Our home invasion happened so quickly that by the time the alarm let us know someone was in the house, he was already just a few steps from our bedroom (where my 8mo pregnant wife and I were sleeping). Fortunately I had a handgun within reach, and the intruder fled as soon as he saw me.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
Dang that is crazy.Originally Posted by Clusterfrack
Did you have a dog?
None of the home invasion robberies I've responded to or that have occurred at my agency would have allowed time to put on body armor or retrieve a long gun that was not immediately at hand. You fight with what you have on you or what you can grab.
I work in a very high end community where home invasions are against normal earth people, not dope rips.
People scoff when I say my home defense weapon is the J-frame in my pajama pocket.
If you have time to don armor, etc. you probably have time to get out, like the victim did in the incident I ran last Friday night. The best gunfight might be the one you miss by virtue of the Chuck Taylor option.
No dog. Fortunately no baby yet either. If it had been a few months later, the intruder would have been standing between us and her room.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
That's wild. Glad things ended safely!
My criticism isn't owning body armor, because I'm sure in certain situations it's warranted. I've argued with others that you simply won't have the time to put it on in many situations. The person I was having the discussion with said, "Well, it only takes 5 seconds to put it on." My response was, "The average gunfight lasts 3 seconds."
With that said, nothing wrong with being prepared and it's better to have it and not need it instead of the other way around.
I have a Fort Knox pistol box at my bedside that gets unlocked and opened before bed and locked once I get up. The shotgun also comes out of the safe and is at the bedside, and goes back in the morning.
Last edited by OldManClemens; 11-04-2021 at 12:21 PM.
Dogs are nice but they take training. Not 'protection dog' training, that's a whole different issue, but your regular good dog is going to bark at all kinds of things. Most of them non-threatening. They do that.
Reinforcing when they need to go nuts and alert you of a serious problem is time consuming but possible, especially if at least one dog is from an intelligent breed with good work ethic. Multiple barriers to entry help, even if the first one isn't all that secure.
Most dogs are just a deterrent at best. But hey a couple GSDs barking at a door or window are going to deter a lot of people from fucking around finding out. A couple dogs to back up your alarm system and your hardened doors/ windows is a good addition to your multi layered security.
Even a “protection” dog that’s trained in bite work and may be out of working lines isn’t a guarantee that’ll they’ll do much more than bark. Protection dogs have been trained on suits and 99.9 have never bitten for real. You have no clue really whether they fold when attacked or bite for real when needed.
We don’t really trust Police K9s until they have found suspects and bitten for real. Until they actually do it you don’t know. Now some dogs you just know they will when you train them but they’re still unproven.
I have one small dog I call snake dog or coyote dog. Heck I could call her javelina dog too. Her bark when she finds a snake or smells coyotes is a different tone and intensity than say barking at the Amazon delivery. You should and can learn your dog
Now my retired dog that has numerous street bites and has been trained to fight humans I’d trust to go out and defend us. Not because he loves us but because he loves the hunt and the bite.
Just a dog chauffeur that used to hold the dumb end of the leash.
It's certainly true that you may not have time to put on your armor, but the odds are zero if you don't own any!In my place there's only one plausible way to get in and both will take some time and make a lot of noise. My door is steel with a reinforced night lock accessible only from the inside; even with a sledge hammer it would likely take numerous blows to get through (all screws replaced with 3.5" deck screws, etc). Odds are pretty good I'd have time in most circumstances. Of course sometimes you may have more warning, too. For instance, you see guys casing the joint or your neighbor's place on your security camera.
Worst case I can't get to it and it does me no good but it's about stacking the odds in my favor. Seatbelts save a lot of lives as do airbags but they're not a guarantee you won't die in a wreck.
I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned. - Richard Feynman
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.- Archbishop Helder Câmara
Your experience is typical for honest, normal citizens who are not engaged in unlicensed pharmaceutical sales, or who have not engaged the services of a trans lady of negotiable affection for a large sum of cash.
The important factor in the story from the blog is that the victim had left his door unlocked which allowed the brigand easy entry.
Before you buy body armor, a plate carrier and MSA headset to go with your Ops-Core helmet, upgrade your entry doors with deck screws, 3M security film on your beautiful slider, get an alarm and motion lights, etc. to give you time to wake up, grab a gun and a LIGHT and start the missus calling the cavalry.
Look to Phaedrus' post for security clues, however, in all likelihood most home invasions start with the HO being assaulted, IME.
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