Ill go through this with you, I don't mind the conversation, I enjoy the chance to discuss security, if our discussion will be productive and help someone defend themselves better, than its worth my time...
II am not saying that someone should throw on a yello tee shirt and run down the stairs with a gun in a holster, you should use care to know your property better than an intruder, the building should be dark and you should have your back to the wall, move slowly, listen carefully, and be ready... If a pair of assailants can get the drop on you with a flashlight in your own home, I don't know if there is any help for you, maybe hiding would be best...
I have a 4500 sq ft 3 floor home, my bedroom is at the furthest point away from the open stairway loft on the way to that loft are both of my sons rooms. In the case of an alarm, I arm myself and my wife arms herself, I go to my first sons room and clear it, he will be awake {alarm is loud}, I tell him to go to the room with his mother, same goes for my second son, they are not to leave the room unless I come and get them, now they are in the room with my armed wife behind a solid core locked door... {Before I re-enter the room I will shut the alarm and announce myself, part of our plan, she will expect me to announce myself and she will have to unlock the door to let me in...} I don't want to get too far into it but she will know if I am alone or not...
Now my family is safe in my bedroom behind a locked door and armed...
I continue to the stairs and at that corner I have a perfect sightline of my entire first floor formal living room, edge of the dining room, ect. Thats when I will look, listen, and make a decision to go further or hold my ground there and wait for police...
I can't tell you what will happen next because I will have a few choices, if I see an intruder and can get a shot at him, I may take it, I may announce myself, I may wait for police, its never happened and it would depend on the shot, the amount of people I thought were in the house, ect...
If I hear they are in the back of the house where I can not see I may descend the stairs and get closer to the bottom.. I have the advantage of having a large open floor plan with open lofts. If I was in a small 2000 sq ft home with a single closed staircase, small rooms, and corners everywhere I would have a plan that worked for that building... Sitting tight may be the best option in some homes...
I practice, shoot all the time, and can handle myself pretty well {semi pro football, boxed for a while and still train, lots of MMA training, ect} so being ambushed by a couple of 200lb meth addicts may be less of a concern to me vs a 180lb soccer dad... My plan reflects my abilities and my situation, it may not work for anyone else, but I would not feel comfortable sitting in my room barricaded up with my wife not knowing what is going on outside them doors...
If someone comes in my home they are coming for a score, jewelry, money, guns, ect.. That stuff is not in the kitchen, I would rather have the high view and know when they are coming vs waiting for them to smoke me out or kick down my door...
Sure there is some expensive stuff in the kitchen, lol my wife has a hard piped commercial bunn coffee machine that was $1500, an $800 blender, $1500 ice cream machine, and a $2000 Hobart mixer, BUT burglars aren't going to be there for that, I have about $100K in stereo equipment, a 1940 juke box worth $20K alone, BUT they are not going to be there for that either, in the middle of the night, they arent running back and forth to their car with 120lb amplifiers or huge speaker cabinets, they want pockets full of jewelry, money, and guns!!! Like I said, NOT IN THE KITCHEN, if they have the balls to stick around after the alarm goes off they know the police response time and they are coming for the master bedroom, I will not be there waiting, they will never get a foot on the bottom stair...
I would like to think my plan is solid, I have a few trooper and locals that I have gone over it with on card nights, they have helped tune it and agree its solid, I have taken classes on defense and home defense specifically, I actually built a specific HD weapon, invested around $3000 in it, custom smithed trigger job, polish job, .400 corbon barrelled railed 1911, ct grips, strobe light with laser {2 laser because the one on the strobe is only visible with night vision goggles that I own a few pairs of} its the only gun with a light on it in this picture... That is what an intruder will be looking for $20K in just that one picture, a $175K gun collection will be on their list, nothing that is on the first floor of my home would be on their list...
heres a pic of some of my speakers not too easy to move around, stuff like that no matter what it is worth is not why someone is in your house at 3 am while you are home... I am 6'5 300lbs, weight train everyday and them things are hard to move around for me, you can see the 23" arm in the window reflection
, lol...
I am not sure if you have ever heard of the Cheshire murders it was big news here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshire,_Connecticut,_home_invasion_murders not long ago and not far from my home, a conversation like this could have changed that day, always arm your alarm, always have a bedside weapon of some sort, no matter how nice your neighborhood!!! I live in an area full of million dollar homes, it can happen anywhere...
Again, thanks for the opportunity to discuss this if someone learns something or it makes me aware of something that can help me, its productive and worth the time... I in no way want this to become an argument, I do dissagree that you should "bunker down" and wait for the police, my area does not have local PD, we have state police, 3 cops on the night shift for our area and its a LARGE area, I will NOT be waiting for them, if anything this should show that there is no one rule that applies to all situations...
I can think of a situation where waiting and hiding would work, single man and wife live in a small town home {no kids in other rooms}, police station 2 blocks away, response time under 4 minutes, cellular auto dialer on the alarm, plus they call it in personally to be sure, audible alarm is activated, solid core bedroom door locked with a tooled entry time of at least 2 minutes, another exit in the bedroom maybe? Something like that can work, just sit tight and wait for help, but that is not going to work for many people, I much prefer the gather the family in a safe room and guard it from outside the locked door method...
I learned from the home invasion class I attended that they are coming to your bedroom, more than 75% of the time they are coming for your bedroom, thats where the jewelry is, the money, ect that is where they are coming... The days of poking out a window ac unit grabbing a vcr and running are over, vcr's and dvd players are $50 brand new, maybe worth $10 on the street, they are there for what you keep close...
my wife wears a 5ct diamond ring {I tell her not to wear that ring when she goes to town, but she forgets and does, not so much since I have pleaded with her not to}, its not a stretch for someone to realise that is 6 figures and follow her home, case the place and figure a good time would be in the middle of the night... There is no jewelry on the first floor of my house someone with the balls to come in, is already fixed on the prize, police response time is not good enough to save me, I will be at the corner or at the stairs locked and loaded, ready to fire..
I will be honest, I hate the idea of someone burning down my house, and I have heard the stories of what guys have been doing, they light a fire, wait for everyone to leave and then take what they can, its not impossible considering the size of these properties, I can not see what is going on 75ft around the other side of my house... These people don't think normally because they would be working like a normal person, not robbing my house, lol.. I am strongly on the side of defending my property and protecting my family, if it means I have to leave the safety of my bedroom {and it does} then I am fine with that...