If you do not lock your doors you are putting others at risk...your bad if somebody gets hurt because you were too trusting. If you don't lockup because it is too much of a hassle you need to get over it and learn to do it.
I forgot to lock the front door one night many years back...when I let the cat in that cold night a large moth came in too (bat sized)..by the time I got the moth out and the cat downstairs I forgot about the front door.
About 2AM my wife woke me and said, "somebody is knocking on the door"..they were, very loudly. I was in the closet retrieving the pistol from the shelf (kids were small, gun out of reach) and she shouted, "they are in the house!!".
I sprinted for the stairs and as I took a position at the top and thumbed off the Walther's safety, someone bolted around the corner and started up the stairs...until they saw the gun.
They screamed, "Oh, my God!!!" and froze. I luckily did not shoot. It could have certainly been a bad guy. It was the mentally retarded lady from next dor...about 35 yrs old, with the mind of a 4 year old. She was canvassing neighborhood cars (and houses when she could get in) looking for cigarettes.
Her mother had punished her for something by taking her cigarettes away. It was a classic “shoot/no shoot” situation. I am glad the hall light was on so that I saw who it was and not just a shadowy figure storming up the stairs...it would have been an awful tragedy to shoot her.
The unlocked door gave her access she should not have had.
Locking your door can protect you, your family and an innocent person.
If a bad guy wants to come in anyway...that’s his problem.
An uninvited person in my house (or on my property) isn't innocent, even if they are looking to "only" steal a cig.
In that sense it's not my concern if I kill someone who comes in my home through a door I left unlocked.
If I had kids I might feel differently, but I pretty much refuse to allow fear of other's actions to rule my life.
If someone is walking around my property (at night) and doesn't first come knock on the door, the odds are fairly well stacked that they aren't going to be leaving under their own power. If an uninvited soul comes into my house at night (or during the day), their ass is mine.
One night back in highschool mom and I were home alone with all the lights off in the house (she had a headache and was asleep in her chair, I was on a computer and hadn't gotten up to turn a light on) thus looking as though the house was empty.
A truck charged up our drive way, flew across the front of the house and pulled back to the "yard" where we keep the equipment parked. I saw the lights sweep around (like they turned around) and stop. I look out the window and sure enough there's a truck backed up to a trailer with its lights still on.
I grabbed a shotgun, stepped outside and saw a dude hunched over dollying the trailer down on his truck. I flat charge the truck, shouldering the shotgun at poor fellas noggin. When he spun around it turned out to be a Adam who was borrowing a trailer. He didn't tell me he was borrowing a trailer, nor that he was coming over.
He was able to draw his on conclusions regarding the stupidty of his actions, learning a fairly important lesson.
