This wife's fatal midnight snack

[AJSully421]

This is one of the hazards of "can I shoot" thinking instead of the "is shooting the only way to preserve innocent life in this situation" approach.

Quote of the day right here.

"When your only tool is a hammer, every problem tends to look like a nail." If we were to adopt the "Is shooting the ONLY way to solve this problem" idea, then we all will be better for it.

I just hope that we can use our stellar record to get some off-limits places removed in 2017.

[LucasMcCain]

Personally, I get woke up in the middle of the night by a sound, I'm going to first check on my wife and see if its not her. And if it worries me enough to go check on it, I'm going to wake her up and let her know first.

This is exactly my reaction. I don't have kids or pets. I get woken up in the night and my wife is next to me, I'm dialing 911 on my phone and handing it to her with instructions to keep her finger over the "call" button until I come back. After that, anything moving in our house should be a fair target. I'm still not going to shoot at shadows or movement, but I can be sure that anyone I find in my house at that point is an intruder.

[Eric Lamberson]

A solid bedroom door with a reinforced frame, a deadbolt on the bedroom, and an alarm. If the alarm goes off, assuming no one else in the house that may need securing (e.g. young children), stay put and call 911. No need to do a building clearing exercise.

If you wake and your wife is not with you, the most logical assumption is that she is somewhere else in the home. To then shoot someone you find in the kitchen? Hmmm. . . .

[ELB]

More details would help me decide if this was a mistake and or negligence on his part.
...

Or worse. Like others are saying, first upon waking to noise would be "where's my wife?" Very odd. Awaiting further info...

[Pariah3j]

More details would help me decide if this was a mistake and or negligence on his part.
...

Or worse. Like others are saying, first upon waking to noise would be "where's my wife?" Very odd. Awaiting further info...

I agree - just trying to give him the benefit of the doubt given the media's history of reporting gun incidents accurately

[joe817]

This is a very sad & tragic story. My prayers go out to the deceased, the family, friends & loved ones.

No doubt the husband was in condition red. However, he did not consider the proximity of the other family members, IMO. THAT would have been my first priority. As many have stated, I have a dog that sleeps in the house & Munch(beagle mix) is on 24 hr. perimeter patrol. As he's a beagle, he barks at anything, Even the refrigerator ice maker dumping ice into the ice bin.

I know, it's easy to MMQB but that's one of the functions of this forum. To discuss the many variables one would encounter in these scenarios.

IMHO, an itchy trigger finger resulted in a tragedy that will live live with this family forever.

[Dragonfighter]

This is a situation that bothers me . I'm a single parent and my daughters bedroom is on the other end of the house . If there were an intruder or whatever it could get tricky . We have a full size Rat Terrier , she rarely barks unless there is something to bark about . About two years ago she woke me up around two in the morning and sounded like she had a coon treed in the living room , she had never done that . I came out of bed with a 9mm and made it to the living room . I stood by the doorway a while trying to detect movement or sound but there was none . Turned on the lights and went through the house , daughter never woke up and there was no one .

All the time I was at that doorway I kept wondering if my daughter would try and come into the room , kind of scary .

That's where I went.