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Burglars In The House? Use A Shotgun or a Taser?

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Is it a good idea for a homeowner to carry a taser against a potential burglar?

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20 Answers

  

Justin Freeman, Former Patrol Officer

416 votes by Arvind Shrihari, Mark Harrison, Alex Kursman, (more)

Generally, no. There are superior tools to use in this circumstance.
First of all, I'm assuming you were actually referring to a TASER, which fires two probe barbs connected to the unit by wires, as opposed to a stun gun, which has two contact points attached to the unit which must be pressed against the skin of the target. Stun guns are a terrible choice here, but even TASERs, despite their ostensible awesomeness, are actually fairly difficult to use effectively under stress. More on that in a minute.

Before I get too far into this, a word on the burglary situation as a whole. The first tool you should reach for in the case of a home invasion is a phone. As soon as you know that the sound you heard wasn't the wind after all, you need to call the police immediately. Don't "just go check it out." Don't wait until you're 100% certain it's not your cat. Don't start fashioning yourself as a Navy Ninja Jedi Seal. Call the police. This is not a waste of time, you won't get accused of "filing a false report" or "wasting officers' time" or anything of the sort, and no officer worth the brass in their badge is going to bat an eye about checking this out. I did this all the time, happily, because it was my job. Believe me, out of all the phone calls that could stem from this situation, this is by far the most desirable. Call the police.

You need to get them rolling now - if it's an actual burglary, they seldom last more than a scant few minutes. Once you call, the dispatcher will give you instructions and guide you to the point of safely contacting responding officers. In almost every circumstance, you'll be instructed to stay where you are and relay information about what you're hearing in the residence. Typically, the last thing you want to do is actually confront the suspect.

Think about it from the standpoint of the suspect. First of all, it's highly likely that he or she thought the residence was unoccupied. The percentage of potential burglars willing to invade an occupied residence is very, very low - the risk/reward ratio is astronomically high for a random hit. Thus, contact of any kind during the commission of the crime is likely to be panic inducing - and panicked criminals are dangerous and unpredictable.

Second, in the event of confrontation, the suspect is going to assume the worst case scenario: that you have a firearm. Seeing you holding a dark, pistol shaped object (and holding it as you would a pistol to boot) will do little to quell this fear. It is with this fear coursing through their mind and their veins that they will react to your presence. They may react rationally and make a direct retreat; they may react irrationally and press the attack with whatever is at their disposal - which may be an actual firearm of their own. There are no rules here.

All that said, were you to find yourself in the unfortunate circumstance of beingtruly hemmed in or cornered by a home invasion situation, there are better options than a TASER. For the uninitiated, a (very) 101 primer on TASER functionality:


The upper diagram is quite simplified; as a result of this, it looks like the lead wires come out parallel with each other. The lower wire actually fires at a twelve degree angle, which creates probe spread. This spread is important, because the electrical impulse traveling from one probe to the other is what creates motor dysfunction. Thus, the more muscle groups there are between the probes, the more "lock up" you get in your target, which is what you're going for.

Now, given this, why are there better options for your hypothetical burglary?

• Gaining access in the first place. To buy from Taser International what I carried on the street as a police officer......you're going to have to submit to a background check and remit one thousand dollars. Plus tax, I'm sure (though I'm avoiding putting one in the site's shopping cart), bringing the total closer to $1,100. Even if you went with the inferior consumer version, and bought it from an online discounter, you're looking at $330 or so, plus $25 a pop for new cartridges. I hope they're stealing the jewels - otherwise you're in the red.
• Low light levels. In the case of a home invasion situation at night, you want to keep the lights out in your home. The reasoning is simple: you know the layout of your home, and the suspect doesn't. While movement and paths of travel will be easier for you, though, TASER aim on a moving target probably won't be. And even knowing the layout isn't always a free pass - unless you've never stubbed your toe in your life.
• Acute stress levels. This will not be a zen moment for you. Your heart will be beating so furiously you'll have legitimate fears the suspect will be able to hear it. Under this level of stress, fine motor function diminishes significantly - so even if you can see to aim your device, it's going to be hard to keep a shaky set of hands trained on the target.
• Difficulty aiming the device. If your device has a laser sight, that provides the suspect something we in law enforcement called a "hint" that you're there. Oh, and I guarantee getting lit with a laser in a residence will be interpreted as, "I am about to be shot with a firearm." Reactions to this will be hard to predict, except in predicting their unpredictability. And if you're aiming a laserless unit in the dark...well, good luck.
• Necessity of optimal distance. Remember the mention of "probe spread" earlier? Well, it's both important and dependent upon distance. With the lower probe angled at twelve degrees, simple geometry lets you know that the further away you are from the target, the further the probes are going to spread. Ideally, you'll hit the suspect right below the sternum with the top probe, and in the thigh with the other - this produces what we called an "across the beltline" hit, and usually locked up both the torso and the legs (obviously resulting in the target collapsing). However, to achieve this you'll need loads of skill and luck. First, you need to ensure that you're between nine and twelve feet away. Then, ensure you have proper aim with the top probe. Then, remember to cant the device with a twisting motion - otherwise the bottom probe will go between the suspect's legs. Twenty or thirty degrees ought to do - you did bring a protractor with you, right?
• Likelihood of clothing disconnect. If you'll look closely at the diagram above, you'll see that what hits you in a TASER firing is a set of sharp barbs, which are designed to penetrate and catch in the skin, holding in place so the electric pulse can do its job. These barbs are very short, however - on the order of one centimeter - and clothing of any thickness presents a challenge, as the impulse has to overcome the impedance of the suspect's clothing to affect his or her motor function. In my experience, street criminals have a tendency to wear multiple layers of clothing, which facilitates discarding the top layer to render descriptions of shirt color immediately stale after a crime. I've experienced what clothing disconnect feels like - in between the impulse breakthroughs, I was fully functional (I was wearing a single layer, by the way). If you pop a cartridge in the dark, under stress, at the perfect distance, and hit someone wearing a hoodie over two or three shirts, they probably won't feel jack. This is a problem, because you'll likely be...
• One and done (for all intents and purposes). Too bad about that clothing disconnect, because I'll tell you right now, you're not getting another shot off. Do authentic TASER devices have cartridge replacements? Yes. But even if you have one (not likely) and thought to bring it downstairs with you (probably not), the percentage of likelihood of you successfully slamming another cartridge home under stress and getting a second shot off is probably in the low single digits. This was difficult for me to do, and I handled a TASER every day and shot one about once a quarter to re-certify with it in my department. Here is what it looks like performed by a professional, in a well-lit, controlled environment (watch it all for perspective on the training they're doing, or skip to 1:50 for the show): http://blutube.policeone.com/pol... . Remember those fine motor skills we decided you don't have at this point? Anything requiring this much use of your fingertips is something you might as well forget about.

In the right contexts (in which the user knows what he or she is doing), TASERs are awesome sauce. In this context, though, I think you've got better options. So what would my recommendation be? Generally, this intricate instrument:
Now, if you're a gun person, know the Ten Commandments of Firearms Safety, know how to field strip and maintain your firearm of choice, and own a lockable gun safe which is both easily accessible to you in an emergency and impossible for unauthorized people to access, then I would have recommended a small caliber pistol with a high capacity magazine. 

[Edit: I wrote with the masses in mind here - as Ryan Lackey notes below, a larger caliber is more advisable here when it comes to stopping power. I suppose I'll revise this to say 'the largest caliber you're comfortable with, up to and including a shotgun' (you obviously wouldn't use a rifle here, unless it's an assault rifle, in which case I'm guessing you need no home defense tips from me). If you meet the requisite requirements I listed above for gun employment, you'll know where this threshold is.]

Knowing that probably describes a sliver of a fraction of a percentage of you, I went with a fancy stick. Why?

• Gaining access in the first place. If you don't already have one of these lying around, a quick trip to a yard sale or thrift store will net you one of these bad boys for under a five spot. Plus, it's more easily customizable - unless you've got really small stencils, you're only getting "BRUTALIZER" on one of these devices. (Pro Tip: Not the TASER.)
• Low light levels. The silhouette of this thing is pretty hard to mistake. This might be a silly consideration, but if a home invader saw my shadow, I'd rather them see my bat and think, "Oh God, he's got a bat," than to see my TASER and think, "Oh, God, he's got a gun." Ideally, though, the invader shouldn't know about my bat until I'm bludgeoning his brain stem with it.
• Acute stress levels. There's no aiming or angles or twelve degrees or canting or probe spread with this thing. Just reach back into Arkansas (or Santa Cruz, for some of my readers) and swing for the fences. This is the very definition of "gross motor skills" - the only thing your fingertips will be doing is making sure the timber stays in your hands.
• Non-difficulty aiming the device. Field of aim here is "in front of the bat."
• No necessity of optimal distance. Optimal distance here is not measured in feet or meters, but by asking "Will the bat reach the dude?" If no, you're too far away. If yes, you're optimally distanced.
• Likelihood of body connection. Instead of relying on connection establishment from a point in space to a point on a plane over a distance of ten feet, all you have to do with a bat is make sure that their body falls within the arc created by your swing. And if it doesn't...
• Many and continuing. Reloading this thing is as simple as raising your arms again. If you miss, take another whack. If you hit, take another whack. Repeat this process until the suspect flees or stops moving.

Remember, all of this assumes that you're truly cornered and have no option but to engage in combat with the intruder in order to escape or survive (an incredibly unlikely scenario, by the way). Given that circumstance, though, in the absence of a firearm I'd much rather have a bat than a TASER - under stress, there are just too many variables working against the deployment of anything requiring fine motor skills.

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Edit 1.3.12: After seeing this question go a bit viral and generate some interesting and varied discussion, I feel compelled to address some of the issues raised by other answers:

• Is a 12 gauge shotgun the quickest, most efficient way to put a ragged, bloody crater in an intruder's body, or to blow their head clean off of their shoulders?Yes. Is it the best choice for the most people? I genuinely do not think so. I'm obviously a gun person, so I know where my fellow gun people are coming from. That said though, my peers must understand that this lifestyle (or interest, or whatever your characterization) is not appropriate for everyone. First of all, the physical heft is formidable for those slight of build or stature. Second, the recoil for such a person would be so severe as to be genuinely dangerous. Third, you have to be positively disposed to firearm ownership in the first place. Fourth, unless you're single, childless, or an empty nester, there are overwhelmingsafety considerations you have to have contingencies for. Fifth, ownership and use laws are all over the map. Sixth, there is the ever-present possibility of your own gun being used against you (whether after discovery or after disarming you). Seventh...meh, I think I've made my point. If you can handle one of these things and will swear on all your dead grandmothers stretching back to the Spanish Inquisition that you won't kill a kid or get yourself killed with it, then by all means, get one. Put a pistol grip on it. Give it an arctic camo paint job. Discuss shot sizes with your local arms dealer and chamber the round you guys settle on. But if you can't honor your grandmothers here, think long here. Think hard.
• My endorsement of bats is not absolute - my point was, and is, that they are probably the most versatile weapon (perhaps this side of a flail) that the largest majority of people can use IF they are cornered and pressed into defense during a home invasion. Like I said in my original draft, engagement with the suspect is, in the vast majority of cases, extremely inadvisable - staying in a position of safety or escaping the residence to such a position is likely a better option. As for the hallway objections, if yours is so cramped that you can't get an overhead swing in, you're not going to be able to deploy anything else anyway, save maybe a pistol. And unless you're familiar with the term "combat tuck," you're just as, if not more, likely to get it taken from you than to kill your attacker. But hey, there's always t-ball bats!
• Dogs are a good layer of defense here, but I wouldn't get one just for home defense if I wasn't predisposed to them. Invest in contact alarms and reinforced door frames and hardware before you go the dog route if you're not - you don't have to feed a deadbolt.
• Finally, and I'm very sorry if I hurt feelings here - but you should absolutely ignore any advice to not call police during a home invasion. Such advice is egregiously errant - get police rolling first, then take whatever measures are necessary to protect yourself. You don't have to engage in a lengthy discourse with the dispatcher - the words "Home invasion at" followed by your address is enough if you're pressed into action. And unless you live in the middle of a national forest or on an open body of water, the estimates you're seeing below of "twenty minutes" for police response is (in the vast, vast majority of cases) wildly inaccurate. For instance, average emergency response time in Los Angeles in 2004 was 6:42 (http://articles.latimes.com/2005... but even Atlanta, with one of the worst metro response averages in the nation, clocks in at just over 11 minutes (http://apbweb.com/featured-artic...). Call the police.

Via Alex K. Chen.

UpvoteDownvote • Repost (4) • 12+ Comments • Dec 25, 2011

  

John Morrow, Reader, writer, occasional thinker.

25 votes by Justin Freeman, Alan Cohen, Lerissa Patrick, (more)

I very much like Justin Freeman's answer (mostly because I love imagining a pastor beating in someone's brainstem with a bat).

I would also just point out though that if we're talking home defence, and you're in a situation where you might have to shoot someone with a taser, I'd be much more inclined to shoot them with something that is more lethal, carries multiple rounds, and makes a very loud noise to let everyone know that bad things are happening.

I'm a very firm believer that you don't shoot people unless you have to, but if you have to shoot people then you shoot to kill and argue about it later. 

Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six, as the old saying goes.

UpvoteDownvote • Repost • 1+ Comments • Dec 25, 2011

  

Ben Branam, Husband, Father, Shooter, and Self De...

16 votes by Alex K. Chen, Tobias Jordans, Susan Kaveny, (more)

Anything is better then nothing, but a burglar caught in the act will become a cornered animal pretty fast. You need a plan B with a taser. You should give the burglar the opportunity to escape. Very few things in your home are worth taking a life for, and even less are worth risking your life. It's only a TV. You can get a better one anyways.

UpvoteDownvote • Repost • Comment • Dec 22, 2011

  

John Fogh, Professional self-defense instructor ...

11 votes by Alex K. Chen, Tobias Jordans, Jonathan Tsai, (more)

The real problem with the hypothetical burglar isn't that he is going to steal your stuff, but that he might very well injure or kill you in the process.

Simply because of the way a taser operates they are basically worthless for private citizens and self-defense. You only get one shot, and it has to be taken at close range (15' or less). If you do hit and if it is effective you still have a intruder in your house - as soon as the 'ride' is over there are no after effects.

UpvoteDownvote • Repost • Comment • Dec 24, 2011

  

Chapley Watson, Founder of Logidock, Developer, Entre...

6 votes by Steve Kohn, Michael Kennedy, Leon Kitain, (more)

A tazer is only as good as the contact it makes. You get one shot and hope that your shaking hands do not cause you to miss. A shotgun, Remington 870, would be ideal.  

Why a shotgun? 

The sound a shotgun makes as you rack it is fairly universal. Most people know when they hear this sound that there is a large weapon within earshot. This should be enough of a deterrent to make would-be intruders run out the door. I would suggest something smaller than buckshot as you maximize close range damage while limiting possible collateral damage.

UpvoteDownvote • Repost • 1+ Comments • Jan 3, 2012

  

Chase Smith, Productivity & Time Management Expert

11 votes by Alan Cohen, Steve Kohn, Jonathan Tsai, (more)

1st. You may not be legally allowed to carry a taser. Generally stun guns for civilian use cannot launch probes such as tasers do.

2nd. A pump shotgun racking a round is a much better deterrent. You do not have to worry about long travel that a rifle slug will have and it is designed for close quarters home defense much better than a pistol is.

3rd. The most logical thing however is to grab your phone & call 911, grab your kids if you have them and get out of the house. Let them have whatever they want because if you are not committed to using a firearm, a. you shouldn't own one and b. you are just as dangerous to yourself and your loved ones as you are to the burglars.

You have to be committed to protecting your loved ones and home to use a firearm. In many cases just the racking of a round that they can hear should motivate them to leave and leave quickly. No one wants to be shot.

UpvoteDownvote • Repost • 4+ Comments • Dec 25, 2011

  

Steve Kohn, US Army, retired

11 votes by Ryan Freitas, John Fogh, Ed Perry, (more)

Great article except for the recommendation of a baseball bat. To use it, you have to be as close as arm's length from the intruder. That's not good, because now he's at arm's length to you, too.
 
Also, in some parts of a home, as for example a hallway, there may not be room to get a good swing.