Should you stay or should you go?

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I had to deal with this a number of years ago - attemped break-in into my house late evening. My little brother was only six at the time, and was sleeping up on the second floor of the house. I checked to make sure he was still asleep upstairs, grabbed a 12-ga pump shotgun (an ancient Sears shotgun), called the police, and moved to a place where I could get the first series of shots in before the bad guy knew what hit him. Luckily, the intruder didn't get through the door he was trying to force...and it would have ended badly for him since I was waiting for him on the other side of it - and no, I wasn't in the mood to give a warning. I was the only person between the bad guy and my little brother, and I wasn't going to allow the perp time to figure out where I was first.

The cops arrived about ten minutes after the attempted robber gave up and left. Now, I always keep some kind of HD capability nearby...my Glock and M1 carbine seem to work best for me. Regardless...I would never leave nor give up the element of surprise in my own house. Best bet is to hang tight with the three most potent weapons you have - your wits, a phone to call the cavalry, and some handy firepower that you know you can accurately and safely use when the chips are down.
 
First and foremost, always, always call the police. Your next move depends upon your tactical training. If you have none, gather up the women and children, sequester them in a closet and guard the door with your shotgun like you never guarded anything else in your life.

If you are a competent marksman and a have tactical combat experience, I say "GAME ON." Go get them and have fun doing it.
 
That's a good point about the pooches. Depending on the size and training of the dog, it can either be a liability or a great asset and ally. To say nothing of the deterrent factor of a dog's bark scaring a bad guy right off.
 
i have 2 roomies, 1 a bit of a drinker.

i cant go just calling the cops for bumps in the night, ill go check out if its a roomie or not. my house is an open floor plan, and i have "nightlights" set up to back light the main rooms so i can see them from the hallway.

i have hit both of my roomies(the drinker more than once) with the light from my 500, or cx4.
 
i have hit both of my roomies(the drinker more than once) with the light from my 500, or cx4.
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And that's the main reason I have two lights. One Glock laser/light combo that slides onto the rail of my G22 (.40) and my Z2 Surefire... If I don't know what it is, I'll investigate using the Z2. No need to point my gun at someone getting a drink of water just to identify them.
 
I have to disagree with 45Gunner

PHP: 
First and foremost, always, always call the police. Your next move depends upon your tactical training. If you have none, gather up the women and children, sequester them in a closet and guard the door with your shotgun like you never guarded anything else in your life.

If you are a competent marksman and a have tactical combat experience, I say "GAME ON." Go get them and have fun doing it. 
__________________

I fully agree with the first part of your post, but totally disagree with the last part.
1. "Game On"?? you are talking about potentially taking someone's life, and if you make a mistake, possibly losing yours, Hardly what I would call a game.
2. you are behind cover, with your family, and have called the police, why on earth would you leave that cover and risk your life?

The only time you move from cover is when you move to a better one, or when it is your job to fight the battle, and this requires you to expose yourself. (such as a LEO or a soldier may have to do)

Brgds,
Danny
 
I live alone, except for a beautiful black female Chow that can hear a mouse pass gas. My house is in a really bad neighborhood. I have solid steel bars on the windows, steel gates on the doors, and a really good alarm system. I keep a cell phone next to my bed so that I cannot be stopped from calling 911 by cutting my hard lines. When I am in my home a firearm is never farther away than the length of my arm, and it's going to be a .45 ACP, .357 Magnum or .12 gauge shotgun. If someone comes to my door after dark they are going to have to be someone I know pretty well just to get the door opened a crack, and I'll have a shotgun in my hands. If anybody tries to break into my house at night, while I am asleep, my dog will go completely nuts and I will wake up. I will call 911, turn on all the lights from my keypad, and stay in my bedroom and wait for the cavalry. If the BG gets to me before the PD gets here, and is armed in any way, I will kill him (or her). During the day it is pretty much the same deal. Don't come to my door if you don't have a pretty good reason to be there. I have about 5000 or so acquaintances, and 6 friends. My friends call before they come over.

When I am outside my home I am carrying 24/7. Hy house is a fort, and there is a bad dog inside. If someone breaks into my house while I am gone, my alarm company will call me on my cell. If the intruder manages to get past my alarm system somehow, and I come home, I have a very idiosyncratic way of entering my house, and if anything is out of line, say my my black girl dog does not bark to meet me (the intruder will have to kill her), I'll stop, and enter a few minutes later with the PD as an escort. If I did come home and nothing was out of order, if my smiling black doggy girl is happy and waiting to greet me, and somehow someone was in my house, it would be my Mother.:):)

Dr. Raoul Duke
Gonzo Forever
 
My wife and I are old enough that the kids are grown and moved out. So its just us most of the time.

If my wife and I heard someone in the house, we would get on my side of the bed - we have about 3 feet between the bed and the wall, and I have my computer desk there. Between the computer desk and the bed is an AR-15. I would grab the AR and watch both of the bed room doors from behind the bed while my wife calls the police. So that is our "safe zone".

But if my kids or grand kids were visiting, then I would want to get everyone into a safe room or safe zone.

Unless I absolutely had to confront the person, then I would do my best not to.
 
I agree with posting up in a safe place and letting the BG decide if he wants a confrontation .... but baby being in another part of the house brings up another set of problems that no one has seriously addressed.

I'm not sure what the best tactical strategy would be in this instance ..... but I would have to move toward my baby... somehow.:confused:
 
Know and understand the gun laws and how they apply in your state. Do everything possible to avoid a physical or gun confrontation with the BG. Even if the law says that you are in your rights to shoot, the mental and financial cost make using a firearm a poor choice unless not using it will result in certain major physical damage or death of you and/or your loved ones. This simple synopsis will save you hours of reading and back and forth endlessly on every little detail that get beat to death on this forum. On the other hand, if you like to argue and interject every possible if, and, or but, you've come to the right place!
 
collect your family into a safe room, call the police and announce in no uncertain terms to the BG that you are armed and will shoot if he/she/they attempt to breach your safe room
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I'm not in favor of the announcement at that stage in the game. That assumes the announcement itself will be a deterrent. If you're correct, great. If you're incorrect, you've just given away the very valuable element of surprise -- the aggressor will now be a lot more careful in their attack. I understand that such a warning may give you a leg up legally (if it comes to that), but it seems like such a tactical no-no that I wouldn't do it -- assuming that I could muster the ability to yell out such a warning in the first place. Besides, if you were already locked in your 'safe' room (i.e. and not just in an open area of your house) and someone broke all the way into it, I think you'd already have pretty solid ground for self defense.
 
being a college student in a rental house, i pretty much live in the hood/old retired white people neighborhood...i woke up at 3am 3 times this past semester to about 10 cop cars w/ lights flashing in my front yard. the first time they were all walking around w/ flashlights and one was near my mailbox and it was clear there was nothing around so i left my pistol on the couch right by the door and opened my front door, leaving the screen door closed/locked and hollered to the cop if there was anything i needed to be worried about, he replied "no, some old woman THOUGHT she saw a suspicious character lurking around the back yards"...i said "oh my ass!!! so in other words i need to keep my 1911 close huh?" he just chuckled and said night.

my house is old, creaky and small. my room is about 5 feet from the front door. i also have a female roommate on the other end of the house, w/ an extremely loud door to her room, so i know when she's up. our front door is also extremely loud, and being so close to it i can immediately tell a difference. we always text each other if we're about to be home late, so we dont panic when someone comes in at 2am.

i have my mossie 930 spx in one corner about 3 feet from where i sleep, my stoeger coach gun 12ga just inside my closet. my taurus judge w/ 2 rounds of 000 buckshot and 3 rounds of .45lc in the nightstand about a foot away from my head. and a 1911 hanging off the side of my bed, 6 inches from my head, in a mattress holster that stays well hidden so as to not be discovered by any bg. my roommate knows where each of these are, and has been to the range w/ me multiple times so she knows how to use them. although not very accurate w/ my 1911, she knows how to hit the safety switch and aim either my spx or my coach gun, and when she runs out of ammo in either beat the hell out of the bg w/ the buttstock cuz she still cant get the hang of reloading ha

this set up obviously isnt for everyone...but i'm an extremely light sleeper, so even slight creaks wake me up at night...luckily i've never had to deal w/ anything, but considering that each time those cops were called it was to the mother of a local cops house, 2 doors down from me, due to the fact some gang was targetting her house cuz her son the cop helped put a couple of their boys in jail, i think i'll trust her judgement if she thinks something is wrong enough to call the police...now her son has cops making passes down our street almost hourly, so i feel a lot safer than i did 6 months ago
 
Clearing the house?

:eek: Clearing the house is very dangerous.

Sometimes you may have to do this to reach your kids, wife, etc. However, if you don't need to get to a family member, I would NOT try and clear home if at all possible. I used to think this is what I would do until I read recently, where a home owner (here in FL) was shot and killed at night (in his home) while trying to clear his house.

If at all possible try and get everyone in one room and behind a bed, etc. and wait for intruder to come to you. You are armed and protected by bed and offer less of a target to BG. Of course, you should call the police immediately. I personally would announce to BG that I have called police and that I am armed. If he enters my room, I will shoot! Good luck.
 
I know it's not the popular answer here but personally I'd rather meet the intruder upon entrance to my house rather than from within a bedroom. The way I see it the outside walls/doors offer much more protection than those inside. Also, while they are still outside banging on the door I know exactly where they are but they don't know where I am. Once I'm bottled up in a single room I think I've lost a significant advantage. Obviously this only works if you are confident they haven't yet made it inside. If you're doors/windows/habits are crap or your house is big then you won't know and you'd best stay put if possible.
 
Clearing a house is VERY dangerous. Even trained LEOs don't like to do it. Think about it. The intruder knows exactly where HE is, you have no idea. From your lights/noise, he knows exactly where YOU are. You're exposed, coming to him in hiding.
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I respectfully dissagree for several reasons:

1. You live in your house, probably know it's layout like the back of your hand. The BG doesn't. This is an big advantage to you.

2. What lights? What noise? I've gone through the drill of clearing my house twice - I don't make noise and I don't use lights. I know exactly where my family members are, since that's the first step I take in clearing my house. My house has enough ambient light for me to see in most places without shining flashlights. I listen for noises. Those few rooms where I need artificial light are the last ones I clear.

3. My house has lots of doors going to the outside. This is both good and bad - it makes it more difficult for me to secure my house. But, it also gives me lots of options for quickly walking outside and looking around.

I have a different approach to clearing my house than most. I practice walking inside of my house in the dark - I guaranty you that I'll be qucker and quieter doing this than any intruder. Now, I live in a one story house and know how to slink around both inside/outside or a combination of both. Basically, once I confirm the location of my wife and kid, which takes seconds, anything else moving around in my house at 3:00 am is likely going to get shot.
 
Try it with an opponent sometime. Get some airsoft guns. Have them come in and then go slink after them.

Clearing the house without opposition isn't real practice.
 
Skans said:
I guaranty you that I'll be qucker and quieter doing this than any intruder.
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The intruder doesn't have to be quick or quiet. All he has to do is pull a trigger.

Skans said:
probably know it's layout like the back of your hand. The BG doesn't.
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BG doesn't need to know the house. All he needs to do is wait for you to come to him.

Skans said:
Those few rooms where I need artificial light are the last ones I clear.
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Can you do that without leaving your back exposed to any of those rooms?
 
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