alucard0822
For great Justice
hopefully this is a wakeup call, and can help you form a plan.
There are a few things I do, and rules I live by that should help me in a situation like this. First is that if I come home after a long day at work, or definitely after a couple days out of town, I walk around the outside of my house checking doors and windows for a sign of break in, check the property and area for unfamiliar cars, trash or bottles from litter bugs, and that my fence is secure, and all my gates are locked. This will help you from stumbling into a burglary, makes sure there is no damage to your house in the case of a storm or the like, makes sure my dog won't get out of the fenced in yard, and that he can't get hurt if some idiot broke a bottle, and left broken glass on my property that could injure me or my dog. It only takes a minute or two, and can let you know quickly if you have damage that needs to be taken care of, siding blown off, a broken window from kids, or something a little more dangerous. Learning the laws on defense helps a great deal, choosing a good defense lawyer and briefly speaking to them(usually free) BEFORE an incident occurs also can help you to avoid making mistakes with investigators after you otherwise legally defend yourself, and the little bit of time spent in preparation, and relatively cheap retainer if you need their sevices can keep you from losing your freedoms, or paying for a costly and long drawn out trial. Protecting yourself and your family should be the first priority, calling police the second, and calling your lawyer the third. Lots of innocent people end up spending thousands of dollars or time in prison after an otherwise "good" shoot because they said something they should't have after a terrifying and life threatening encounter, everyone agrees you need to practice with your weapon to ensure a succesful defense from criminals, but you also need to practice your defense from the legal system after a shooting too.
First is to always carry a flashlight, a small powerful light, streamlights are good, surefires are awesome, an inexpensive small light with a tailcap switch, and belt clip are sufficient, never let the batteries get low, check it often. A flashlight can be as neccesary as a gun, and sometimes more so, it gives you a huge advantage with the ability to see threats in the dark, disorient a threat(almost works like concealment or pepper spray if you shine a bright light at an attacker's face in the dark), and gain an advantage, a good one can be used to strike pressure points and an assailants face and throat, and is invaluable for mundane tasks like finding dropped keys in a parking lot, breakdowns in the car, or signaling to police to let them know you are a good guy, or allowing cars to see you if you have to walk at night along a road. Mine is on my belt 24X7, I never leave my phone, flashlight or wallet behind.
With the flashlight you have to learn and practice flashlight techniques with and without a gun, how to strike with it, how to use it with a gun to target a threat in the dark, how to practice light control, being conservative with how much you use it, and how to pulse the light to check an area quickly while reducing the chance you will give away your position. A flashlight can be as powerful an advantage as a gun, but is completely legal in all 50 states, and is much cheaper, and easier to learn.
Cover is gold in a possible armed encounter, concealment is better than nothing. Never confront a threat without it if at all possible. I the case of a break in, clearing rooms from outside the house offers excellent cover, if you walk around outside, try to see if anyone is in the house, and using the flashlight through windows can make the burglar think someone is in the house, and looking for them, could be police, or an armed homeowner, in either case they know their free time to comitt crimes is over. If you do see a threat, then you can easily get to a safe place, call the police, and observe, get plate numbers on unfarmiliar cars, a description of the burglars if safe to do so, where and how they entered, and coordinate with police so they don't mistake you for the bad guy, thelling the 911 dispatcher you will flash your light 3 times to identify yourself to police at a distance can make mistaken identity less likely. If you are in your house, you don't have to clear rooms. Clearing rooms is very difficult and dangerous, and a criminal will probably be pretty good at it themselves, so clear what you easily can without exposing yourself, and wait for police to help with the rest.
You need an early warning system, and both passive and active security. Keeping blinds drawn makes casing a house much more difficult, motion flood lights both removes the concealment dark offers, and lets a criminal know that you are not an easy target, an alarm provides an early warning to break in, a deterrent if you post stickers, can alert the police or help in break ins, fire, and medical emergencies if monitored, strong doors and locks are a must as they slow down an entry, and require more noise to get through. At the very least it lets you know someone is entering your house if you are at home, and lets an intruder know they have little time before police arrive, it also reduces the chance you will experience the nightmare scenario of waking up unarmed and disoriented with an armed intruder standing at the foot of your bed. Practice drills with everyone that lives in the house, not just for a robbery, but fire, or a medical emergency, if you see the need to clear a hallway or rooms to get to a child or secure an area of your home, then sign up for a class that will teach you solid tactics, and practice them until they become an automatic response. There are few ranges that will allow you to shoot a pistol 30 seconds after waking up, without hearing protection, in close indoor quarters, in the dark, and while wearing your pajamas, but this is a likely scenario in a home invasion, and you need to practice what you can safely and as much as possible. Keeping glasses, pants and a pair of slip on shoes by the bed can help you get ready in a hurry if you need to.
A dog is better than nothing, and can alert you to trouble, but a skilled burglar can easily distract or subdue a dog, especially if you are not home at the time. You can get a decent wireless alarm from a good company like Brinks or Protect America for free to a few hundred, and $30-$50 a month for monitoring. Or you can get basically the same alarm systems for about $200 more, but program it to call your cell phone or that of a trusted neighbor or friend, and pay no monthly monitoring fee, a basic, budget alarm system like this can be as cheap as $100, or even use a few $20 portable battery powered motion detecting alarms(I use one in my shed, and it works great). Most alarm systems nowadays are wireless, mount with screws or 2 sided tape, and use battery powered sensors, so hook up is very simple, and you can easily do it yourself. With technology as it is, even a basic 4 camera security system can be had for a couple hundred, and run on a computer, or store footage in a secure online location. Basically you can have a security system that would have cost $10,000 15 years ago, and was designed to protect multi-million dollar homes and buisnesses shipped to your door, and installed by the homeowner in an afternoon, and all for less tha the price of a decent pistol. Motion lights are also a powerful deterrent, and very practical if you have steps on the way to your door like I do, they also help if you have to shovel your driveway after dark in the winter, and help light up the parking area and doors when coming home late, they also use far less electricity than lights that stay on constantly, and are relatively inexpensive. A good alarm with plentiful motion lights, and posibly a camera or two, will send and burglar short of one with KGB training to an easier target, and if they do break in, their chances of getting caught are very high, and you will be alerted almost immediately at home, or away.
Your chosen defensive arm, I leave for last, because without the tactics, training, and peripherals like a security system and lighting to back you up, a gun will do little more than put you on even footing with an armed intruder. You need one that contains everything you need to fight at night, either store it with a rail mounted flashlight, or keep your trusty carry light next to it. It must be loaded and ready to go, but secured, especially if you have kids, a small quick acess pistolsafe by the bed works well, or in a drawer if you don't have small kids, open it before you go to bed, keep it secured when you are not home, you also have to realize if you come home during a robbery, you may be facing your own gun if it is not well secured. any guns not used for defense should be cleared and secured. Magnum revolvers and large caliber pistols are good manstoppers, but very loud and bright when fired indoors at night, this is a definitive drawback to 357mag revolvers, and 357Sig or 10mm pistols, duty calibers like 38special+p, 44 special, heavy and +p 9mm, 40S&W and 45ACP are nowhere near as bad, but still plenty effective, lighter calibers like 380, 32 and 22 are better than nothing, but far from ideal, and their strength in small concealable pistols is lost for home defense, being concealment is not an issue. Long guns like shotguns and carbines can be the best, less flash and noise than handuns, 3 points of contact with your body making precise shots easier while shaking with adrenalin, and calibers/gauges far more powerful than any pistol. Laser sights are a good tool to have, and can allow you to get on target fast, and my own bedstand pistol wears a light/laser combo, but you need to check the batteries often. Replace them if the light even begins to get dim, and you need to practice shooting with the light and laser, may guns shoot differently with the extra weight on the dustcover, and some may prove unreliable that otherwise have no problems without a light, the GLOCK 22 being a prime example. Night sights are also a good tool, don't require batteries, and work well in dim lighting, where you can see without a flash light, but it is hard to line up the 3 black indistinct nubs on your gun, they also require practice, and have their own limitations. You also are limited with a weapon mounted light being trigger safety in paramount, being wherever you shine the light, you are also covering with the muzzle, and if you have to check something outside, instead of your neighbors thinking you are looking for something with a flashlight, you become the "guy waving around a gun". Being aware of this, knowing flashlight grips and techniques for use with handguns, and using a handheld light primarily, with your weapon mounted light as a backup, or for use where you need to cover someone with your gun, and have time to put your handheld light in a pocket, then gain a 2 handed grip. Ideally more tools gives you an advantage, a pistol with night sights, wearing a rail mounted light/laser, and having a small handheld light is a powerful advantage, and if you practice with them all, and learn how to use them well, they offer a lot of options.
There is a lot to think about when it comes to protecting your home, and while most solutions are relatively cheap and trouble free, you need to practice, and use things like alarm systems religiously, and as much as practical. You need to choose good equipment, practice regularly, and develop a series of routines to avoid "forgetting" things, like arming the alarm when you go to bed, leaving doors unlocked, or forgetting where you left your gun. Mistakes happen, if they happen during training or practice, you learn from them, and develop a better technique, if they happen when it counts, it can cost your life, this is why training is so important.
There are a few things I do, and rules I live by that should help me in a situation like this. First is that if I come home after a long day at work, or definitely after a couple days out of town, I walk around the outside of my house checking doors and windows for a sign of break in, check the property and area for unfamiliar cars, trash or bottles from litter bugs, and that my fence is secure, and all my gates are locked. This will help you from stumbling into a burglary, makes sure there is no damage to your house in the case of a storm or the like, makes sure my dog won't get out of the fenced in yard, and that he can't get hurt if some idiot broke a bottle, and left broken glass on my property that could injure me or my dog. It only takes a minute or two, and can let you know quickly if you have damage that needs to be taken care of, siding blown off, a broken window from kids, or something a little more dangerous. Learning the laws on defense helps a great deal, choosing a good defense lawyer and briefly speaking to them(usually free) BEFORE an incident occurs also can help you to avoid making mistakes with investigators after you otherwise legally defend yourself, and the little bit of time spent in preparation, and relatively cheap retainer if you need their sevices can keep you from losing your freedoms, or paying for a costly and long drawn out trial. Protecting yourself and your family should be the first priority, calling police the second, and calling your lawyer the third. Lots of innocent people end up spending thousands of dollars or time in prison after an otherwise "good" shoot because they said something they should't have after a terrifying and life threatening encounter, everyone agrees you need to practice with your weapon to ensure a succesful defense from criminals, but you also need to practice your defense from the legal system after a shooting too.
First is to always carry a flashlight, a small powerful light, streamlights are good, surefires are awesome, an inexpensive small light with a tailcap switch, and belt clip are sufficient, never let the batteries get low, check it often. A flashlight can be as neccesary as a gun, and sometimes more so, it gives you a huge advantage with the ability to see threats in the dark, disorient a threat(almost works like concealment or pepper spray if you shine a bright light at an attacker's face in the dark), and gain an advantage, a good one can be used to strike pressure points and an assailants face and throat, and is invaluable for mundane tasks like finding dropped keys in a parking lot, breakdowns in the car, or signaling to police to let them know you are a good guy, or allowing cars to see you if you have to walk at night along a road. Mine is on my belt 24X7, I never leave my phone, flashlight or wallet behind.
With the flashlight you have to learn and practice flashlight techniques with and without a gun, how to strike with it, how to use it with a gun to target a threat in the dark, how to practice light control, being conservative with how much you use it, and how to pulse the light to check an area quickly while reducing the chance you will give away your position. A flashlight can be as powerful an advantage as a gun, but is completely legal in all 50 states, and is much cheaper, and easier to learn.
Cover is gold in a possible armed encounter, concealment is better than nothing. Never confront a threat without it if at all possible. I the case of a break in, clearing rooms from outside the house offers excellent cover, if you walk around outside, try to see if anyone is in the house, and using the flashlight through windows can make the burglar think someone is in the house, and looking for them, could be police, or an armed homeowner, in either case they know their free time to comitt crimes is over. If you do see a threat, then you can easily get to a safe place, call the police, and observe, get plate numbers on unfarmiliar cars, a description of the burglars if safe to do so, where and how they entered, and coordinate with police so they don't mistake you for the bad guy, thelling the 911 dispatcher you will flash your light 3 times to identify yourself to police at a distance can make mistaken identity less likely. If you are in your house, you don't have to clear rooms. Clearing rooms is very difficult and dangerous, and a criminal will probably be pretty good at it themselves, so clear what you easily can without exposing yourself, and wait for police to help with the rest.
You need an early warning system, and both passive and active security. Keeping blinds drawn makes casing a house much more difficult, motion flood lights both removes the concealment dark offers, and lets a criminal know that you are not an easy target, an alarm provides an early warning to break in, a deterrent if you post stickers, can alert the police or help in break ins, fire, and medical emergencies if monitored, strong doors and locks are a must as they slow down an entry, and require more noise to get through. At the very least it lets you know someone is entering your house if you are at home, and lets an intruder know they have little time before police arrive, it also reduces the chance you will experience the nightmare scenario of waking up unarmed and disoriented with an armed intruder standing at the foot of your bed. Practice drills with everyone that lives in the house, not just for a robbery, but fire, or a medical emergency, if you see the need to clear a hallway or rooms to get to a child or secure an area of your home, then sign up for a class that will teach you solid tactics, and practice them until they become an automatic response. There are few ranges that will allow you to shoot a pistol 30 seconds after waking up, without hearing protection, in close indoor quarters, in the dark, and while wearing your pajamas, but this is a likely scenario in a home invasion, and you need to practice what you can safely and as much as possible. Keeping glasses, pants and a pair of slip on shoes by the bed can help you get ready in a hurry if you need to.
A dog is better than nothing, and can alert you to trouble, but a skilled burglar can easily distract or subdue a dog, especially if you are not home at the time. You can get a decent wireless alarm from a good company like Brinks or Protect America for free to a few hundred, and $30-$50 a month for monitoring. Or you can get basically the same alarm systems for about $200 more, but program it to call your cell phone or that of a trusted neighbor or friend, and pay no monthly monitoring fee, a basic, budget alarm system like this can be as cheap as $100, or even use a few $20 portable battery powered motion detecting alarms(I use one in my shed, and it works great). Most alarm systems nowadays are wireless, mount with screws or 2 sided tape, and use battery powered sensors, so hook up is very simple, and you can easily do it yourself. With technology as it is, even a basic 4 camera security system can be had for a couple hundred, and run on a computer, or store footage in a secure online location. Basically you can have a security system that would have cost $10,000 15 years ago, and was designed to protect multi-million dollar homes and buisnesses shipped to your door, and installed by the homeowner in an afternoon, and all for less tha the price of a decent pistol. Motion lights are also a powerful deterrent, and very practical if you have steps on the way to your door like I do, they also help if you have to shovel your driveway after dark in the winter, and help light up the parking area and doors when coming home late, they also use far less electricity than lights that stay on constantly, and are relatively inexpensive. A good alarm with plentiful motion lights, and posibly a camera or two, will send and burglar short of one with KGB training to an easier target, and if they do break in, their chances of getting caught are very high, and you will be alerted almost immediately at home, or away.
Your chosen defensive arm, I leave for last, because without the tactics, training, and peripherals like a security system and lighting to back you up, a gun will do little more than put you on even footing with an armed intruder. You need one that contains everything you need to fight at night, either store it with a rail mounted flashlight, or keep your trusty carry light next to it. It must be loaded and ready to go, but secured, especially if you have kids, a small quick acess pistolsafe by the bed works well, or in a drawer if you don't have small kids, open it before you go to bed, keep it secured when you are not home, you also have to realize if you come home during a robbery, you may be facing your own gun if it is not well secured. any guns not used for defense should be cleared and secured. Magnum revolvers and large caliber pistols are good manstoppers, but very loud and bright when fired indoors at night, this is a definitive drawback to 357mag revolvers, and 357Sig or 10mm pistols, duty calibers like 38special+p, 44 special, heavy and +p 9mm, 40S&W and 45ACP are nowhere near as bad, but still plenty effective, lighter calibers like 380, 32 and 22 are better than nothing, but far from ideal, and their strength in small concealable pistols is lost for home defense, being concealment is not an issue. Long guns like shotguns and carbines can be the best, less flash and noise than handuns, 3 points of contact with your body making precise shots easier while shaking with adrenalin, and calibers/gauges far more powerful than any pistol. Laser sights are a good tool to have, and can allow you to get on target fast, and my own bedstand pistol wears a light/laser combo, but you need to check the batteries often. Replace them if the light even begins to get dim, and you need to practice shooting with the light and laser, may guns shoot differently with the extra weight on the dustcover, and some may prove unreliable that otherwise have no problems without a light, the GLOCK 22 being a prime example. Night sights are also a good tool, don't require batteries, and work well in dim lighting, where you can see without a flash light, but it is hard to line up the 3 black indistinct nubs on your gun, they also require practice, and have their own limitations. You also are limited with a weapon mounted light being trigger safety in paramount, being wherever you shine the light, you are also covering with the muzzle, and if you have to check something outside, instead of your neighbors thinking you are looking for something with a flashlight, you become the "guy waving around a gun". Being aware of this, knowing flashlight grips and techniques for use with handguns, and using a handheld light primarily, with your weapon mounted light as a backup, or for use where you need to cover someone with your gun, and have time to put your handheld light in a pocket, then gain a 2 handed grip. Ideally more tools gives you an advantage, a pistol with night sights, wearing a rail mounted light/laser, and having a small handheld light is a powerful advantage, and if you practice with them all, and learn how to use them well, they offer a lot of options.
There is a lot to think about when it comes to protecting your home, and while most solutions are relatively cheap and trouble free, you need to practice, and use things like alarm systems religiously, and as much as practical. You need to choose good equipment, practice regularly, and develop a series of routines to avoid "forgetting" things, like arming the alarm when you go to bed, leaving doors unlocked, or forgetting where you left your gun. Mistakes happen, if they happen during training or practice, you learn from them, and develop a better technique, if they happen when it counts, it can cost your life, this is why training is so important.
