Preparing for a Home Invasion
It’s the middle of the night and you hear your door crashing open. Your house is being invaded by armed individuals. What are you going to do now?
How you react in the first few minutes could save your life and your family, or doom you all! Families hold fire drills so why aren’t we practicing or preparing for a home invasion?
Preparing for a Home Invasion
Your back door just slammed open with a resounding crash. Somebody or a group of people are in your home. What should your first move be?
As soon as you hear criminals entering your home, you need to spring into action. Grab a weapon, preferably a gun (a shotgun would be really good), and place yourself at a choke point between your family and the invaders. This choke point could be the hallway that leads to the bedrooms or at the top of the stairs. Do NOT stand there like a large target, assume a prone or kneeling position and keep your firearm aimed in the direction, from which evil may arrive!
Multiple Adult Household
If there is another parent, guardian, or even a teenager or child, who has leadership abilities, have them escort the children into your designated safe room, where that person will immediately call 911 for help! You may continue to man your choke point, or retreat into the safe room, where the door should be locked. Everyone should be in the safest spot, out of the line of fire, in case you need to engage villains attempting to access your shelter.
You will be in a prone or kneeling position with your eyes and weapon locked on the door, while the 2nd adult is communicating with the 911 emergency operator.
Single Adult Households
If there is no second guardian, proceed into your oldest or most matures children’s room and wake them and have them get all the kids into one child’s room. If you are confident that you can make it safely to your safe room, proceed. If you have any doubts, and I mean ANY doubts, about getting safely to the safe room, do not chance it. The children’s room, has just become your immediate “safe room”.
You will be in a prone or kneeling position with your eyes and weapon locked on the door. Hopefully one of the children can dial 911, but if not, keep your eyes on the door and dial 911, quickly and put it on speaker so you can set down the phone.
What is a safe room?
People will tell you that you need a special steel security door , a reinforced, heavy-duty door frame and multiple deadbolts on it. In a dedicated safe room, you would have a weapon secured in a gun safe with a flashlight and a cellphone.
Let’s be realistic. We’re lucky if our kids have their own rooms, most of us do not have a room that we can turn into a veritable fortress.
A safe room can be any room, but it should be a room with only one entrance, and in a perfect world, it would be the very last room that a criminal would get to while coming through your house. This isn’t always the case.
A safe room, is the room with a single entrance, where you chosen to or have been forced to make your stand.
What happens in the safe room?
You remain calm and wait for the police. Keep the call with 911 going, so they can hear what’s happening, and to let you know when police have arrived and are in your home to secure you and your family.
Do not attempt to find and meet the invaders. Stay secure in your safe room. Don’t worry about your stuff. You can get new stuff. Your life and the life and safety of your family and loved ones is all that matters!
If you hear the bad guys outside the door or trying to open the door, announce very loudly: “Do not enter. I have a weapon!”
Home Invasion Drills
Your family needs to practice this drill. Make sure you’ve run through it. Remember it’s a drill, no need to be swinging around a weapon, just pretend.
While you’re at it, have a few fire drills. You’ve been pretty lax on those too!
Recommendations
You need your firearm close, but you must have it secured in a gun safe of some sort. The safe is not optional at all, it is 100% mandatory!
Get yourself a quick access biometric pistol safe or gun safe. If you have to punch in a code or dial a combination, you will be all thumbs when your adrenaline kicks in.
Mount or secure this safe near your bed, so you can grab your items and head to protect your family!
In this safe have:
- pistol, shotgun or rifle
- a dependable flashlight.
Keep your cellphone close when you sleep. Some pistol safes, like the GunBox, have USB ports to charge your phone, allowing you to keep those items close!
When you secure yourself in your safe room, you should have your family members, a gun, a flashlight and a cellphone!
Safety
If you plan to have a gun in your home, make sure you know how to handle it safely. You can contact any local firearms range and inquire about firearms training. They would LOVE to help you out!
Next time you have a family fire drill remember you should also be holding a drill on what to do during a home invasion.