By Sheriff Jim Wilson, Shooting Illustrated
Imagine this scenario—You wake up in the middle of the night to what sounds like someone breaking into your house or someone moving around in your house. Half-awake, you arm yourself, hike up your skivvies and go to do battle with the attacking foe. What could possibly go wrong?
Actually, a lot of things could go wrong. It could be a family member just beating on the door because he or she forgot a key. It could be a neighbor trying to alert you that your attached garage is on fire. It could even be the police responding to a silent burglar alarm because your unit has malfunctioned. And, of course, it could also be a gang of home invaders ready to shoot the first half-awake homeowner that they see. If you think that I am trying to tell you that a lot of bad things can happen when you go charging off in the dark, half-awake, you are exactly right.
I once participated in a force-on-force exercise where my partner and I were placed in a room and told to respond to what happened, whatever that was. As you know, in force-on-force exercises, they don’t give you a lot of details, because you don’t always have a lot of details in the real world, either.
In our exercise, we heard the front door being forced open and realized that the “bad guys” were staging a home invasion. We chose to stay in the room and not give our locations away. It forced the “bad guys” to have to come looking for us. Because of this tactic, we easily neutralized both of the invaders.
The smart move in such incidents is not to go hunting through your house. Instead, you arm yourself, roll off the opposite side of the bed—using it for cover—and make them come to you. This also gives you time for you or your spouse to call 911 and get help on the way. It also gives you time to determine if this really is a home invasion or a situation similar to what I outlined in the beginning of this article. In short, while it’s not something that Rambo might do, it is a technique that gives you just about all of the advantages that are available to you. Just as we did in that force-on-force exercise, the chances of beating the bad guys goes way up in your favor.
Of course, to be successful, this should all have been planned out in advance. You know what you and your partner will each do. You’ve got the shotgun and your partner has the tactical light and cell phone. It beats running around, half awake in the dark, with a loaded shotgun all to hell and gone.
Think about it. Have a plan.
Thanks to Shooting Illustrated for this post. Click here to visit ShootingIllustrated.com.
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