Few areas of personal or home security are more controversial than whether or not one should carry or have at home a gun. Each side of the debate has valid points to make and the best answer may take some time to emerge.

Statistics can be trotted out for both sides, one side suggesting that carrying a gun increases personal and home safety, the other side stating it decreases it. Where one stands depends on a broader philosophy and that issue can’t be settled here. But what can be fruitfully reviewed are the pros and cons.

Having a gun or other dangerous weapon around the home can be a benefit or a liability. In that respect, both sides are correct. It depends in large part on how that weapon is stored and what kind of training and skill those who may use it have.

It also depends on who else is in the house and other circumstances, such as who is confronting you and when.

Having a gun will not by itself provide protection. It’s possible to have it taken away and used against you.

How easy that is depends on individual personality and the circumstances. Part of that involves training.

If you’ve had at least one good gun safety course, and practice regularly it might be a net positive. For most, just buying a gun and putting it in a drawer for an emergency is usually useless and may be worse than no gun at all.

There are legal aspects to the issue, as well, and these vary from state to state. In some states or municipalities, it’s simply flat out illegal to have a firearm in the home. In others, it requires a special license. In every one, using it will require justifying your actions to the authorities. Depending on where you live that may be easy or it may increase the odds of you winding up in jail rather than the criminal.

The presence of children in the home affects the argument substantially. Younger children, roughly under age 9, can’t be qualified to use a firearm. Though the age at which some do is quite low in some cases. It’s not just a matter of the law. Long gone are the days, at least in most areas, when a person under about age 15 could safely shoot a gun, even in target practice.

Survival skills have largely faded, in most areas, in the past 100 years or so. Very few start farming or hunting for food only a few years after learning to walk as was the case 100 years ago. That means that not only the physical skill, but also the mindset required for properly using a weapon has become much less common.

That, too, will be seen differently by different sides in the debate. Some will argue that it shows increasing advance toward a more civilized society. Others will contend that it’s evidence that something important has been lost.

Each individual will have to make a decision based on their own personal views and experience. But anyone should consider the pros and cons in the area of safety, legality and the impact on their own lives.

Tags: burglers, carrying a gun, dangerous weapon, firearm in the home, home safety, Home Security, homebreakers, homeowners, illegal, physical skill, secure environment, security systems