Lessons

[Kukuforguns]

My carry permit doesn't work where I live. Moreover, a strong argument could be made that it's illegal for me to carry a firearm out my front door onto my own lawn. Puts me in rather an awkward position. Do I call the cops every time a possum/raccoon sets my dog off? Do I ignore my dog when he alerts? Do I go outside with my weapon and risk arrest because my dog has alerted? Do I go outside unarmed when my dog alerts? Every option has obvious problems.

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[BillSWPA]

My carry permit doesn't work where I live. Moreover, a strong argument could be made that it's illegal for me to carry a firearm out my front door onto my own lawn. Puts me in rather an awkward position. Do I call the cops every time a possum/raccoon sets my dog off? Do I ignore my dog when he alerts? Do I go outside with my weapon and risk arrest because my dog has alerted? Do I go outside unarmed when my dog alerts? Every option has obvious problems.

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Step 1 is to have good exterior lighting (realizing that might not be within your control if you rent) so that you can make an initial attempt to determine why the dog is barking from inside the house.

Unless you have an indication that someone you care about is in danger, ask yourself how important it is to investigate further if you do not see indications of trouble. If you and your family are safe, why go out to the danger without a good reason? What if there is a problem, and that problem gets past you and now has your keys to your house?

If you do need to go outside, grab a knife from your kitchen, baseball bat, pepper spray, etc. before going outside. Something is better than nothing, although still suboptimal against a gun. When I go somewhere that I cannot legally have a gun, I at least have pepper spray and at least one knife that is legal in that jurisdiction. If those are not an option, then I have a flashlight I can use as a Kubotan/yawara type weapon, defensive pen, etc.

Make sure you have good unarmed fighting skills.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

If Fido alerts - what does it mean? What is the advantage of going outside to protect the shrubs or the car? If you think it is serious enough to go outside to disrupt the activity, it is serious enough to call the law.

However, it is easy enough to have lights and a loud alarm that you can trigger from inside the house. Dogs around here bark all the time. Also, possums, squirrels, skunks, raccoons, armadillos, bunny rabbits and deer wander by. Woof, woof, woof - can go on all night.

[BehindBlueI's]

My carry permit doesn't work where I live. Moreover, a strong argument could be made that it's illegal for me to carry a firearm out my front door onto my own lawn. Puts me in rather an awkward position. Do I call the cops every time a possum/raccoon sets my dog off? Do I ignore my dog when he alerts? Do I go outside with my weapon and risk arrest because my dog has alerted? Do I go outside unarmed when my dog alerts? Every option has obvious problems.

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What is the goal you are seeking to accomplish by going outside?

[Tamara]

I just can't quit y'all.

This thread is all ate up with clue.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

What is the goal you are seeking to accomplish by going outside?

In many similar threads, all over, about what to do with the noise outside or downstairs - the main driver, IMHO is the emotional and subcortical sense of territory and dominance violation. Unless, you have to save someone - wandering around outside isn't that sensible. Usually the costs of such an exercise that goes bad outweigh the benefits - even to protect most property.

Sometimes you see someone say - well, the law is 45 minutes away and that's why I take care of it myself and go outside.

Well, that may be true but why not call them and establish that you were under threat and start emergency responders rolling towards you. Gives them a head start as compared to calling them later when someone is down or hurt.

At Karl Rehn's we ran a bunch of house exercises, inside and out. The home defender person who left a secure position usually just got shot up. It was to their surprise. Most were rational enough to realize their emotions got the best of them. Classic was to enter the long hallway (OF DEATH!).

[BehindBlueI's]

In many similar threads, all over, about what to do with the noise outside or downstairs - the main driver, IMHO is the emotional and subcortical sense of territory and dominance violation.

Absolutely, but that's why I posed the question. Often people do things without thinking what their goal actually is, as you mention with the "subcortical sense..." We are hardwired to do certain things in response to certain other things. Male robins will violently attack a piece of red cloth made to look like another male's red chest feathers but will completely ignore an actual male robin who's chest feathers have been painted gray. Mother turkeys will protect a "predator" stuffed animal if it makes the "cheep-cheep" sound baby turkeys make, but attack the crap out of the same stuffed predator when it stops going "cheep-cheep". As humans we have those same sorts of responses to set criteria built in that may not actually be accomplishing the goal we think we are accomplishing (being safer, in this instance)...but we also have the capacity to stop, reflect, and ask if that's the best response to what our goals actually are. Asking what the goal is is the first step toward not attacking red felt while leaving the real male robin alone.

[Drang]

In many similar threads, all over, about what to do with the noise outside or downstairs - the main driver, IMHO is the emotional and subcortical sense of territory and dominance violation. Unless, you have to save someone - wandering around outside isn't that sensible. Usually the costs of such an exercise that goes bad outweigh the benefits - even to protect most property.

So I started trying to devise plausible reasons to go outside. The problem is, they all rely on knowing that you are likely to be targeted by someone known to be willing and able to throw fire bombs or shoot rockets at your house. Which seems unlikely.
Not saying I'll never step outside in the middle of the night to investigate strange noises, but here will almost certainly be a 911 call made first. "There's been a terrible accident at the corner of walk and don't walk..." or maybe "Horrible screaming is coming from the house kitty-corner from me..." (I did once wake up in the middle of the night by the smell of smoke, and get dressed to go out and investigate that. The fire department had someone driving around trying to find the source, so I don't feel too bad about not calling first.)

Met a guy who was self-admittedly one of those training-chasers, he and his buddies went to Gunsite so often they made up stuff for them to do. Said he was there once for a shoot house exercise, the scenario was that you pulled up solo to a dark house and had to (for some reason) go inside to find a person of interest. So he says "Aha! I shall use my new NVGs!"
"Batteries are dead."
"Okay, getting out my flashlight..."
"Batteries are dead."
Okay, my backup flash..."
"Batteries are dead."
"Spare...."
"Nope."
"Hmmm, well, I guess I'd better go into this dark house with no light then, seems dicey..." Opens door, sees candle in middle of room, backs out and says "I'm calling for backup." Said he was the only one to pass that scenario, everyone was "killed" by the goblin because the candle was enough to render them night blind.

[11B10]

I don't answer my door without my gun anymore


Nos pro patria

I totally agree with this ^^^^ and I take an awful lot of razzing because of it. The ONLY time I am not carrying is when I'm in the shower and even then, my gun's less than a arm's length away. Sure, it's a PITA to strap on my belt/holster w/P320C/ammo pouch + my Griptilian and Streamlight, but the alternative is not acceptable.

[Tamara]

I try to live by the words of the great warrior-poet, Chef: "Never get out of the boat."

(That's a slight exaggeration, of course, but it does remind me to think hard about whether I really need to "get out of the boat" or not.)