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Old August 5, 2009, 07:59 PM   #1
The Kid
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Should you stay or should you go?

hypothetical scenario. I've not taken any classes so excuse my ignorance.

You are at home with or without your family...either one, and you hear an intruder entering your home or already in your home.

Do you confront the intruder, or do you hole up somewhere and call the police?

Personally, I would post up behind my bed with my 12ga and call the police. If the baddy were unfortunate enough to enter my room, I would immediately dispatch him. This seems like the safest course of action as it doesn't give the baddy the opportunity to surprise you. Do you think I'd be better off alerting the baddy of my presence or do you think lying in wait is acceptable.

So what should you do? Go after him, yell at him, or just wait for him to come to you?
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Old August 5, 2009, 08:05 PM   #2
Brian Pfleuger
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The best response, when possible, it to 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. After that, act accordingly.

Outside of gathering in a safe room there are FAR too many possibilities involving house lay-out, number of BGs, BG between you and family, police response time, etc, etc, to be able to have any sort of intelligent discussion about what might be done and when and where.


(This has been discussed to death by the way)
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Old August 5, 2009, 08:07 PM   #3
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edit- nevermind delete
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Old August 5, 2009, 08:09 PM   #4
The Kid
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Thanks Pete the Killa

Sorry if it has been discussed to death. My friends and I were discussing it amongst ourselves.

I agree w/ you Killa.
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Old August 5, 2009, 08:12 PM   #5
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Don't worry about it, that's what the new guys are for.

Scroll through a couple pages in this section and you'll find a thread or two (or 20) that may or may not have started on this topic but went there nonetheless.
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Old August 5, 2009, 08:17 PM   #6
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everyone here knows that i carry 24/7... hopefully no one would want to try the luck/lack thereof.... in coming into my home and hopefully making it out alive.
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Old August 5, 2009, 08:53 PM   #7
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Well you know what The Clash had to say about it.......
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Old August 5, 2009, 09:01 PM   #8
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exactly BH
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Old August 5, 2009, 10:37 PM   #9
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Yeah I figured you'd catch that.

I too am a Cormac McCarthy/Clash fan from Mississippi.

Cheers.
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Old August 5, 2009, 11:08 PM   #10
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You said either with or without my family. It's not exactly irrelevent. With or without decides my course of action. There are other variables. What time is it? Are my wife and I in the living room watching tv while the kids play? Is it nap time? Is it the middle of the night? If I have the option, I go with my old friend and neighbor Pete, and I collect the family to hole up while we call 911. If it's the middle of the night, my kids are asleep in their rooms and not safe. Bad guy goes in to my son's room, startles and wakes him up...what then? If this is the scenario, I have no choice but play John Wayne and clear the house. No false bravado here, it's certainly not something I'd ever like to see happen, but having a family and being an armed citizen, it is something I've given thought to.
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Old August 6, 2009, 01:04 AM   #11
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Depending on where I am if it happens... If I'm downstairs I'm going to go upstairs if I can safely get the fiance and any others to the stairs. Downstairs has too many angles for the BG to get the drop on me, but if I'm certain the BG is between me and my stair case then I'm not going to risk moving myself or others into harm's way.

The goal is to get people to my bedroom. That's where my arsenal is, that's where I make my stand.

From my bedroom, I can easily cover the two areas that lead to my stair case. I will be standing there at the ready, hollering in no uncertain terms that "I have a gun motherlover, get the F--- out!!!!" I have the option to retreat to my bedroom if need be, and have a good area of concealment up there as well.



This really only goes for situations where I am certain it is a break in. I am prone to investigate the "bumps in the night" before reacting as stated above.
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Old August 6, 2009, 01:06 AM   #12
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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.

Grab the family, bunker down in a defensible place and call 911. If he comes to you, you're fighting on YOUR turf, with YOUR rules.

NOTHING in the house is worth your life.
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Old August 6, 2009, 01:23 AM   #13
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My current plan is influenced heavily by the layout of my house. The two members of my family that are unarmed sleep downstairs while I am upstairs. From the landing halfway up the stairs I can cover anyone trying to make it back to their bedroom so my plan now is to just go to that landing and park right there and watch while my little brother phones the police. So mine is kind of a 50/50... I kind of go then stay... I guess.
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Old August 6, 2009, 03:29 AM   #14
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My neighbors wouldn't even dream of breaking into my house. They all think I'm some crazy gun nut.......
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Old August 6, 2009, 09:09 AM   #15
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Two replies indicated that they did not expect break-ins because friends and neighbors know they are armed. I personally don't expect any break-in or home invasion to come from a friend (can you still even use the term?) or a neighbor. Gotta have a plan, and maybe it needs to include some adjustments to one's "friend" list or, if feasible, what neighborhood you live in. Anyone have any statistics about what proportion of burglaries or home invasions are committed by people familiar with the victim? Maybe I am being charmingly old-fashioned and naive, but I would expect it to be pretty low.
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Old August 6, 2009, 09:48 AM   #16
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hallway dead line

In my house there is a long hallway that goes to all the bedrooms
so my defense would be set up in between the bed rooms and the
rest of the house,if the sound is cooming from one of the kids rooms
like the sound of someone coming in the window he better watch out
im comin in hot.but if its in the kids room i would rather go in hands free
to close to shoot near the kids,have the gun but be ready for a knife
fight.so i want my line at the end of that hallway there is also the perfect
backstop at other end in the living room 6ft wide all the way to the ceiling
brick fireplace,so i dont have to worry about shooting the neibghor,s
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Old August 7, 2009, 05:51 AM   #17
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I live in an apartment building, and NONE of the people that live near me are my friends. Not exactly the most upstanding appearing citizens.
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Old August 7, 2009, 01:59 PM   #18
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I disagree with some mentioned earlier. Some said, "nothing in your house is worth your life". My 18 month old son is, and he's on the other side of my house (living room seperates the house). I don't like the idea of clearing my house either, but I'll definitely take my chances. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just pointing a situation where gathering the family may require me to put myself in harm's way. I don't like that he can hear me coming, but I do like home field advantage.

As for my stuff, you're absolutely right, nothing of that sort is worth my life. That's why I carry insurance.
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Old August 7, 2009, 02:03 PM   #19
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I agree that clearing the house is in fact extremely dangerous. That's why it's my last resort. However, the layout of my house doesn't allow me to grab my family and bunker down. To get to my son's room without clearing the house would require me to get to the attic and repel into his room. Being as that's unreasonable, I'm clearing the house. I know that even LEOs don't like doing it, but I'm not exactly a stewardess myself.
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Old August 7, 2009, 03:58 PM   #20
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Quote:
To get to my son's room without clearing the house would require me to get to the attic and repel into his room. Being as that's unreasonable, I'm clearing the house.

If you had any tacti-coolness at all, that's exactly what you'd do.
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Old August 7, 2009, 06:54 PM   #21
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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.
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Old August 10, 2009, 04:52 PM   #22
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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.
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Old August 10, 2009, 06:47 PM   #23
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This scenario is a bit more complicated for those of us with dogs.
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Old August 10, 2009, 09:36 PM   #24
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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.
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Old August 11, 2009, 12:54 AM   #25
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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.
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