How to defend against a well prepared invader

[ChrisD]

This guy looked for houses without dogs.

Bingo - and probably without alarms.

Frankly I think most people (without alarms or dogs) would not wake up until it's too late. I have two kids and I can tell you there have been nights when I didn't know my 2 yr-old crawled out of the bed and walked into the other room (she often sleeps in our bed with us) -and she isn't exactly a ninja as she's crawling out of bed. On top of that, it usually takes me a second or two to clear my head if someone wakes me up in the middle of the night. One time, the same 2 yr-old fell off the bed at 2AM and after I sat up it took me a moment to look around and say 'WTF was that?' I think you'd have to be a light sleeper to know when someone is in your house. Probably only you guys with a gun under your pillow would have a chance.

I think the best defense is a good offense, like a good alarm system and solid doors/locks....and a nice big dog would be good too. (Yes - a firearm goes without saying.) We used to live on the 2nd floor of a 2-family, so a burglar would have to breach a minimum of 2 doors to get in. Front door was very conspicuous, right off the street, and at the top of the stairs was a second locked door. Back door had glass, but there's a second door at the top of the stairs plus a THIRD pantry door between it and the kitchen - all of which were always locked, even during the day. I felt that was one of the safest places we have lived.

I'm stunned when I hear there are towns out there where people leave their doors unlocked.

 

[Rick1987]

Bingo - and probably without alarms.

Frankly I think most people (without alarms or dogs) would not wake up until it's too late. I have two kids and I can tell you there have been nights when I didn't know my 2 yr-old crawled out of the bed and walked into the other room (she often sleeps in our bed with us) -and she isn't exactly a ninja as she's crawling out of bed. On top of that, it usually takes me a second or two to clear my head if someone wakes me up in the middle of the night. One time, the same 2 yr-old fell off the bed at 2AM and after I sat up it took me a moment to look around and say 'WTF was that?' I think you'd have to be a light sleeper to know when someone is in your house. Probably only you guys with a gun under your pillow would have a chance.

I think the best defense is a good offense, like a good alarm system and solid doors/locks....and a nice big dog would be good too. (Yes - a firearm goes without saying.) We used to live on the 2nd floor of a 2-family, so a burglar would have to breach a minimum of 2 doors to get in. Front door was very conspicuous, right off the street, and at the top of the stairs was a second locked door. Back door had glass, but there's a second door at the top of the stairs plus a THIRD pantry door between it and the kitchen - all of which were always locked, even during the day. I felt that was one of the safest places we have lived.

I'm stunned when I hear there are towns out there where people leave their doors unlocked.

I find it hard to wake up from a dead sleep.

I have a driveway alarm in the stairway going up to my apartment, with the alarm next to my bed. The wife woke me up one night saying the alarm went off. I sat up and said something and went back to bed.

The next day I bought another and have 2 alarms next to the bed. Hopefully that will wake me up!

 

[mtsfitness]

Few ideas that I would like to bounce off all of you.

How about adding a few other tools such as OC spray or some type of impact weapon that is easily assessable near your bed? I read a comment where someone said "sometimes you just have to go down swinging", why not be swinging something painful?


Also consider training your spouse to access weapons/call 911 ,while you keep them busy... Obviously I wouldnt want my wife taking aim at an intruder while i'm fighting with that person, but every little bit helps.

And, I believe the most important training we could do is in a gym. Someone breaks in to your house and is in your bedroom before you can access you weapon, bet your ass they will have their hands full regardless... WIN!

 

[CTpatriot]

I've told many people who use a bedside safe for their home protection gun that I could be in bed with them before the gun was ever removed from the safe.

sounds like a proposition

 

[CTpatriot]

I've got 4 pounds of "do not disturb" on the left. Her fighting name is "The Yorkshire Terror". If she does not handle the situation I have five hungry cats.

 

[CTpatriot]

Bayonets? pros and cons please. I figure if the rifle jams at point blank range, instead of using it like a bat, use a bayo. I know it will add to length, but I will getting a 10"sbr upper soon in 300 blackout.

 

[TimMcG74]

Depends how the dog acts when the person approaches:

1. If the shades were open on the kitchen door and the would be intruder walked up and the dog starts tail wagging at him, he's likely to have a go at it, particularly if he's armed and not very afraid of dogs.

or

2. If the intruder couldn't see into the house and broke in without your dog barking.....well once he's in if the dog isn't attacking he knows your dog isn't a killer, so he goes about his business cleaning you out.

Dog size doesn't really matter to intruders unless the dog is aggressive. Besides, everyone knows virtually all Greyhounds are sweet dogs, don't they? Is your Greyhound a rescue, TimMcG74?

Gorgeous dog, Dustoff22. Tervuren or GSD? Looks more like a Tervuren in the photo.

Yes, he is a rescue from Lincoln Park in RI. We've had him about 5 years. Great dogs.

 

[fencer]

How about adding a few other tools such as OC spray or some type of impact weapon that is easily assessable near your bed?

I would ask, "why"? If someone has broken into my home, and made their way to my bedroom, why would my response be anything other than 4 or 5 rounds of 45 ACP center of mass. In the article the bad guy was armed. If you pick up a bat, he is just going to shoot you.

Also consider training your spouse to access weapons/call 911 ,while you keep them busy... Obviously I wouldnt want my wife taking aim at an intruder while i'm fighting with that person, but every little bit helps.

My wife and I have agreed that her role, first and foremost, is the protection of our kids, even if I have been wounded or otherwise taken out of the fight. Additionally, we charge our cell phones in our bed rooms. You can't cut a cell line.

And, I believe the most important training we could do is in a gym. Someone breaks in to your house and is in your bedroom before you can access you weapon, bet your ass they will have their hands full regardless... WIN!

With all due respect, in the story from the original post, what are you going to do faced with an armed intruder even if you are physically fit? Sure, staying in shape is important, but in this case it just means that you will look good in your coffin.

Training and practice. There are some great courses and instructors available. If faced with an armed home invader my plan is pretty much to insert as many large caliber bullets into the offenders body as quickly as possible. I am not going to challenge him to a push up contest or see if pepper spray stops him.

 

[Jaymass2175]

Anyone use the bedside back up from Crossbreed? At night when you take of your ccw for bed it goes right in there and when you get dressed in the morning start the cycle all over again. Pretty well made and it is always at the ready. I don't believe it would break Ma storage law because other than a pee at night it's always in my control. If I had any computer savy I would link it in for you. I am fully expecting a fify....

 

[garandman]

My house was robbed last year. The dirtbag came in through the kitchen where we keep out 95lb greyhound during the day. My dog is a big pu$$y, but I was surprised that a burglar would chance an encounter with a muscular, waist-high dog.

Decision making by the drug addled is hard to predict.

We make approaching entry points slow and noisy. In our old house in Southie we lived on the second and third floors, sleeping quarters on 3rd floor. Ditto our new house, and we've added alarms.

Because we have kids in and out of the house all the time, I looked for appropriate secure rapid access storage for a long time.

Best option I've come up with is Shotlock.

 

[Snowboarder2012]

I just don't pick up my son's Lego bricks on the floor over night.

I too have stepped on those frigin things in the wee hours of the morning and its comparable to stepping on broken glass! +1 for your innovative ways

 

[usp45ct]

An alarm, yappy little dog, Legos and hot wheels, and a small safe.

The Legos and hot wheels are mine.

 

[garandman]

I used to keep my 45 in a "bed-side safe". After reading through this I don't know why I ever thought that was a good idea.

It could be sitting next to your hand and it wouldn't have mattered for those folks.

When you are defending something, what do you do? Channelize, slow down, alert, cover with fire. It's pretty easy to take measures to keep people from easily getting near entry points, making it difficult and noisy to gain entry, and to make entry only the start of their troubles. Dogs, motion activated lights, alarms and cameras are all low profile, cheap and easy.

The biggest problem we have is getting the kids to lock doors behind them.

We always lock our cars in the driveway now, because they have garage door openers in them. Duh.

 

[mtsfitness]

I absolutely agree that your best defense if a firearm, and if possible, have many different options ranging from a handgun to a long gun. But, my ideas or suggestions were geared towards a situation when an intruder is in your room and your firearm (s) are not available in time. Therefore I suggest or toy with the idea of having other options handy bedside such as OC spray or baton etc... (for us with children that cannot keep our firearms unsecure bedside)
And lastly I dont see a fault at bring physically prepared. Of course your firearm is your best bet and you can only do ao much against an armed intruder, but if your physically fit you might have a chance to stop someone if other tools are not available. I dont see any reason why phsical fitness couldnt help you in any situatiion.

I would ask, "why"? If someone has broken into my home, and made their way to my bedroom, why would my response be anything other than 4 or 5 rounds of 45 ACP center of mass. In the article the bad guy was armed. If you pick up a bat, he is just going to shoot you.



My wife and I have agreed that her role, first and foremost, is the protection of our kids, even if I have been wounded or otherwise taken out of the fight. Additionally, we charge our cell phones in our bed rooms. You can't cut a cell line.



With all due respect, in the story from the original post, what are you going to do faced with an armed intruder even if you are physically fit? Sure, staying in shape is important, but in this case it just means that you will look good in your coffin.

Training and practice. There are some great courses and instructors available. If faced with an armed home invader my plan is pretty much to insert as many large caliber bullets into the offenders body as quickly as possible. I am not going to challenge him to a push up contest or see if pepper spray stops him.

 

[garandman]

I absolutely agree that your best defense if a firearm, and if possible, have many different options ranging from a handgun to a long gun. But, my ideas or suggestions were geared towards a situation when an intruder is in your room and your firearm (s) are not available in time. /

Trunk monkey!
[video=youtube_share;Jo6EqSpXJsA]http://youtu.be/Jo6EqSpXJsA[/video]

 

[Palladin]

I love trunk monkey

 

[skeetshooter]

I just don't pick up my son's Lego bricks on the floor over night.

Those hurt like hell. I'd be tempted to take a bullet than step on Legos all over the floor.

 

[Tekito]

I'll take a trunk monkey to add to the deterrents I already have.

 

[squatch413]

I'll take a trunk monkey to add to the deterrents I already have.

Those only work in cars. It'd have to be a closet monkey or something in your dormicile.

 

[StevensMarksman]

This is why an alert dog(or five) is invaluable. The dog/s would warn you long before an intruder even got near the house.

Lights, cameras, ACTION!!!

Agree. But, in my case, the dog will get me about 2.5 minutes before anyone comes near my bed. My dog really hates strangers.

StevensMarksman

 

[diesel112]

I think we need claymores near all entry doors. Hope the teenagers don't try to sneak in at midnight

 

[Glockfan71]

My M&P sits on my nightstand at night. My wife is kind of a light sleeper and hears every noise. I also have cats that can sense s**t too...

Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2

 

[ccm75]

I've told many people who use a bedside safe for their home protection gun that I could be in bed with them before the gun was ever removed from the safe.

My dogs would disagree........

 

[coachjpg]

I was taught that Mass law says you are not in control of your firearm if you are unconscious, even if you are wearing it or have it in a bedside holster. Mass case law (precedents) says it has to be locked up if you are asleep.

Quick access to your gun is important. Also important is the need to be sure you're fully awake before you handle a gun. I've always recommended a lock box with a simplex (no batteries) lock. You have to be awake to get it open, but it's quickly done.

If you have kids and guns, please read Ayoob's "Gunproofing Your Children". The Progressive Pistol folks have 5-year-olds competing. Very young kids can chamber a round. One trick is to put the muzzle end of the slide against a table and push the frame forward using both hands and full body mechanics. They may not be strong enough to chamber a round the way you do, but leave them alone with a gun and they can get very creative. IMHO, you need a lock between your guns and any child, unless you're directly supervising that child and teaching them about guns.

An alarm dog is essential equipment, IMHO. I prefer a dog that would never hurt a child, but barks like hell when a stranger approaches. The dog's job is to alert me, not to protect me.

There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding how to best defend your home and your family. Anyone trained in this will know about the aftermath of a home defense shooting, and that aftermath will strongly influence the way they prepare. A trained person will also know that accidental shootings of non-hostiles happens far more often than the high-speed home-invasion blitz discussed in this thread. You can put your home defense on such a hair trigger that it becomes more of a threat to your family than crime.

If anyone is reading this thread to learn how best to defend their home and family, the internet is not a reliable place to learn how to do this. The NRA offers courses on Personal Protection in the Home. Ayoob's "In the Gravest Extreme" is another reliable source. Get real training from qualified people.

 

[squatch413]

I was taught that Mass law says you are not in control of your firearm if you are unconscious, even if you are wearing it or have it in a bedside holster. Mass case law (precedents) says it has to be locked up if you are asleep.

Quick access to your gun is important. Also important is the need to be sure you're fully awake before you handle a gun. I've always recommended a lock box with a simplex (no batteries) lock. You have to be awake to get it open, but it's quickly done.

If you have kids and guns, please read Ayoob's "Gunproofing Your Children". The Progressive Pistol folks have 5-year-olds competing. Very young kids can chamber a round. One trick is to put the muzzle end of the slide against a table and push the frame forward using both hands and full body mechanics. They may not be strong enough to chamber a round the way you do, but leave them alone with a gun and they can get very creative. IMHO, you need a lock between your guns and any child, unless you're directly supervising that child and teaching them about guns.

An alarm dog is essential equipment, IMHO. I prefer a dog that would never hurt a child, but barks like hell when a stranger approaches. The dog's job is to alert me, not to protect me.

There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding how to best defend your home and your family. Anyone trained in this will know about the aftermath of a home defense shooting, and that aftermath will strongly influence the way they prepare. A trained person will also know that accidental shootings of non-hostiles happens far more often than the high-speed home-invasion blitz discussed in this thread. You can put your home defense on such a hair trigger that it becomes more of a threat to your family than crime.

If anyone is reading this thread to learn how best to defend their home and family, the internet is not a reliable place to learn how to do this. The NRA offers courses on Personal Protection in the Home. Ayoob's "In the Gravest Extreme" is another reliable source. Get real training from qualified people.

I'd rather be judged by twelve than carried by six. To each their own, go with your own personal comfort level, not that of a tyrant.

 

[xtry51]

I was taught that Mass law says you are not in control of your firearm if you are unconscious, even if you are wearing it or have it in a bedside holster. Mass case law (precedents) says it has to be locked up if you are asleep.

Quick access to your gun is important. Also important is the need to be sure you're fully awake before you handle a gun. I've always recommended a lock box with a simplex (no batteries) lock. You have to be awake to get it open, but it's quickly done.

If you have kids and guns, please read Ayoob's "Gunproofing Your Children". The Progressive Pistol folks have 5-year-olds competing. Very young kids can chamber a round. One trick is to put the muzzle end of the slide against a table and push the frame forward using both hands and full body mechanics. They may not be strong enough to chamber a round the way you do, but leave them alone with a gun and they can get very creative. IMHO, you need a lock between your guns and any child, unless you're directly supervising that child and teaching them about guns.

An alarm dog is essential equipment, IMHO. I prefer a dog that would never hurt a child, but barks like hell when a stranger approaches. The dog's job is to alert me, not to protect me.

There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding how to best defend your home and your family. Anyone trained in this will know about the aftermath of a home defense shooting, and that aftermath will strongly influence the way they prepare. A trained person will also know that accidental shootings of non-hostiles happens far more often than the high-speed home-invasion blitz discussed in this thread. You can put your home defense on such a hair trigger that it becomes more of a threat to your family than crime.

If anyone is reading this thread to learn how best to defend their home and family, the internet is not a reliable place to learn how to do this. The NRA offers courses on Personal Protection in the Home. Ayoob's "In the Gravest Extreme" is another reliable source. Get real training from qualified people.

Says don't believe internet, gives advice based on draconian laws and the NRA over Internet.

 

[ThePreBanMan]

My house alarm uses cell/radio service to call the monitoring service. Cutting the phone line will not disable my alarm. It also has multiple battery backups. Cutting power will not disable it either. In fact when we lost power this last winter - the alarm continued to work fine for the 3+ days we were without power. It flashed an alert about power being down and beeped - but once we acknowledged that and queued in the code for the bypass - it was fine. The system is nothing fancy as far as modern alarms go. I can't turn on my lights over the inter-web or have it pour me a beer or anything. But when it matters most - it will function - and will alert the monitoring service. But from alert time - to their call back time is about a minute. From there - assuming they immediately summon police - that's an additional 5+ minutes. So from the time the alarm goes off to the time the police are at my door is close to 10 minutes. I've accidentally set it off a few times - so I know from experience this is what to expect.

I also sleep with a pistol and flashlight by my bedside. The better half also has her license and does the same. Our bedroom is upstairs. It would take an invader probably about 10-15 seconds from breech to get to the bedroom - assuming they guessed right or knew where it was, had a light, and were in full sprint in a b-line to the room.

I had the smoke alarms go off in my house a couple months ago - at 3:00 AM. At first I didn't realize it was the smokes and not the house alarm. I figure I was out of bed and at the top of the stairs with flashlight and gun in about 7 seconds - waiting for motion to light up and possibly light up some more - if you get my drift. I was still groggy and after about another 5 or so seconds I realized from the noise of the alarm it was the smokes and not the house alarm. Turns out a spider had set up shop inside one of them and set it off. Let me tell you that getting out the 8' ladder to reach a smoke on a cathedral ceiling at 3:00 AM isn't fun. But the experience did give me some insight into what my response would look like.

YMMV depending on the layout of your house naturally. I've considered installing an exterior type solid core door between the downstairs and upstairs. That would buy much additional time.

 

[goodlife30]

1. Dogs
2. 357 magnum
3. Ar-15

 

[fencer]

1. Dogs
2. 357 magnum
3. Ar-15

That'll do pig. That'll do

 

[Lcstyle]

I've told many people who use a bedside safe for their home protection gun that I could be in bed with them before the gun was ever removed from the safe.

this.

Unless you have some kind of alarm system that will positively wake you, you might as well leave all the guns downstairs for your assailants.
Not a bad idea to have some cameras in the hallways or common areas either: