When things go BUMP in the night. What kind of person are you?

My dog is a black lab, so he will give the burglar a friendly greeting and show him where all the valuables are.

I keep fairly bright night lights on all over the house, since I have two little kids. No real "pitch dark" to deal with, so target i.d. conditions are greatly enhanced for me.
If the noise is on the second floor, where the family sleeps, I'm going hunting armed.
If the noise is on the first floor, I will silently wait, armed, at the top of the stairs to see if I hear it again. If I believe it to be an intruder, I'll call 911.

Once, some years back when I was single, I ended up going mano y mano with a thief. It didn't help matters that he broke in while I was showering and the whole altercation took place with me wet and naked. One of the many things I learned from the experience is that a gun is only useful if you have it in your hand.
 
Have a Plan!

When I took the required CCW plan many, many years ago it was a two day affair done by the local sheriff's office. One of the things that they covered was how to deal with an intruder such as is being discussed in this thread. The bottom line message here was have a plan that takes into account as many variables as possible, e.g. layout of house, where the kids are, etc. When the plan is made discuss it with the members of the family!!!!! Make sure everybody knows what to do before the situation arises. The message must have stuck because my kids (now in their 40's and with families of their own) all have "intruder plans". Also had a fire evacuation plan for the family. Never had to use the Intruder Plan but did have to use the fire evacuation plan one time. Thank the Lord it worked. Good shooting:)
 
I have 3 big dogs and a chihuahauahaua(that's hard to spell). Nobody can walk down my street without me(and the whole neighborhood) knowing about it.

If someone did happen to get into the house without my 2 pound door bell(chihuhuahua) emitting it's high pitched warning, I'd probably wait by my bedroom door and see if they were armed, while the wife called the cops.
 
As I've posted on numerous threads, it took my whole life to get what I have. It's mine bought & paid for, if you want it for free you may pay the ultimate price, and still end up with nothing.

Until you have had your home or vehichle burglarized you can't understand the feeling of helplessness and violation.

It happened to me once, won't happen again if I can help it.

I don't have a wife or kids to wory about. So it's all or nothing as far as I'm concerned.

A MANS HOME IS HIS CASTLE.:mad:
 
Well, I'm rather lucky. I live alone with my 3 dogs, they have the run of the house with a dog door to go out back. They bark at EVERYTHING. So any little noise they hear, they bark. Which at times can make me a little paranoid. Esp. when I'm, say, in the shower. I remember one night the police had my street surrounded. They were searching for someone. All I could imagine was this guy ending up in my house. I had at least 20 different scenarios in my head. But nothing happend.
 
Ben:

I know what you are talking about.

My car, er, my BABY, was broken into a while ago. How smart was this guy; my $300 celly (Motorola V60) was sitting in the center console, my CD wallet containing about 300 CD's was on the pass. seat, a bag of shirts and stuff I'd just bought were in the back seat. (My car is also a 2000 BMW)

And WHAT DID THE GUY TAKE???

A $50 Cold Steel Recon tanto that was HIDDEN in the drivers door pocket!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

It does make you feel totally helpless and violated to think someone ELSE was rooting around in MY CAR.

IMO, if someone breaks into your HOME, WHATEVER their intentions, they deserve to leave in a body bag. If they are going to take a chance on breaking into someones HOME, they should be rewarded with the consequences.

Idiots...

To respond to the actual thread...it would have to depend on a lot of stuff... do I happen to be home alone? Where are the noises coming from in the house and what sort of noises?

I would DEFINITELY;

1) Get all my guns. (I only have a few as of yet...)

2) Get all my family in ONE room together, give each willing person a gun.

3) Call 911

4) Begin turning on lights wherever I can in the house, trying to alert the BG to our presence. (NOT letting him know we're armed.)

If I catch sight of anyone in my house with any sort of weapon coming towards me, they're leaving via the Coroner's van. In a bag. With a lot of holes in them.
 
Plan it out beforehand

Dr. Jones is completely right. If you are dumb enough to break into my home, and I see you, you will probably leave in a body bag. I'm not for running through the house like Rambo, because I think there would be a better chance of me getting killed. It's better to play defense from a superior position where you can completely surprise him/her.

I think you've got to be very silent about it, especially if you do decide to play the hero and go on offense. I doubt that hearing the sound of a round being jacked into the chamber of a weapon is going to deter a serious, armed criminal. That will just let him know where you are, and he'd probably try to hunt you down.

My Mossberg 835 is fully loaded, cocked, and put on safe when I go to bed, then when I wake up, it is unloaded and locked up. There is also a Springfield Armory XD-357 in a drawer next to the bed. That is locked and loaded 24 hours a day.

My dog is a Boston Terrier :barf: . Unfortunately, her most ferocious bark is laughable. There is no way it would strike fear into the heart of anyone, especially someone intent on robbing/killing my family. The only thing her bark would do is wake me up so I can prepare.

I'd get the wife up, hand her the XD (she don't like the shotgun), then I'd grab the 835 and we would camp out slightly to the side of the door, so if the intruder decides to shoot through the door, it wouldn't hit us. We don't have kids yet, so I don't have to worry about them at the moment.

We would camp out by the door until either the police arrive or something decides to come through it. If someone decides to come through it, I'd blind them with my mag-lite, positively identify them, and then decide whether or not to eliminate them. If they are identified as a "bad guy", and they are armed, they had better be prepared to meet their maker.

Sure we can say all these hypothetical things about what we are or aren't going to do, but you are never certain until you are actually put in that situation. No situation is going to be like you planned, and you have to be ready to compensate for it. It's good to have a plan, but you still have to think on your feet.

Thankfully, I have never had anyone break into my house yet, and I hope all of you never experience it either. God bless you all.

Remember all of our servicemen and women fighting and dying overseas, and be sure to say a prayer for them.

Rich
 
Some of you are forgetting an important part. If someone breaks into your house, steals everything you have worked so hard to get and you catch them on their last trip out to their moving van, you can't shoot them. It doesn't matter if they have your gunsafe on a dolly heading out the door, you can't legally shoot them. If you do, you'll end up in prison and you will get sued by th bg's family for causing the untimely death of such a saint. It sucks but that's how the law works. Unless he has a weapon and makes like he is going to kill you, you can't shoot. Even if you see a gun on one side of his belt, 4 magazines on the other side and a shotgun slung over his shoulder, you still can't do anything until he starts to point one at you.

Some states(PRK) you still coudn't do anything until you have no way to escape. That's right, if you can still make it out of your house, you have to be the one that runs away.
 
I didn't realize that, and I'm not certain that your information is totally correct. I suppose it's just a chance I'd have to take. He can have everything in the house as long as he doesn't get too greedy and tries to come into the room where my wife and I are camping out.

If he does come into that room we are in, I'd still shoot him with no hesitation. If he has a gun in his hand, or even a gun on him that I can see, he is going to die, the law be damned. I will never take any chances with my family's safety, espacially in a potential life or death situation. I'd rather do the jail time then have my family and I wiped out.

Rich
 
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Sorry, rlpinca, but you are just wrong.

In the wonderful, lovely land of Texas, you CAN shoot anyone who tresspasses on your property, and/or anyone who is stealing/attempting to steal from you.

Ex: You are woken up in the middle of the night, look out the window, and see someone's smashed your car window and is attempting to steal it. You are perfectly legally justified in shooting them dead.

Also, I don't care what state you are in, I do not believe that the BG actually has to be POINTING a weapon at you for you to be "legally" justified in shooting.

Laws aside, if I see someone in MY house with ANY sort of a weapon, ESPECIALLY a gun, they are dead. I HIGHLY doubt the reason they have it is because they just want to borrow your cleaning kit! :rolleyes:

And according to Massad Ayoob in "Gravest Extreme," if you do happen across an armed intruder in your home, Ayoob TELLS YOU to shoot him IN THE BACK until he is "neutralized." Why? What do you think he's going to do if you yell "freeze!" like in the movies? He isn't going to freeze, and he sure as hell isn't going to drop his weapon! He's likely going to turn and start shooting as soon as he sees you!

Regardless, I see an armed individual in my house, he's gone. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot him in the back if he was armed.
 
Also:

I live in CA, and I'm not so sure that you gotta run, even out of your own house. I think pretty much all US states basically are of the opinion that "a man's home is his castle" and if you are in danger of being harmed/killed, you CAN use deadly force in your home. Other states fortunately have more liberal laws regarding shooting someone over your property, like texas.

If I'm wrong in stating this (and I'm not a lawyer) well, I just don't care. Break into my house with a weapon in hand and you are dead. That simple.
 
I have talked to a Texas DPS officer and a chl instructor about this specific scenario not too long ago. I had heard that about Texas and a few other states. They said, if you or someone else is being endangered, then you can shoot. What sense does it make to legally be able to shoot someone just because they are trespassing? Imagine the media going crazy wtih something like that. A kid slashing tires in some Texan's driveway gets shot at, the antis would go absolutely nuts with something like that. How is defending a car a justifiable reason for killing someone? If you think it is, then just tell the prosecutor that it was ok when he is getting ready to send you away.

California, you have to more or less be backed into a corner to shoot an intruder. If the threat is unavoidable, then you can fire, if you can run away, then the threat is avoidable. I talked to several officers while I lived out there(San Diego area) about that also.

I believe in checking on stuff personally and not just relying on websites. Talk to several police officers and maybe even someone that works for the DAs office in your area before you make any decisions on how to protect yourself.

There's definately a difference between shooting someone in self defense and in shooting someone out of revenge for messing with your stuff. Shootings like that get good people put in prison and it gives antis more propaganda to use. I'm all for protecting my property, but be realistic about it. A broken windshield or stolen TV isn't worth spending a significant portion of your life in jail.

Don't get me wrong, if someone broke into my house I wouldn't just stand there and let them get away. If they had a weapon and were posing a threat to me, I wouldn't hesitate to introduce them to some serious hate and discontent. If they didn't have a weapon, they sure as hell wouldn't get away.

Here's a link that pretty accurately describes deadly force.

http://home.earthlink.net/~spwenger/spwforce.html

I have read the gravest extreme and respect ayoob greatly. But you have to realize that a prosecutor is going to say that you shot the bg in the back while he was trying to get away from you. Everyone knows that juries seem to be somewhat gullible when it comes to shootings. An anti gun jury (becoming very common) wouldn't hesitate to send someone away for shooting someone in the back regardless of the circumstances.
 
You are wise, little one! ;)

Glad to see you are indeed so well-informed on this subject! I apologise for doubting that!

At any rate, I do agree that a car or most other property isn't worth shooting someone over. However, I wouldn't look down upon someone who was trying to defend what is rightfully theirs. There was quite an extensive thread on this a while ago.

Basically, it comes down to this: if you do not steal someone's car, you will not get shot at. Try to steal someone's car, and you should be ready to take the chance that they will shoot at you.

My talk about the texas laws is based only on what I've read here. There are lots of Texans on these forums.

Again, laws aside, if someone breaks into my home and they are armed, unless they are running away from me, they're leaving my house dead. I'm not flexible on that point.
 
I can understand the desire to kill someone messing with your home. But the desire to stay away from a big cuddly cellmate is pretty strong too. How good can you protect your family in prison?

I agree that the bg shouldn't put himself into that position, but the law doesn't seem to care about that. If it were legal to kill someone for screwing up like that, then maybe crime would take a drastic nosedive all across the country. Kids wouldn't be too anxious about spray painting the side of someone's garage and bums would decide to leave my car stereo where it is.
 
Come to my house looking for trinkets to trade for crack, and you will become damaged goods. :mad: I'll take my chances with a dozen peers. Besides, if I don't take the guy out and the next person he hits is your grandmother who surprises him in the middle of him loading up her good silver...Scum is scum and some gene pools need a little chlorinating.
 
If I'm not sure of it being an intruder then I will go out as stealth as possible to see. If I am certain it is an intruder... I will wait quietly for them to come to me while I go ahead and try to call the cops.
 
If a "Bump in the Night" wakes me up the nightstand weapon, a 629 loaded with 44 specials, is in my hand very quickly.

I won't leave the room until/wnless I have time to wake up. Also spend the wake up time listening.

Only once or twice have I ever needed to go and check out noise (ie clear the house). Usually figure out what woke me up and can go back to sleep.
 
I fall into a subset of the barricade-in-place crowd.

If I'm in my safe room and all my loved one's are accounted for, my best response to an intruder would be what John Holschen of Insights Training Center (a phenomenal instructor, a man with an extensive background as an operator and an exceptionally nice guy!):

Ensconced, armed and having called 911, I would announce loudly: "Intruder! I am armed and the police are on their way! Leave the house NOW!!"

Three things could occur at this point.

1) The Bad Guy leaves--problem solved.
2) The Bad Guy stays but doesn't approach--the police are better suited for and tasked to resolve this problem.
3) The Bad Guy stays and tries to break in to my safe room--this won't go well for the Bad Guy.

I think this approach makes the most sense because it puts me in the most tactically advantageous position to deal with a known or suspected threat while following John Holschen's mission statement of minimizing the impact [of the situation] to me and mine.
 
we have a guard oriented 200# mastiff upstairs,and a 110# maniac american bulldog in the basement.we have a security system.
i sleep on the floor,which just so happens to be next to my biggest revolver.
we used to have another mastiff who passed away last year.the 3 dog dynamic was confidence inspiring:they all reacted aggressively to exposions. the mastiffs have the sheer size and power,while my american bulldog would fight to the blood and guts end.she is bred from weight pulling lines and stands only 23" at the shoulders at over 100 pounds. additionally,she hates everyone,and will not eat food from strangers;even days later,if i try to feed it to her. she only likes 5 people in the world.
that said,i would advance in a strategic progression,and shoot an intruder to death if he managed to make it through the dogs(good time for Cold Steel Recon Scout as well). if he had determined friends,then it's probably SWAT,and there's been a terrible mistake.
i guess this sounds worse than it is. i'm really an easy going fella,and not paranoid about the situation at all.
 
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