Two Points:<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI> Engineer, If you do contact the police (
via a cell phone which wasn't in the original example), you would remain in contact with the '911' operator. When they arrived, you would instruct them to your bedroom window and throw them your keys so that they could enter your house and clear the first floor. During this entire time, you would be talking to the operator and inform her that NOBODY comes up the stairs without being fired upon. Once the first floor is cleared, the operator would inform you of that, you would secure your weapon so that the LEO could come upstairs. If the police do not want to coorporate and I CAN'T identify them as LEO when they're coming up the stairs, they WILL be fired upon. The good thing about being on the phone with the '911' operator is that the entire conversation is being recorded and can be used in your defense ... you've informed her that anyone coming up the stairs will be fired upon and if she hasn't told you that it IS the LEO coming up the stairs then you can reasonably assume that the LEO was overpowered and the individual is now armed with the LEO's gun.
<LI> Will, I completely agree with you that as long as I hear activity going on downstairs, I will remain upstairs behind cover ready to fire at anyone coming up the stairs (
as I already would have issued a warning that anyone coming up the stairs will be fired upon). But what happens if you don't hear anything going on downstairs? What happens if the person breaking in, cut himself up and left to tend to his injury? What happens if it wasn't even a break-in but a neighborhood brat who rode past your house on his bike and threw a rock through your window? What happens, as someone else indicated, if something fell downstairs (
such as dishes, glasses on a shelf, etc.)? If you're in a sound sleep, you're not going to be able to tell the difference between one type of glass breakage and another. You say that you are willing to wait all night at the top of the stairs if you have to -- and maybe that IS the best thing to do. But the point is, sooner or later you have to go downstairs and when you do, you are going to have to clear the house. Even if you just want to get to the phone to call the police, you still have to do some type of house clearly to ensure that nobody sneaks up on you when you're on the phone. As you said, maybe it's best to wait until sunrise so that you can better see what's going on and not face the unknown in darkness. Either way it's a tough call.
<LI> Finally (
point #3 -- I know, I can't count), it's NOT a good idea to shoot at the neighbor's window to get their attention as someone could be walking by and you might end up shooting them. Or, it could go through the house and into another house and hit somebody there. You may want to throw something at their window and cause their glass to break at 2:30 in the morning as well
</UL>
