The Big Black Blob at the Bedroom Door

Dealt with this last night.

BOOOOOOM! Right outside of our bedroom door at 3am. Wasn't my GF since she was working overnight security and my son is with the ex this week. Rolled over and grabbed her S&W and waited a couple of minutes. Eventually cracked the door open and stood back for a few min. Then peaked. Some one knocked a mirror off the laundry room door. :mad:

I dont wake well attitude wise. I was ready to put 5 rds in someone's face and call 911 in the morning.

Instead I just hosed down some punk cats with the squirt bottles.

I had one dream that was a violent nightmare, some particular creature was after me and I started myself awake. I could clearly see my room all around me, yet the creature was still coming. As it reached me, it slowly dissolved into nothing. I sat awake for a half-hour wondering why my dream and reality had seemingly melded with each other, something that has never happened before then or since. About twenty years ago.
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This is something that's in the back of my mind a lot about nightstand guns.

While I understand the OP's "blob" I often wonder about night terrors or whatever folks call them. Apparently it's actually really common, even a condition for some folks, for the various chemicals and nervous system components that cause us to dream (and our voluntary muscles to paralyze) to have trouble "turning off" when we wake. It causes visions and various other hallucinations and things that can be frightening and confusing.
 
Early one morning,

I was staying over at a friend's apartment. I was sleeping in his living room, he was in his bedroom. There was a loud crash and glass breaking from his other bedroom. He came through with his .45, I grabbed my .357. In the bedroom, he was barking commands at the silhouette in the window. The man in the window didn't move.

I flipped on the lights, and we both collapsed laughing. We had drawn a bead on George Bush. You know, one of those life size cardboard cutouts that people take pictures with? At a party that weekend someone had brought one over. We put a cowboy hat and bandana on it. The crash was the garbage pickup that had hit the dumpster.

Here we are, two guys in their underwear with pistols with "President Bush" well and truly covered.
 
The "perfect world" is one I made for myself to keep my family safe. To not take certain precautions is foolish to say the least. A gamble in other words. Simple to do, secure a house or apartment, to give you a early warning if someone tries to get into the place. Or not. It is everyones choice, to set the level of security.
 
Skans said:
If no one other than me and my wife were residing in the house, I would have fired off a couple rounds at the big black blob and asked questions later.
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Skans, kicking up a notch! Forget shooting an intruder in the dark. Just shoot the dark! :D
 
Sounds like you followed one of the many important firearm rules. "never fire unless you are sure of your target" This is just a great example as to why it was pounded into our heads at hunting safety class.

I could never sleep with a gun right next to me, when I was a kid I would routinely sleep walk and have HORABLE night mares that played out while I walked around the house in a half daze. Once woken I could remember everything, was almost like I was in a trance. Sometimes I will sit up and be in a dream but I do not seem to walk anymore, just sit there talking, looking crazy to my wife lol

There have been a few times I have woken in the night and checked my house out. Not haveing a irearm avaliable at the time I grabed the next best thing, a very large knife that is kept in my room.
 
One night while sitting in the living room watching TV, my daughter came in and said someone was trying to get in the back door. I grabbed my .45 and went to investigate. It was a dog trying to get into the garbage can which sits on a pad next to the back door.

A second incident happened one morning as I was preparing to leave for work. There was a loud bang as something hit the front door. I had the .45 out and was just about to jerk open the door and confront who or what was there. But my daughter came running in and said "Dad, no!" Turns out it was a friend bringing her baby for my daughter to baby sit that day. She had one hand full of diaper bag and such and the baby in a carrier in the other hand. As she tried to reach for the doorbell she banged the carrier against the door. I didn't tell her until a couple of years later how close she was to coming face to face with a .45.
 
I think the OP's comments were good food for thought, but I'm not so sure about all of the comments from others stating "that I don't keep a gun next to the bed because I might grab it and shoot". Talk about a perfect world...expecting the bad guy to always provide you time to get to your gun, and cycle the first round...just not so sure the world is always that perfect. I mean there is such a thing as self-control, isn't there? Just because a gun is close to the bed, and loaded, doesn't mean that someone has to jump up, grab it, and start shooting blindly when they hear a bump in the night. I would hope most people are wise enough to do as the OP, and identify the target. Now those with sleeping disorders, and vivid nightmares, may be a different situation, but barring that sort of thing, I pray the Lord, protects me from making such a mistake, but I also hope most people are smart enough to hesitate just long enough to ascertain what is going on before they start shooting. As a point of reference, I live about a mile away from where a famous shooting tool place 40 something years ago. A wealthy family (local political figure) that lived in a nice fortified house, were killed in their beds by a group of hired thugs who managed to get into the house without waking any of them before they were in their bedrooms.
 
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I mean there is such a thing as self-control, isn't there?
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I think it's a necessary prerequisite for anyone using firearams for defense purposes. If someone doesn't have it, they really shouldn't have guns around.

Your brain is the real weapon, and the gun is just a tool for carrying out your brain's plans and strategies. Be in command of your weapon.
 
Never attempted to kill the fan at night but did come face to face with a deer looking in the bedroom window, I still do not know what stopped me from emptying a full magazine into that thing.. I scared the crap out of bothmy wife and I.
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I had an Elk do that to me once. Fortunately, my dog woke me up by growling at it, so I knew something was wrong. I guess he prepared me, so when I saw the Elk looking in at me, I just had to laugh. They are big creatures.
 
".357 vs. ghost at the end of the bed" would have have been the title if this was my thread.....not sure how well even a .357 would stop a ghost.
 
A gun should be your last line of defense in your home.
Fencing exterior lighting, video surveillance, quality locks, an alarm system, and/or a dog should be used to deter, slow down, prevent people from entering your home.
The more you do to make your home less attractive to thieves helps.

Not everyone has the luxury of being able to afford all of the above but a few lights and $1.00 a day will get you a monitored alarm system.
 
There was a loud bang as something hit the front door. I had the .45 out and was just about to jerk open the door and confront who or what was there.
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With no offense, you could have opened the door to a gun blast.

I know of two cases where guys who confronted folks at the door and shot innocent teens and ruined their own lives forever.

I also know of a case where a wife shot the big blob coming out the bathroom. Said she couldn't ID it - so who usually comes out of the bathroom at night? Now she lives in the government hotel. Know the guy who testified that she could have ID'ed hubby.
 
+1 for a nightlight in the hall, saved me from killing a woman I loved.

and helps make the blob go away when your eye sight is in the neighborhood of 20/50
 
Nice post.
If there was a big black blob in my door it would likely be my dog.

It's not popular here but I always keep my bedroom gun with the magazine loaded but the chamber empty. I feel the seconds it takes to load the chamber gives my brain time to clear the fog and ensures some amount of coherency before pulling the trigger. People are known to do funny things when just coming out of sleep ... or even while partially still asleep. I don't want to shoot one of my kids while in a groggy stupor! Of course part of my thinking is based on a second floor bedroom and a large dog both of which ensure extra time that wouldn't be available if dogless and on the first floor. I love having that dog!

Nice job keeping your head and your cool!
 
We've been retired 6 years now and our sons have not lived at home in over 15 years...that said, over Thanksgiving #2 son was here with his wife for the holidays...the two of them came home late the 2nd night after an evening partying with their old friends in the big city. They'd had a problem with the car we'd loaned them and my son decided to tell me all about it at mid-night.

I'd had two tours in Vietnam back in the 70's, the first in a Special Forces camp down in lll Corps and had always considered myself a light sleeper. I have kept a revolver by the bedside for as long as I can remember; but I didn't hear my son come into the bedroom that night, and through the closed door, too. He made it to the foot of our bed where he stumbled over a chair, and it woke me up. I grabbed my Smith and was turning to engage him when he muttered, "sorry Dad, just wanted to talk with you..."

I about messed my jammies...and he was pretty worked up too. He's a former Marine, knows that we keep loaded handguns by the bed for security, but under the influence of some KY "fruit juice", he and I nearly made a fatal mistake. It was a big eye-opener for us both....

My wife and I now lock the bedroom door each night...figuring that the commotion of trying to get through a locked door will help to awaken us...and I'm back into the hard reality of taking time to remember who's in the house, and advising all guests of the danger of surprising us after hours.

Too, at the time, we were between dogs...our old lab had died some months before, or we'd have had ample warning. Our new lab is really good about announcing visitors, day or night....friends, aliens or family, they all get a bark or two.

HTH's Rodfac
 
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I still cant believe there are people here on this forum who don't keep some kind of flashlight within arm's reach from their bed.
 
That used to happen to me almost every night after I had a bear try to break into my house three times, one of which i had left my bedroom window open and i woke to the bear trying to tear out my screen, another time a bear was sniffing at the glass at my window, and one time he wassuccessful and actually broke into my kitchen. After that I would always wake up and see a figure standing there. Really messed with me for a long time. As it turns out it actually happens when you wake up suddenly in the middle of REM sleep. You're still partially in REM sleep and just waking up so your subconscious is projected into reality. I learned quickly though that reaching for a flashlight first instead of my gun brought me a lot more security.
 
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In a perfect world...

Motion sensitive exterior lighting, a good strong security door on all external doors with strong deadbolts and a dog (even little ones) are great security systems. Some will also install an electronic security system as well. Me I don't feel like paying someone else to monitor my home 24/7 so I just put those cool little magnetic alarms on my doors and set them to go off when the door is opened before I go to bed.

Indoors I have night lights set strategically throughout the house - they're cheap and don't cost a lot in electricity if you get the ones that are LED and have a light sensor on them so they turn off in brighter light sources. This isn't because I'm afraid of the dark - but because I have very young children in the house who will get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Don't want them to trip over something, walk into the counter etc. as they make their way to the bathroom.

This also helps eliminate the dark blob in the dark doorway problem. When I awake in the middle of the night I can see perfectly fine (albeit everything is fuzzy since I need glasses for really good vision) but at least I don't just see a dark blob.

If anyone broke into my home they'd have to contend with my dog - a big female mastiff. She's friendly and all cuddles when during the day and when she's with family but at night she's extremely defensive of the house. I nearly got attacked one night when I came home late after a party with some old friends - I opened the door to a very ferocious looking barking and growling dog that was frothing at the mouth. Of course once she realized it was me she proceeded to wipe the drool off on my pants as she nuzzled against me for attention. My wife was awakened by the noise the dog made and had come to investigate with my 12 ga. in hand.

So in my perfect world first a criminal would have to decide if they want to try to access a well lit home. Second they'd have the security doors to contend with or go through a window. Once they gain access they'd have to contend with a ****** off 180lb mastiff. IF they somehow got past her they'd meet me armed with my pump 12 ga.

Just to be clear I sleep with a loaded 12 ga. next to my bed - 5 rds of 2 3/4" 4 shot in the mag and the chamber clear. I also have a Bersa Ultra Compact 45 under my pillow - 7 in the mag and one in the chamber - decocked. My wife sleeps with her LCP loaded (full mag with one in the chamber) in her night stand. Are we afraid of being broken into? Not particularly. We live in the country and the chances of someone coming to our home to burglarize it or invade it are slim. Are we going to set ourselves up to become victims in case the slim chance becomes reality? Hell no - not with young kids in the house.

Oh and about the kids - my 4 yr old daughter spends time at the range with my wife and I - she shoots her pink Cricket .22LR rifle. She already knows and can recite the 4 basic rules of firearms safety and can knock soda cans off posts at 25 yds with her rifle. My 13 yr old daughter has been shooting with me since she was 4 and because she has better eyesight I think she can actually out shoot me from a bench... My 8 yr old shoots with us - he has his own 10/22 with a youth stock. He enjoys picking off soda cans at 50 yds on the range. I also have a 2 yr old but she already knows that she can't touch my guns unless I say its ok. She also comes to the range with us although she doesn't shoot. My kids all know where my guns are - especially the loaded ones. They've NEVER touched the guns except when I tell them to go get their guns for the range. In that case they each get their own respective guns and don't touch mine or my wife's.

Raise your kids knowing what guns are and what they can do - raise them with a good understanding of firearms and a healthy respect for them - and you won't have a problem with the kids shooting themselves.

Of course this is ALL in MY perfect world. Yours may vary quite a bit.
 
When I was in college, living at my parents house, I had a similar experience. I walked out of my bedroom and turned to go into the bathroom. It was in the middle of the night and it was dark. As I rounded the corner, I saw a figure standing in the bathroom doorway that was definitely a person and at least as big as me. Without thinking, I punched it as hard as I could. Turns out, it was the mirror on the door, and the figure was my own silhouette from the picture window down hallway behind me. I know this is a firearms forum, and I was unarmed, but that's what this story reminded me of. I had lived in that house for 20 years and that mirror was always on it, but that night it scared the hell out of me. I was just thankful it was a hollow-core door and that I didn't punch my dad (who was pushing 70 at the time).
 
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