People ask me things...

People ask me things...  Such as this, in my email this morning:

Have you ever actually fired a gun at someone?

No, I have not.

But that's much different than saying my guns haven't been useful. 

On two quite separate occasions, people believed they had a right to be on my property without my consent, and nothing I said could persuade them otherwise.  Simply picking up and racking my Beretta 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun changed their mind, quickly and with no fuss.  In one case the time between racking and intruder exiting my property was well under 15 seconds, despite the roughly 100 feet that they had to traverse to get away from me.  Those unwelcome intruders have never returned, and I'm confident they will not :)

On one other occasion, I heard a commotion in our back yard that my sleep-addled brain interpreted as a mountain lion attacking our outdoor animals.  I grabbed that same shotgun and ran outside to defend them.  Without the shotgun, there's little I could have done to protect those animals against a mountain lion.  The noise turned out to be nothing concerning at all, which I was very glad for, as I'd hate to have to kill a mountain lion.  But I would have, if such had been needed, and I could have, thanks to that shotgun...