HAD TO CLEAR MY HOUSE LAST NIGHT

[Guest 10mm4me]

I am allergic to cats but it is a funny story and I'm glad it wasn't a bad guy. I see out of 23 replies no one told you that you shouldn't clear your house. I'm not trying to be a dick, I just don't want people to read your post and think that clearing their house is smart. Clearing a house is a very dumb thing to do and you will get yourself killed and your wife will be at the mercy of the bad guy. This is not just my humble opinion. It is also the opinion of Massad Ayoob. Take no offense and take it for what it's worth.

If that's your opinion then so be it. If someone breaks into my house they are going to die. I will come after them, I will be agressive, I will be hostile. I will not sit around and hope they leave or wait for them to come to me.Because if they leave they will come back some day. If they get me so be it. I will die with a gun in my hands. I have cleared houses before, in real life. I did not recieve my training from you-tube.

[Fallguy]

If that's your opinion then so be it. If someone breaks into my house they are going to die. I will come after them, I will be agressive, I will be hostile. I will not sit around and hope they leave or wait for them to come to me.Because if they leave they will come back some day. If they get me so be it. I will die with a gun in my hands. I have cleared houses before, in real life. I did not recieve my training from you-tube.

+1

[Guest Jamie]

Clearing a house is a very dumb thing to do and you will get yourself killed and your wife will be at the mercy of the bad guy.

Really? I'll bet not.

Seems to me that there's probably not a home owner anywhere that hasn't heard a strange noise and gotten up to investigate, at some time or the other. Probably turned out to be noting at all, most of the time, but also ended up being something a lot of others. And fortunately, in 99% of the cases, it didn't go badly for the home owner. If it did, I'm betting "Homeowner killed by intruder" would be the single most common headline in the news media.

This is not just my humble opinion. It is also the opinion of Massad Ayoob. Take no offense and take it for what it's worth.

I like Mas, as far as gun writers go, but do keep in mind that he, like so many others, has something to sell...

J.

[Guest db99wj]

My butt will be up, moving and ready. Sheets over my head, and to hell with my kids let them fend for themselves aren't in the realm of what I'll do.

Could Massad be talking about a scenario that involves coming home and finding your door kicked in and you go in an clear it then? I just don't see him advocating locking yourself in your room, especially when you have other family members in other rooms of the house.

[Will Carry]

I'm not advocating that either. But if you really think someone is in your house, I mean something more than just a bump in the night and you go charging through your house like you are in a John Wayne movie, why.... that's just asking to get shot. When I hear something in my house at night I get my gun and listen. Just like I'm sitting in a deer stand. If I still don't feel comfortable, I'll send my dog out. He's trained to search my house. Massad was not talking about coming home and finding your door broke down. He was talking about clearing your house alone. You need to watch that video again. Go to 3:20 on the video. I think his words were "Don't go looking for buglars in your house." If you don't believe Massad Ayoob, then there's no hope for you.

10mm4me, you be aggressive, you be hostile and you will be laying in a pine box. You need to be smart and not in such a big hurry to die. I see that you are young and I was just like you when I was young but you need to rethink your home defense philoshy. You need to set an ambush and let the bad guy walk into it, not the other way around. I ain't saying this to be mean I just think charging through your house like a raging bull is ........just jackassed stupid.....Tha's all.

Edited August 3, 2010 by Will Carry

[nightrunner]

If you don't believe Massad Ayoob, then there's no hope for you.

And why is that? Should I take everything a certain person says as truth? NO and I wont. To me, he is just another man with more knowledge and experience than me. Whenever I meet or read about someone like that, I listen to what they are saying but I also apply common sense to it. I read all the major gun magazines and listen to what they have to say but if a well known writer like Massad Ayoob or Elmer Keith or Jeff Cooper or whoever says for me to do something that goes against all common sense, like wait for a bad guy to shoot my kids in the other rooms and then come and shoot me and my wife, they're stupid not me.

I dont listen to and do what any one person tells me, no matter how much or what kind of experience they have under their belt.

[Guest Jamie]

I just think charging through your house like a raging bull is ........just jackassed stupid.....Tha's all.

Charging through a house you don't know would be jackass stupid... but I've had to do that before too.

But my own house? Hell, I know it far better than someone who's never been in it before, who's trying to creep around in the dark.

And since they won't know where I'll be coming from, or where I can shoot from... well, let's just say they're pretty much screwed the second they come through the door. And that's even without the dogs gettin' 'em. Or them stepping on an "Annie bomb" and breaking their damned neck.

( Our one dog, Annie, like to leave her racket balls where she can find them again, when she goes to bed. And that's usually in a main walk way, for one of us to find the next morning, when we're trying to get to the coffee pot with half an eye open. :-\ )

Sorry, but I'll pass on Mr. Ayoob's advice. I know my situation - and my home - far better than he ever hopes to.

J.

[Will Carry]

I'm not saying to let a bad guy harm your children and wife, but you must be alive to protect them. That is the whole point that I'm trying to make. Instead of going charging through your house like a mad man, you must defend your family. You need to be bewteen the bad guy and your family and there make your stand. You need a plan on how to get your children and wife into a safe room, that way you only have to defend and not attack. You will have the advantage not the bad guy. You will call the police and stay on the phone with them, in your safe room, with your loved ones until the cops get there and clear your house. At least that is my plan. Maybe all the experts are wrong and you guys are right.

Jamie,

If you gave me 3 minutes in your house to find a defensive position I could drop you before you ran charging through the door. 9 times out of 10. What do you thing thugs do all day in prison. They train. The train in hand to hand combat, how to take a weapons away from some poor bastard trying to defend his family, how to shoot a man through sheet rock walls. How to break into a house. You may know your own home but you have no idea what kind of monster is in it.

I may not be able to talk any sense in to you fellers but maybe I have planted a seed. After all we are on the same side.

[Guest Jamie]

Jamie,

If you gave me 3 minutes in your house to find a defensive position I could drop you before you ran charging through the door. 9 times out of 10. What do you thing thugs do all day in prison. They train. The train in hand to hand combat, how to take a weapons away from some poor bastard trying to defend his family, how to shoot a man through sheet rock walls. How to break into a house. You may know your own home but you have no idea what kind of monster is in it.

Will, you not only don't know my home but you don't know me either.

No, I won't give you 3 minutes; that's the whole damned idea, to take matters out of the attacker's hands and make him start dealing with me, instead of the other way 'round.

I and my home are the unknown... and anyone having to deal with that is already at a disadvantage, because I already know what I'm going to do and how to do it. They're stuck working it all out on the fly.

The people who end up on the -ie end of the stick are the ones who never have any kind of a plan, never look at their house or apartment with an eye toward defending it, and generally have the mindset of "that kind of stuff always happens to somebody else".

That ain't me, and probably isn't a whole lot of other people here.

As for the experts... they can offer good advice. They can also off up bad advice as well. One way or the other, it's never going to be "one size fits all" and apply to everyone in every situation.

Anyway, no, I'm not gonna sit still and wait for the local LE to get here... not when I already know that it probably won't be more than one of 'em anyway, will take upwards of 20 minutes for 'em to get here, and that they won't be any better trained, armed, or prepared than I am.

But you go right ahead and do as you see fit... 'cause your situation will no doubt be different than mine.

J.

[Will Carry]

OK Jamie,

I'll stop preaching to the choir. You seem to have a plan and have put some thought in to it. You sure will stand up for what you believe and I gotta respect that. I had a break in once when I lived in East Nashville. I grabbed my pistol and went straight for guy. I was scared as hell but I knew what I had to do and was gonna kill who ever it was. It was the drunk Viet Nam vet that lived down the street. He had already figured out he was in the wrong house and had stepped out the back door. His house looked just like mine. I was 22 years old. Since then I have done a lot of reading and a lot of training. I'm hard headed and won't back down when I know I'm right, unless it's my wife or my daughter, or my mom......or my boss, or a cop.

[Guest db99wj]

I don't think anyone is saying take off running through your house blindly and attack the robber. However, with my situation, I have to go from my room, down the hall to the dining room so that I am between what ever bad guy there is and my children. Me sitting on the phone with 911 pointing my gun at the door doesn't work, it is not an option, it is not going to happen. I have to get to the entrance to our dining room, quickly, decisively, and ready to unload 13 shots and reload.

And here is another thing, most home invasions, while the occupants are home, the robber is not expecting a fight, they are not expecting a home owner, with training, with a gun, and coming after them aggressively, or actually setting up a defensive position of protection. For example, the 21yr old kid that was robbed, or attempted anyway to be robbed, here in memphis. These two thugs saw an "easy" target, or a guy, by himself, not a menacing guy. That "easy" target, aggressivly, forcefully met them with the power of a trained permit holder. Result one was dead, the other with a few more holes that he was not born in. Most would say, just give them what they want. We train, we carry in order to say, no, we are not going to be your victim.

[Will Carry]

You are talking about defending your family. I totally agree and it's what I am trying to drive home. Clearing your house is a dumb idea. Defending your family is the most important thing. When you say "The robber is not expecting a fight." That is an assumtion. The best we can do is be trained and be ready. Our prisons are turning out well trained asp holes. While we are hard at work our tax dollars are at work allowing criminals to train each other. It is shocking to me what these guys do all day in prison.

[Fallguy]

I think it might be better to say that in some cases/situations. it may not be wise to clear your house.

To say blanketly say clearing your house is dumb....is...well.....dumb.

[eastenn]

I had a similar experience (minus the cat and laser light) recently where my wife had already left for night shift and i was about to go to bed when I noticed the square panel that goes up into the attic from the master bedroom closet was up in the attic sitting caddy cornered across the opening. I immediately called my wife and asked if she did it and she said no, and it had been at least 2 months since I had been up there and I don't think I would have left it like that, nor do I think I could have went 2 months without noticing it like that. So, I get my ladder out of the basement, my flashlight, and my Sig and look up into the attic with the gun and light leading the way. I couldn't see anything from the ladder so I got on up into the attic which has the sprayed in foam insulation so you can see footprints, which were there, but looked as from when I had run some internet lines. So I checked from one end to the other to see if someone could have messed with the gable vents or came up through the front porch somehow but nothing had been messed with. I came back out of the attic, put the panel back in place, and took a sharpie and marked the panel and the trim to see if it moves and so far it hasn't. I never figured out how it got moved and it still bothers me when I start thinking about it, but hopefully I did just manage to move it and forgot. We have 2 boxers and just got an ADT alarm system installed last week, so hopefully we will have a heads up.

[Chief07]

I'd leave the cat outside.