When your alarm goes off (hopefully a FALSE alarm), how did you react? Did you do everything by the book and feel comfortable about it, or did you fumble around in the heat of the moment (like me
)?
The other night, we are staying at my wife's parents house (which has a normal alarm). However, said alarm will be set off with no warning if the phone line loses it's signal (AKA someone "cuts" the phone line). So here we are, sleeping away pleasantly (about 12:40a) than all of a sudden it's SHTF in no time flat. It's the first time I heard it, so let me tell you how I performed.
I kept my new Colt 1911 in the case on the ground next to me, next to my glasses (now that I think about it, why the hell is there no nightstand?). When the alarm went off at like 110 dB, my wife and I were both completely stunned for about five or six seconds- coming out of a deep sleep, I was totally incoherent. This leads me to my first point- I had heard people like to leave the gun unloaded or semi- loaded, so you have to perform some basic tasks before you handle your firearm. Sounds like a fine idea, but for me (condition one, all the time unless in transit), as soon as the lights were on, I was ready to go and cognizant (sort of). I feel that only having to click off the safety is better- i think that given an unready gun, attempting to get it into "ready" condition would be much more problematic (even though my wife did it just fine
)The one thing I didn't go for was my glasses- I wear contacts, so I don't depend on my glasses like some people, so my first impulse was to go for the light switch and then to shut off the alarm as soon as possible. I immediately stopped myself before I left the room (since my brain stopped me and told me going out there unarmed was entirely against my ideals), and turned around and grabbed the Colt. Before I even had my hand on the case, my wife had was all over it. I leave her Sig P238TL in condition one as well- she was unsure of it's condition, so she had opened her case, dumped the mag, loaded the second and racked the slide before I even had my hand around my Colt. We cased the house (as someone else shut off the alarm) and everything seemed normal. I did it sans glasses, and sans flashlight. So, how do I grade my performance? I give myself a D, since I almost failed to make sure I had the means to make the house secure and be visually impaired (focus-wise and illumination-wise). My wife? I give her an A-, since all she needed was a flashlight in her hand and she'd be perfect. Well, it was the phone lines, so everythIng was fine.
How did I improve? I have my glasses and Colt laid out for if I need them, and I picked up a 150-lumen Remington flashlight. If it happens again, I'll feel much better about it than fumbling around the first time.
Well, that was my experience. If you've had a false alarm, what/how did you do?