Know your target? Man shoots his wife, thinking she's a burglar

samzhere

Here's a case where a man "says" he mistook his wife for a burglar in his home and shot his wife. Thankfully she wasn't killed and will recover.

If his story is true, he's an idiot. If his story is a ruse, he's now in deep water. Duh.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/hcso-husband-accidentally-shoots-wife-after-thinking-intruder-was-inside-home/32545450

Know your target, eh?

HvyMax

I have become a huge advocate for lights on anything used for HD. A momentary switch allows for quick ID while not constantly advertising your position.

samzhere

Yeah, the Blade Runner alibi. Cops will of course investigate. It may simply be a case of excess stupidity. I wouldn't however rate the future success of that marriage highly.

jbp-ohio

Years ago, I read an article written by a psychologist about this very thing (surprised while sleeping by a family member). He studied every case he could find about shootings that happen when a person is woken up by surprise. His conclusion was that it is very possible to pick up a gun and fire it without being fully awake and having full comprehension of what you are doing.

His recommendation was to leave your weapon without a round in the chamber. When you get woken up, the act of chambering a round (remembering it needs done) is enough to kick your brain into gear and you should then have all of your faculties........

samzhere

Don't know about the shrink but I've been wakened by surprise lots of times and never had any difficulty recognizing my girlfriend or wife or whomever else was in the house. It does however make sense to have your head clear before you shoot, chambering ahead of time or not.

jbp-ohio

samzhere wrote: »

Don't know about the shrink but I've been wakened by surprise lots of times and never had any difficulty recognizing my girlfriend or wife or whomever else was in the house. It does however make sense to have your head clear before you shoot, chambering ahead of time or not.

I have had conversations with people who have woken me up that I do not remember..............

horselips

My home is dim, but never completely dark - a generous sprinkling of night lights allows me easily and clearly see my way around at night. Not bright enough to keep me awake, but enough so something like this could never, ever happen.

snake284

samzhere wrote: »

Here's a case where a man "says" he mistook his wife for a burglar in his home and shot his wife. Thankfully she wasn't killed and will recover.

If his story is true, he's an idiot. If his story is a ruse, he's now in deep water. Duh.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/hcso-husband-accidentally-shoots-wife-after-thinking-intruder-was-inside-home/32545450

Know your target, eh?

And some very non-potable water at that!

snake284

samzhere wrote: »

Don't know about the shrink but I've been wakened by surprise lots of times and never had any difficulty recognizing my girlfriend or wife or whomever else was in the house. It does however make sense to have your head clear before you shoot, chambering ahead of time or not.

Oh there's a period of deliriousness there when I first begin to awaken, but fortunately I'm not capable of any physical response during said period. I guess if it is a burglar I'm screwed, but that's the way I am. I really need some kind of alarm system that would set off a lot of loud bells and whistles to wake me up before the perp gets inside. It takes me 5-10 seconds to get lucid and I would imagine most of us are like that. It takes me that long to find my ass with both hands.

Then I have to remember to find the gun and start looking for the perp and identify a target and get on it, if it is indeed a target and not someone who belongs here.

It's entirely possible that this guy was capable of physical action before he was mental. That is NOT me.

bobbyrlf3

horselips wrote: »

My home is dim, but never completely dark - a generous sprinkling of night lights allows me easily and clearly see my way around at night. Not bright enough to keep me awake, but enough so something like this could never, ever happen.

+1

samzhere

Last night I was feeling a bit punk, went to bed fairly early for us, about 9, read a while then sleep. Meanwhile my girlfriend went out for a couple beers with her galpals. She came back about 11pm.

I woke up hearing her key in the front door (we live in an apartment so the front door is just a room away from bedroom. I was awake enough to call her name by the time she got inside, she called back to me "Honey, I'm home!" like Catwoman, and we both laughed.

Point being, I was awake pretty fast and coherent almost immediately. And at no time did I think "intruder" nor did I reach for the 1911 at bedside. In my op, no way Jose was this guy half asleep after heading down the stairs halfway.

I'm kinda thinking that this guy shot his wife intentionally. Or he's just immensely stupid, to be awake and going down the stairs and shoots at any movement in the near-dark. Either way he's a jerk.

samzhere

horselips wrote: »

My home is dim, but never completely dark - a generous sprinkling of night lights allows me easily and clearly see my way around at night. Not bright enough to keep me awake, but enough so something like this could never, ever happen.

This is exactly how we have it at our place. My girlfriend has this big wall-hanging double-heart thing that she says shows our love together, cozy sighs now please.... It's a red LED display, not too bright but gives you enough light in the living room and connected kitchen and such.

Bedroom we've got an old pole lamp w. one bulb a blue/green low wattage bulb we keep on. Plus we've got ambient light from outside, our neighbor's back yard lights that stay on, and out front, a big streetlamp nearby.

So we've got sufficient low light to see around without turning on another lamp. This is deliberate because at our age (I'm 73 and she's 56) we're up to the bathroom a couple times each night, and so on, plus we neither sleep through the night much anymore. Or one of us can't sleep so we wander into the living room to watch RedEye or whatever. So the low but visible lighting lets us navigate to bathroom or kitchen without waking the other by switching on a bright light.

And this serves me nicely in a possible breakin.

Gene L

My house is as dark as I can get it, with a noise machine going. Since I don't have a wife or a girlfriend, anyone in my home (short of the Second Coming) is likely to be hostile. Can't stand light when I'm trying to sleep. Those motion-activated night lights, if there is such a thing, would be good cheap burglar alarms.

samzhere

Your being alone is a benefit in self defense, of course. As you way, anyone there is fair game.

When I was young I couldn't sleep unless the room was dark, so I was one of those rare kids with no nightlight.

That all went away when I went to college, constant traffic and lights all the time, roommate up late studying or reading, no real darkness, so I got used to sleeping with lights on.

Worked well for me when I was a med tech, in that I worked night shift and got the habit of snatching fast snoozes in a fully lit room. Till the phone rang: "Sam, come over to the ER, room four. We've got a GS (gunshot) and he needs a type and crossmatch, stat."

So nowadays, with my girlfriend, we luckily both can sleep with the lights on or with small nightlights and whatever. When you get older your sleep patterns are varied and with the chemo I'm taking, it messes up my rest too. So we grab catnaps all the time (she's retired too and so we come and go as we please, neither of us having to be in an office at 8am, thankfully) and have little nightlights.

And as I've said, my .45 Springfield XD sits by my recliner and my .45 1911 sits by my bed, both in easy reach.

Besides a barbed wire barrier and guard dogs, not much else I can do.

Regardless, shooting at an unknown target breaks one of the cardinal rules of firearms. And it's also stupid.