Home intruders

So... The other night I was torn out of a deep sleep to my house alarm blaring. My eyes opened up, got a HUGE adrenaline dump, charged out of bed, hit a light and barreled towards the door that was breeched.... And then saw my wife there and she yelled at me and I snapped out of the primal charge.

Now I knew her flight was landing late before going to bed, but my ingrained habit is to set the night time alarm with no entry delay and I forgot to not do it.

The scary thing is that this is 100% not my plan. I live in a very safe part of town, yet my plan is/was to arm myself with a readily available firearm, get to a highly defensible position upstairs to protect my sleeping kids and only take any action if the intruder advances on me.... I've even practiced this a few times but apparently nowhere near enough and it's been forever since I did.

For anyone reading, I encourage you to think about your plans, practice them, under high duress if possible. That adrenaline dump coming out of a dead sleep is amazing.

If anyone has tips and tricks for this, please share. Be safe!

PS let's not at all make this pro or anti 2A/gun. Don't want it to be locked. Yes, I know if I had grabbed mine during this time it could've been a highly tragic situation.

But you should have grabbed it, isn't that also the point? And I think that is what you are getting at.

I don't think there is any way anyone knows until it happens how they may react under pressure to anything and you are right to practice and plan if you are going to have a firearm in the house and plan to use it (whatever that may mean) in such a situation. Unfortunately, there really isn't a way to realistically practice home defense except by maybe finding an instructor nearby who can have you working on mechanics and reactions and then you hope in certain situations that real training kicks in?

If you had a light bulb moment that is telling you the firearm isn't for you then get rid of it. If it's a matter of practice, IMO you just had some real practice and the other side of the coin may be the next time you react differently and "better" because of the experience. But maybe consulting an expert for the right kind of training is part of the equation.

It's a pretty grave responsibility. I have my Billy Williams autographed Louisville Slugger I bought in 4th grade for $6-$7 at hand under the bed instead of a Colt Diamondback or Chief's Special or frankly, one of my shotguns, for precisely the reason that I'm still not convinced that I have the training and confidence at this point to react appropriately with a firearm and I've been shooting stuff forever. Cell phone and 911 still the first response for me - that I know I can do.

Hopefully this never happens to me, typically we're a safe city and i live in a safe part of it. The last time we had a violent break-in in our suburb was probably ~ 15 years ago, and to my knowledge there has been 1 murder in the last 35yrs that wasn't drug related or a spouse killing their spouse, and that crime is still notorious to the point that everyone here still remembers the victims name

I always wonder in movies why people go downstairs and look, but i guess maybe that is human nature as the OP suggests. I tend to agree that using your knowledge of your houses layout probably makes the most sense, and trying to get the drop so to speak. I do have a general idea of something i think would work , but only cause i saw it in a movie and thought "yup, that makes sense"

I don't own a gun and don't really want to. I do have some other stuff i can use if needed.

In Canada we technically have stand your ground laws for home invasion , but if you are seen as the aggressor they will prosecute you.

I don't think anyone really knows how they will do until they've been in a real situation.

In movies they go downstairs and look because if they didn't there wouldn't be much of a movie! Love watching almost anything and I'll say "you idiot" to some random person in a movie and of course my wife will let me know who the real idiot is for getting wrapped up in the fiction of it all - well, that's the whole point of watching, IMO. Of course, Les Miserables and some heart wrenching song and she's crying buckets and I get "don't look me, this is so awesome, sniffle, sniffle."

Oh i'm exactly the same way man. I'm always like "why are they doing that!!!!" . There's often a woman with a gun she pulled out of a drawer or something, being hunted by a person with a knife (or no weapon), and they are always "hmmm, why don't i walk down narrow hallways with sharp turns, no one could possibly ambush me". I'm always like "just go stand in the middle of your pool". For some reason i'm convinced that is genius. I mean they couldn't get to you in a middle of a pool before you get like a full magazine off right?

My expectations for the scene change dramatically if she is going to stand in the middle of the pool! All for it!

Nice replies. I didn't go downstairs, master is on the main level. I don't think it's a question of firearms or some other defense mechanism, heck my plan could have been to round up the kids and escape through a window and to point the intruders to where I keep duffel bags to more easily transport my stuff.

But the real thing is that in that moment the plan went out the window, right in line with the idea that everyone has a plan until they're punched in the face. Lots of people talk about how they will react, but it was eye opening, for me at least, to see first hand what can happen when our instincts overtake our brain.

It's an interesting thing to research I think. I assume police and other tactical units train hard to suppress these reactions, just curious how to do it and hope to help people realize thinking what they will do could go poorly when actually faced with the danger they think they'll react well to. Heck I know when I read stories of how people react during things like shootings I always think I would do better.

Right! the police afterwards would be like "ma'am, what you did was very clever, and seductive"

Now obviously I'm still not sure what would've happened if it wasn't my wife. Maybe I would've tackled them. Maybe the sight of someone would've snapped me out of the initial run and caused me to retreat for a weapon and get to my position. Maybe they would've run away due to the alarm and the advancing homeowner.

Yeah, the thing is some people probably would react really well , and others wouldn't. Not everyone is the same, some people react to stress better. Same as when you are driving and have to make a split decision to avoid a crash, some people just instinctively keep their cool better. Some people handle sports situations better than others. I am not saying you didn't keep your cool or anything, i;m just saying in general.

There are a ton of military guys on this board who i am sure will chime in with regards to training.

My brother was Canadian military, special forces, and did tours overseas. The amount of training and simulations they do is obviously a lot. Not that he told me about all of it. And i am sure most of them still don't know how they will react when its "real"

I've always been under the assumption in situations like these that one does whatever is needed to survive whether that be hide, run, fight, shoot, don't shoot. I suppose I have that assupmtion because whenever I read or see stories about people doing heroic things (like pretecting their family) under unfamiliar circumstances the theme I see is "I was just doing what I had to do" or "I did what was necessary". These people never seem to talk about what they did as if it were brave or heroic or smart or planned. It was just survival.

OP, I think you did the right thing because you were doing what you felt you had to do in the moment and whether you felt composed or not it isn't as if you ran throughout your house randomly shooting your gun in different directions - so you were composed enough to handle the situation with some intelligence and discretion. It doesn't sound like you have any formal training on handling home invasions but I literally don't know a single person who has such training. Maybe if you had training you'd have reacted differently and while you don't seem to be comfortable with your firearm I still wouldn't be prepared to judge you for having it with you. I'd have mine with me in this situation although I hope that never happens.

Lol. I suppose my reaction was far better than hopping out a window and wishing my kids good luck.

The weird thing is typically react extremely level headed in any other situation to the point I've actually been chided in some business situations for not thinking a very serious issue was a big deal. I'm also quite used to a high degree of situational awareness when I'm out and about. That might be the most annoying part of it.

It'll be a fun thing to work out.

Wow, interesting and glad all is ok. You and wife must be cracking up about your face when you charged into the room.

It sounds like instinct took over to take out the threat and put yourself between the intruder and your kids. Or, maybe you also subconsciously knew exactly what was going on somehow?

This really underlined the need to be practiced and prepared for these situations especially with a weapon and family in the house so you are always ready and don’t attack the wrong person.

It sounds like you have a good plan and just need to practice it more. Maybe literally do some live drills! Like have your wife hit the alarm at 4am when you are sleeping and practice your routine.