> > The other thing is, who says a gun in a house is for personal protection? My .22 is for recreational target shooting, not self-defense, although if I had it on hand during a break in, I'd sure use it that way.
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> I keep my .22 semi-automatic unloaded, but close at hand, with the safety off and the magazine full (home protection bullets, they call them) and right next to it, ready to be shoved in there at the first sound of someone in my house. It's not in plain sight, but I don't have to go into a drawer or behind a door to get it. A stranger in my house could be literally inches from it and not know it's there. I don't think mine is a misguided sense of safety.
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> Moush

People who know more about guns than I do, say that a .22 that is kept for defense should be loaded with hollow point ammo. A .22 is not a very powerful shell and is more likely to wound than kill. A person determined to wring your neck might keep coming toward you after being shot with a solid point .22, but a hollow point has more knock-down power. Of course, you could always give him the whole clip.

I can't believe I am discussing this topic, but the only violent action I really believe in is self defense.
Howard