Can you imagine anything scarier than thinking an intruder is in your home? We’re going to step you through a home invasion.
Is it going to be scary? You bet.
How do you put together a good self-defense plan, if you’re in a home self-defense situation like the bedroom?
You certainly want to have a lock on the door, you want to make sure you have a cell phone. So you’re not dependent on a landline for communication, because that can be defeated.
If you’re living alone, it’s a whole lot easier because you don’t have to be concerned with yourself and what you are doing. If you have family members, guests in the home, or children especially, you have to be concerned
protect from home invasionabout what they’re doing and where they are. If you’re alone, it cuts down a lot of the thinking that you have to do in a very grave situation.
Now, it’s critical that you communicate all the elements of this plan to your family. Whatever the plan is, if you have family members, spouse or children, they all need to know what role they have to play and what they have to do.
A gun is an accessory that no home invader wants to find in the bedroom. Should it be loaded or unloaded?
Well, that’s going to depend on your circumstances. In general, a gun for self-defense needs to be loaded. However, if you have children in the house, you may want to have just a magazine in case of a semi-automatic, or you may want to have it in a higher spot where the children can reach it. Because usually, Mr. gun is going to live in Mr. drawer. It’s not a good idea for a number of reasons. One is you can use it in a semi-conscious state. Also, the first place the burgers going to look is in the drawer. You can place it on the floor, possibly with a magazine or newspaper over at least a step away from the bed. You could put it up in the closet where it’s loaded.
What’s the worst possible place to put a gun?
Right under your pillow. Couple of reasons. Number one, you’re going to wake up with a headache. And number two, you’re setting yourself up for one spectacular bad night.
Long guns and handguns.
Most people in a home self-defense situation, a shotgun is probably the worst choice. If you have to push it through the doorway, well, it can be taken away from you.
But with a handgun, you can come back into retention, and you can be able to move around corners and move around the room. Your movement is much less limited. You can get into positions behind cover concealment much easier.
What to do if you are home alone and you hear a noise?
Probably the first thing is to be sure you’re fully awake and you actually heard something. Once you’re assured if you believe someone is in your home, call 911. Let them know you believe someone’s in your home and you believe your life is threatened. Make sure they know your address. Some of the 911 screens, don’t put it up in front of them. So you got telling your address give a description of you, what you look like where you’re located, where your bedroom is located, and how they can gain entry into the home?
Do you then hang up, you leave the phone off the hook?
The 911 operator is not going to want you to hang up and always going to want to have that line open. You have to stand by until the police arrive.
Tactically plan a room.
Try to have as much distance from the potential threat. Provide some cover or concealment or a combination thereof. Now, if the room got one entryway, one door, we want to get as far from that door as we can and see as much of the room as possible.
The difference between cover and concealment
Cover will potentially stop a bullet while concealment only hide the person and will not stop the bullet.
What if you’ve got young children? What if you got an infirm grandmother or grandfather?
You have to retrieve them as quickly as possible. Bring them to your safe area. Make some tactical compromises because you don’t have all-day.
You’re going to put yourselves with someone to jeopardy, but we want that jeopardy to be as short as possible.
What if there was another child? What if you’ve lost one, one of the kids have wandered off?
The most dangerous thing you can do is try to hunt somebody down. They have the advantage. You’re at a great disadvantage.
But if it’s your child, realistically, you’re probably going to go try to find them. Even with the laser, there’s no good way to do this. It’s
very dangerous and very deadly. And think about how long it took you to clear one room.
Another important point is that the point that you leave your safe room, that’s where you’ve told the police you’re going to be, and now you’re wandering around the house with a gun and a flashlight, and they don’t know you by sight. It is one of those things that there’s no right answer.
So the key thing to remember from this is when things go bump in the night. Don’t grab the flashlight and the gun and go racing down the hallway. Find a safe place and stay there.
Daisy is the engine behind Be-Safe.org — from content production to product reviews and more. What drives her is the passion to make home security information easily available.
