Concealed Carry & Home Defense

CCW Weekend: So You’ve Discovered A Drunk On Your Couch

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By Sam Hoober, Alien Gear Holsters

Not all “home invasions” are created equal. While some home invasions are indeed robberies and/or burglaries, some are not as malevolent. Specifically, some home invasions are when a drunk finds their way in, mistakenly believing it’s their house if they live nearby or a friend’s house or just being completely out of their mind.

Or you might discover them passed out on the lawn.

Is it that someone doing this is somehow not a serious crime? No, and it isn’t to be taken lightly. At minimum, it’s breaking and entering, which is a crime, along with public intoxication and any other crime they may have committed while doing it. A person who does that likely has a substance abuse problem.

So, what do you do if you discover some passed-out idiot on your couch? Let’s go over it.

The first step is to call the police. At some point, there’s going to be a confrontation; someone is going to have to wake this person up and tell them, “You have the wrong house, doofus.” If at all possible, let it be the police.

Stay calm, and make sure that loved ones (especially if you have children) are kept safe. Put them in a back bedroom or quietly out of the house if possible, or at least make sure they are behind closed doors.

When a home invasion or anything like one occurs, it’s better if the authorities can be brought in as early as possible so they can potentially contain the situation instead of having to react to something that’s happened. Better for them and better for you; you potentially may not have to worry about having to justify anything.

If the person in question is clearly passed out drunk or otherwise intoxicated, waking them up is the last thing you want to do. The subject may wake up still intoxicated and otherwise in a bad mood.

For instance, a recent example from Houston, Texas, is a pretty good illustration of that point. A homeowner there observed footage from his home security camera of someone staggering around in his front yard, and found the person sleeping it off in his front yard. The homeowner armed himself and went to investigate. When he confronted the drunk, according to ABC13, the man woke up and quickly became hostile, attacking the homeowner, forcing him to shoot the intruder.

Ultimately, the offender wasn’t killed, but did require transportation to the hospital for surgery and at the time of this writing, the homeowner – unnamed in the article – doesn’t appear to be facing charges.

On the one hand, no one in their right mind would say anything other than that being a clear-cut case of self-defense. It’s inarguable. Texas is a stand-your-ground state and he was at his home; it’s practically a textbook example of how armed self-defense is supposed to be done.

On the other, it’s also true that not confronting the person and letting the police take care of it would have resolved the situation just as well.

With that said, you should also be prepared in case something does happen. That’s where your home defense handgun or long gun comes in. If you are attacked in your own home, you obviously can’t rely on authorities to arrive in time.

Now, is this to say I have some sort of sympathy for drink or drug-addled nogoodniks? Hardly; the man in the above example chose to abuse substances and engage in criminal behavior. If you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

It’s more that there was and is a smarter way to take care of this specific problem.

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Sam Hoober is Contributing Editor for AlienGearHolsters.com, a subsidiary of Hayden, ID, based Tedder Industries, where he writes about gun accessories, gun safety, open and concealed carry tips. Click here to visit aliengearholsters.com.