Hypothetical

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Why, Batman shows up to beat the living snot out of the bad guy and return my DVD player to me, of course!

[Uzume]

piss your pants and pass out.

See that's never an option for me. My life has programed my responses in the most efficient tactics of survival. In cases where no real threat to me, attacks; i restrain. In a threat scenario in this case, dark and unknown opponent, well time slows and sometime i wish i could take back my response.

[Mikey]

piss your pants and pass out.

See, being a very non-violent person, I might have thought that this could be a possible reaction for me (though I probably wouldn't have admitted it.) However, I have been in situations in which I've been threatened with serious bodily injury through violence, and I didn't. Quite the opposite - I have an enzymatic disorder which causes over-absorption of, or over-reaction to, adrenaline, and quite literally in an uber-stressful situation like that, a switch just flips and I can become quite insensitive to my environment. Sort of like a Viking berseker writ small, I guess.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

??

I posted a (very silly) reply in this thread, but though the topic is marked with a star in my forum view the post isn't appearing here.

[Mikey]

Did you send it from your phone? I've gotten that when I didn't let the Mobile Web browser fully reload.

[sunnyside]

I guess I'm temporarily without a firearm, so I suppose the plan would be to have the wife call the cops while I get the most useful weapon in the room (hammer at the moment I suppose) and hope they don't come towards the bedrooms, and I suppose jump him if he does. Though in reality I might do some shouting to get them away from our stuff.

With a firearm it'd really be the same basic strategy, except instead of having to wait until they reach the doorway and hope they don't manage to kill me, I'd probably open fire on anyone getting into that hallway. Again, I might do some shouting. Part of me wants to go out and capture them so they don't rob someone else.

Really in many ways I suppose it depends on a lot of factors, and is probably hard to predict until you're actually there in the dark with an intruder and your adrenaline. And little details might make a bid difference.

Though the converse hypothetical situation is what would people do if someone like Dennis Rader came around?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader

[Tsukiyumi]

Though the converse hypothetical situation is what would people do if someone like Dennis Rader came around?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader

I'd turn over 17 bullets to him.

One at a time, and at high velocity, of course.

[Aaron]

I'd like to know how I'm supposed to know if my intruder is anything like this guy. Do serial killers have a flashing "I'm a serial killer" nametag that they slap on right before their B&E?

[Tsukiyumi]

I'd like to know how I'm supposed to know if my intruder is anything like this guy. Do serial killers have a flashing "I'm a serial killer" nametag that they slap on right before their B&E?

Well, I imagine he wouldn't be coming after the DVD player, for starters.

Guy running away with some cheap property, fine, let him go. Any intruder in my house makes a threatening gesture toward me, well...

[sunnyside]

Part of the problem is that it's hard to tell the difference. And there's probably a wide range in between. Even if they were just there to grab some stuff. After

"You hear a noise in the middle of the night. You go downstairs. As you reach the bottom of the stairs you see that the front door is open and there's a guy standing in the hallway holding your DVD player. You yell "What the hell!"

They might decide they don't want any witnesses, or decide to go for two birds with one stone and mug you, etc.

Of course the situation can be very different if you're female instead of male.

[Deepcrush]

I'd like to know how I'm supposed to know if my intruder is anything like this guy. Do serial killers have a flashing "I'm a serial killer" nametag that they slap on right before their B&E?

If they're in your home when they shouldn't be. Better to get rid of them. Shoot first, or he will.

[Aaron]

If they're in your home when they shouldn't be. Better to get rid of them. Shoot first, or he will.

What part of "The law here allows me to use appropriate force, meaning if some guy assaults me in my home with a bat, I can beat him and disarm him but I can't kill him or just shoot him outright", do you not understand?

[Deepcrush]

'Threat of Life', defined or not always comes first for me.

[Aaron]

'Threat of Life', defined or not always comes first for me.

Yeah, you live in the US. Things are different here.

[Lt. Staplic]

if someone broke into our house for the DVD player they'd be screwed....mainly because our wiring is all tangled up so they'd be there for a half hour just trying to separate the dang thing from the rest of the entertainment stand. Assuming they did this the best access point in my house is the side door, which means again their screwed because to get there from the ground level DVD player you have to go around a waste height railing and down a few steps then turn 90*, while he's booking it around I can simply stop at the railing and whack him (oh ya, I forgot to mention I have one of those wooden katana's that they use to train with I forget what their called at the moment) in the head. from down stairs he's even more screwed, (to go down you do the same thing as if you were leaving, but instead of turning 90* you go straight and then down a flight of stairs) I'd just wait behind the wall that seperates the kitchen from the stairs while I wait for him to come up, and has he stepps onto the landing ready to leave I come around and smack him.