To "clear" your house, or hunker down.

[Tempest455]

Tough to do in a home with the master down and kid's rooms up...

Same here. In the event of this situation, kids are instructed to hide until I come get them.

[Guest mustangdave]

short story...small house...ALARMED...while we're gone...plus roaming BULL TERRIER...ALARMED while we sleep...I can and will clear the house...wife has her side arm at the ready as well.

Steve...MP/SP...I'm pretty sure the Air Force calls them MP's as well...have a buddy that was an AF MP...the Navy has SP's aka SHORE PATROL. IF the AF has SP's...it may have been special detail SECURITY POLICE for SAC Bases or MISSILE COMMAND

Never mind...shoulda read ALL the thread responces...

Edited March 17, 2010 by mustangdave
just cause

[saintsfanbrian]

My job is to go get the kids and get them to safety. Wife will be on the phone with police and a gun in her hand.

That's all that is needed.

[Will Carry]

I truely believe that all you guys that opt to "clear" your house are putting yourself in danger. Take SWAT teams. They dress in full body armor with bullet proof shields and enter a room en masse with guns blazing. At least that is how they practice day in and day out. The reason thay wear armour, go in en masse and practice all the time, Is that clearing a house is the most dangerous thing they do.

Ok if I can't talk you out of it, maybe I can help you. There is a place called by Tsun Tsu , "Fatal Terrain". it is a place you want to catch your enemy but you do not want to be caught in. Do you know the fatal terrain in your house? There is a place in my house that if you stand there you can see out the front door, the back deck, the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom and the hallway. That is fatal terrain. You do not want to be caught there, move quickly past it if you must. Ambush the enemy when he is there would be better. Tsun Tsu writes. "When you are close, make the enemy think you are far away. When you are far away, make them think you are close. When you are few, make them think you are many. When you are many, make them think you are few. Be like fog, impenetrable, so your enemy won't know you. When you attack, be like water." Bruce Lee studied Tsun Tsu. Grass Hopper!

[JAB]

Tsun Tsu writes. "When you are close, make the enemy think you are far away. When you are far away, make them think you are close. When you are few, make them think you are many. When you are many, make them think you are few. Be like fog, impenetrable, so your enemy won't know you. When you attack, be like water." Bruce Lee studied Tsun Tsu. Grass Hopper!

JAB writes, "Shotguns can fire many pellets from just a few shells and buckshot is a heck of a lot more substantial than fog." Tsun Tsu probably never heard of 00 Buck.

As for to clear or not to clear, that is a tough call. I'm no Billy Badass and see the sensibility of not wanting to possibly face multiple attackers. On the other hand, simply by breaking into our home the intruders would be (in both a legal and moral sense) threatening me and mine with 'death or serious bodily injury'. I don't take too kindly to that idea. By the time the cops could arrive, they'd probably have what they wanted and be gone - with every chance that they would come back again at a later date - and would maybe plan to do more than steal from us the next time. Like I said, tough call.

Edited March 17, 2010 by JAB

[RobertNashville]

I realize I’m very lat to the thread but I thought I’d add my thoughts.

Police and military who “clear houses” go through hours and hours of training to do so and even then, I’d suggest that it takes experience to really become proficient and safe clearing a house/building. The chance that ANY essentially untrained individual could clear his own house proficiently and safely are virtually nil.

I would even go so far as to suggest that a trained LEO, when it’s his home possibly having been invaded, is a fool to try and clear his own house.

Further consideration, spouse, children, pets…if you are truly concerned with their safety; isn’t it better to have them gathered in one “safe room/spot” than for you to play Tarzan and go room to room clearing your house?

In my opinion, if you truly believe someone has broken into your home, the safest thing you can do is to have a plan and follow it which should include everybody in the house getting to a safe place and then staying there while you use your spare cell phone (the one you keep on the nightstand and/or with your home defense shotgun/pistol/carbine) and call the police.

If the bad guys tries to enter your safe room/space and you have to engage them then engage them but the best way to win a gunfight is to not have to have one.

[Derek]

Depends a lot on the situation. I think before I'd clear the house, Id wait a bit and listen. But I think the sound of the Mossberg would be enough to scare the **** outta any BG.....if not, the noise outta the end of the barrel will be.

[Guest jackdm3]

Derek's statement =

[dunndw]

I don't have kids...so I'll wait for them to come to me.

If I had kids....I'd have to re think a bunch of things, like the plan to send a wall of lead down the hallway if there's a target.

[Guest smileyguy]

I'm to curious to wait.

Curiosity killed the cat.

[Guest jackdm3]

Won't kill my cat. First sign of trouble, he'll find the most unusual place to hide.

My house is small. If the security system doesn't bother them, I'll be dead in seconds. I'd rather die in my sleep if it's gonna happen. I've slept through the worst of tornadoes.

Edited March 17, 2010 by jackdm3

[Guest SUNTZU]

Throw an activated can of Raid fogger down the stairs and let em hack and cough at least.

[Kelemvor]

My house is small enough that I could tell in seconds how many people there are and which rooms they're in. I am going to shoot them with, my wife is going to stay in the bedroom with whichever gun I don't bring.

[Guest smileyguy]

I think this would be a hoot to test out. Take 5 TGO members. Make one a member who says they would clear the house, the other 4 are random TGO members. Arm them with paintballs, laser tag, smunition, or something of the like. Have the four enter the home of the one and have the one attempt to clear the house. 99 out of 100 times the four wins.

[Kelemvor]

I think this would be a hoot to test out. Take 5 TGO members. Make one a member who says they would clear the house, the other 4 are random TGO members. Arm them with paintballs, laser tag, smunition, or something of the like. Have the four enter the home of the one and have the one attempt to clear the house. 99 out of 100 times the four wins.

Surely you don't think that test could simulate any situation outside of an ATF raid or the like. Real BG's don't have range time, aren't military or LEO's, and they don't expect a guy to come out of a room prepared to shoot them.

It would be fun to try though.

[nightrunner]

the only way it would work is if you had a group of members that were single and trusted each other. then you give everybody a key to the others house and say in a 1 month period one or two of them invades the others house at night, completely unexpected.

thats the only way to be realistic and its not very smart either.

[DaveTN]

Police and military who “clear houses†go through hours and hours of training to do so and even then, I’d suggest that it takes experience to really become proficient and safe clearing a house/building. The chance that ANY essentially untrained individual could clear his own house proficiently and safely are virtually nil.

There is no black magic involved with Police. First off cops aren’t entering a house if they know for sure someone is inside. They are securing the house from the outside and the perp is coming out to them.

If they don’t know and don’t have a dog available they put themselves in the open and in harms way when they clear a house. It’s their job.

Rarely do they get shot for a couple of reasons. The person in the house knows that once the cops are there they are caught, also burglars are not generally shooters. (Home invaders are shooters but they aren’t going to be there when the cops get there.) But cops have been killed doing home and building checks.

To leave cover to check the house when you aren’t sure someone is there is normal. To leave cover when you know someone is in the house is ridiculous. You can’t help your family if you killed.

[dunndw]

We went over this in my Personal Protection in the Home instructor training.

no one liked my idea of clearing the rooms with flash-bangs or CS

I'd play as long as we can switch up roles.

[Guest redbarron06]

Surely you don't think that test could simulate any situation outside of an ATF raid or the like. Real BG's don't have range time, aren't military or LEO's, and they don't expect a guy to come out of a room prepared to shoot them.

It would be fun to try though.

Think again. Gangs are activly recruiting military and even sending members into the military into combat arms MOSs just to learn tactics. Look at the zetas in Texas and Mexico. Some are even trained by the US Army.

Now as far as my house, the current layout, taking into account where I sleep in relation to my wife and my daughter. It dont matter how they got into the house there is a 14 foot "fatel funnel" that even a SWAT team would not want to come through by choice and I own every inch of it from my position behind cover. To add my wife and child will hunker down out of the line of fire with my wife in command of the Mossy 590 if they should get past me. I can replace the TV, the VRC, the china and anything else in the house but the 3 of us can not be replaced. Now all of that said you change the layout of the house and it may change my plan but as it is now I will wait in ambush, and soon I will wait with the advantage of NVS. I like putting the ods in my favor.

And by the way Army has MPs. Navy and AF have SPs but the S and the P stand for differnt things.

[Guest AMERICAL]

What to do? I wear hearing aids in both ears, when I take them out it is complete silence.

[nightrunner]

What to do? I wear hearing aids in both ears, when I take them out it is complete silence.

possibly wire an alarm system to instead of sound a loud alarm when the perimeter is breached, to immediately, simultaneously turn on every light in the house, possibly pulsing?

[Guest AMERICAL]

thanks for the advice, will look into it.

[Tobashadow]

Ive got a little runt of a yorkie for a dog inside, he is useless as far as taking on a bad guy but he is great about alerting and running toward the threat which in turn tells me where it is.

[nightrunner]

thanks for the advice, will look into it.

It would be quite expensive unless there is another way to do it other than what I am thinking (new radio frequency switches) but it is a thought.

[Shorty]

Isn't there something that the hearing impaired use that is similar to the blinking light idea for when the doorbell/ phone rings? Couldn't you modify that to work with the alarm?