I live on the border of 3 counties, and calling for help is quite a crapshoot, 20-30 minutes minimum. We also have had almost 10 unsolved murders around here in the last 6 years.
About 5 miles from here, an old lady had a home invasion from some crackheads looking for money and drugs, when they didn't find much, they tortured and killed her cat in front of her, trying to get her to give them what they wanted.
Luckily, they let her live.
I have a hard time getting advice from folks that think that should think that I have no right to protect myself.
So should she have pulled a gun & hoped they ran away?
Should she have shot them ?
If she had a gun in her house would they have used it to shoot her or stolen it and used it to mug people in the street or car jack ?
The junkies were most likely local.
Good chance they knew her or knew of her.
They most likely 1/2 planned it by finding out she lived alone so was vunerable.
As for the 10 murders, how many used guns to kill the victim ?
If you hear a cat screaming in the night from the house next door would you ring them, go knock on the door unarmed , gather your weapon and go crash through the back door or just load up and watch through your window ?
And if every one has a firearm then the junkies would have had firearms as well.
What is more dangerous ?
A junkie
A junkie with a knife or syringe
A junkie with a firearm
You make your community safe by knowing them and watching out for each other, as if each & every one of your community is one of your own children.
You make yourself safe by doing the same.
If you are elderly & vunerable this is even more important.
Little things like not allowing yourself to get into a strict and thus predictable routine.
I live 60 mlles away for the city.
The day we bought our hose there we invited all of the neighbours, the entire street to a party to get to know them.
To our surprise some of the people who cam had lived there for decades but had never meet let alone spoken to people 2 doors away.
Now days once or twice a year the street holds street parties in the vacant cul-de Sac at the end of the street.
We all know each other, each others cars so when a car thief was trying to enter a neighbours car at the railway car park, another neighbour parked in front of it preventing the thieft.
Most of the people work a long way away so the neighbourhood is fairly well vacant during the working hours week days yet our neighbourhood has not suffered a single break & enter where as the houses across the other side of the gully have at least a weekly robbery.
In summer my wife travels to work by train & walks the 2 miles home, even if it is dark without fear as she knows every one she walks past and they know her.
Safety comes from what is on your shoulders, not what is hanging in your holster.
The way to protect yourself from the unknown stranger is to know the stranger not poke a fire arm in their face.