The courts had already ruled on the standard of defense, in DPP v Barnes. It is easy reading, and makes a lot of sense. The Oireachtas then put it into law for those who don't read court cases.

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5da044464653d077725a0b6f

To answer the question, I've a SIG P2340 in 357SIG with hollow-points in a finger-print release lockbox by the bed. But I live in the US, where that sort of thing is normal.

It's that all? Like an Irishman threatening to stab someone with a thumb tak

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

I used to have a hatchet under my bed. I was using it for something and just put it there.

bb12

Rodin wrote: »

German Shepherd in back hall and front hall.

I'm happy with that level of protection

yup i've got 3 rottie mixes...nobody's even getting near a door or window handle.

saabsaab

No. Not really. There is a shotgun in the house and a ceremonial sword upstairs.

Heckler

Hammer to break windows in case of fire.

Have a couple of firearms locked away in a gun safe but as was mentioned the intruder would have to sit down and watch a bit of netflix while I got them ready for use.

bassy

my c*ck

Neames

unhappys10 wrote: »

Got a baseball bat in America on a childhood holiday
Keep it in the corner of the room.
God help the cnut that comes into the house, or God help me if they get it off me!

Here's a tip...put a sock around the end of the bat that way if the assailant tries to grab the bat ...they'll end up with just the sock...and then you go full Joe Pesci on them!

Neames

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly wrote: »

I used to have a hatchet under my bed. I was using it for something and just put it there.

Ominous

Manic Moran

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

It's that all? Like an Irishman threatening to stab someone with a thumb tak

I've two children under 12. They don't appear to make affordable suitable locking devices for keeping a rifle to hand for the purpose, so I have to settle for the pistol.

CBear1993

Tried buying one of those telescopic / extendable steel baton things online but apparently they’re illegal here. My friend used to drive about with one in the door pocket of his car. He was a shady character though

cj maxx

My wife sleeps next the door. Not many would go near her so I'm safe

Heckler

Neames wrote: »

Here's a tip...put a sock around the end of the bat that way if the assailant tries to grab the bat ...they'll end up with just the sock...and then you go full Joe Pesci on them!

Thats a good tip !

Heckler

I have a savagely bright led torch. I tried it out on myself. If someone is creeping around in the dark in your house and gets it in the eyes, 10 to 15 secs pretty much blindness on their part.

Capt'n Midnight

Deleted User wrote: »

Can't fit the road to Dublin in the back of a pick up.

Actually .. https://i.imgur.com/z40kw7T.jpeg

gogo

/Gogo goes to bed early because she’s tired and her husband is working nights
/Gogo reads quick post on boards before turning out the lights and calling it a night
/Gogo now has the fricken heebie jeebies, knows the next theee hours are going to be spent jumping at every sound and departs to the kitchen to find a make shift weapon