Home Invasion: Stalk or Wait?

[RightsEroding]

Would like see your responses in regards to a Home Invasion Scenario.

You live alone or just you and your wife.
You live in a area with many other homes close by.

It's 2am when you are awakened by the sound of someone attempting to gain access to your home.
As you awaken to a higher alert state, you now hear this person in your home.

What is your response?

Do you let them move thru your home and steal what they want and hope they will leave?
Do you come out and confront them with your weapon?
Do you wait, crouched in the corner of your bedroom with your weapon trained on the door?
Do you shout "I have a gun! Get outta' here!" ?

My logic dictates NOT to come out and confront them.
I would dial 911 and wait for them to enter my bedroom.
Since the invader probably does not know the layout of my home ,I would be somewhat under cover and have the element of surprise. (i.e) The first accurate shot as my weapon is trained on the point of entry.

Announcing I have a gun is risky IMO.

I suppose the down side of this would be the inability to ID the invader.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[CJohn364]

With the layout of my current house, I would grab my shotgun from the safe in my bedroom, move the the top of the stairs (while the wife calls 911). I have a room just off to the side of the top of the stairs and a small railing-like wall on the other side so there's cover on both sides. I would rack a round and then announce I have a gun, cops have been called and get out of my home.

[Scramble4a5]

I would call 911 and stay in my room, with my handgun at the ready. I would yell that I had called 911 and tell them to leave. If they dared to come upstairs then they would meet Mr. Ruger.

[RightsEroding]

So far so good and precisely what I would do.

[KBSR]

Best course of action, in my opinion is to wait for them to come to you, if that's possible. When it's only you or you and your spouse/significant other, it's really simple. Dial 911, take up a position of cover, preferably behind something large and substantial like a King Size bed, with your firearm trained on the door, lights out, but Surefire or similar flashlight ready to light em up. I'd give them one warning, when they touch the door knob, just on the off chance that it's not a BG but rather a drunken friend or relative crashing the party. Come through the door at your own peril.

One caution, always, always, always defend from cover. Cover not concealment. CJohn364's plan reminded me of a video tape I used to play in class to demonstrate this point. The video was from a pin hole camera in an off site location used for undercover drug transactions by some friends of mine at Metro Dade Police Department in Miami, FL. The camera caught a gunfight between a BG that had tried to rip off an undercover officer, and the cover team that busted through when STTS. In this case the BG mistook his position behind a wall that was constructed of sheetrock as cover, when it was really merely concealment. The responding officers fired directly through that sheet rock, ending the gun fight very successfully. BG was determined to be DRT (Dead Right There).

Ya'll be safe.

[jeepzilla]

Turn on as many lights as I can. Yell, "You're busted! Cops on the way!". Fort up and wait for the reinforcements.

[NMB]

Never seek danger if you are in a safe place. I would rather lose everything in my home, than have to shoot some one.

dial 911 and put on speakerphone, toss phone on bed and talk to dispatcher, yell out into the house that im armed, called 911 and to get out.

[Brady]

Due to the layout of my house, there is a high probability I would be separated from the rest of the household. I will have no choice but to charge.

[finst3r]

It's both safer and strategically sound to defend from an ensconced position.
Post # 7 hit it on the head.

[archer51]

Since everyone is accounted for, call 911, take cover with gun at the ready and wait for the police to arrive. If intruder attempts to enter the room, do what you need to do, to stay safe. The only way I'd exit the room is if a family member was in another room and you needed to get to them.

[DaGunny]

A gun is not your first line of defense...it's your absolute last line of defense. Effective home security involves multiple layers (or "rings") of security. You want to give the BG multiple opportunities to realize they've been detected, so they can leave empty handed without harming anyone.

If they get through all of that AND my rottweiller, I'll just wait in my bedroom and give them their just desserts if they try to enter.

[Gene83]

If I am capable of movement, it will be away from the threat, not aggressively seeking it out.

[OldVet]

If they enter my bedroom while my wife is calling 911, they're going to be real busy ducking lead.

[tdw63]

I'am more worried about someone breaking in during daytime hours when I'am at work than at 2am in the morning, but if it should happen I have a gun in my nightstand by the bed along with a led flashlight ready for action.

[ccw9mm]

Depends on circumstances.

A few of the "depends" factors ...

Depends on whether there's a time lapse between when the attempts at forcible entry are noticed and the time when entry has occurred. The time gives a person an opportunity to take up arms and head to the most-advantageous spot in the home.

Depends on the layout of the home. Natural defensive "funnels" exist in many homes, but not in others. In a home that's just one big, open, free-fire zone with precious few cover areas aside from "back" rooms, I'd think opting for a back room would be far more advantageous to the defender.

If the area of attempted forcible entry is clearly at one spot, and the defender is well-armed ahead of entry being gained, I'd say that violently confronting the assailant(s) at the single point of entry can have a strong chance of thwarting all violence to the defender(s) inside the home.

If there are multiple occupants that the armed defender has to first take pains to protect, then time is burned shuttling those off to a safer area of the home. If that happens to be at the end of a defensive "funnel" hallway, great; within a back room, fine. If there's no time to do any of this, then sadly it becomes a come-as-you-are, where-you-are defensive nightmare, and about the only hope for the defender(s) is that the assailant(s) isn't armed heavily.

If OTOH the perimeter is breached either so quickly or quietly that the defender(s) has zero advance warning, then it's highly likely a defensive weapon cannot be obtained quickly enough to matter (assuming the defender isn't wearing it).

If it's clear the ground and/or other factors doesn't afford any advantage once the assailant has gained entry, then perhaps the most-advantageous move would be to fire through the door/window into the assailant before the assailant has any idea of the interior layout of the home or where the defender(s) happens to be.

That being said ...

In my own home, given the layout, and presuming the entry point was at one of the furthest entry areas, I'm pretty sure that sitting tight in the "back" room would be the most advantageous spot for violent defense of my life and loved ones. A funnel-type access zone coming near this "back" room makes a fine shooting gallery, with practically zero risk to folks outside the home. Ugly/deadly for any invading assailant(s), presuming I am awake, aware and capable of defending at that moment. You come into this zone under those circumstances as a violent assailant, then I doubt you'll have much chance of making it out alive. But, change the circumstances just a bit (either with the time of day, my advance prep/readiness, my failure to have a weapon near me at the moment, etc), then all could change.