Shouting "I have a gun"

Just watched a video on house clearing. The authors recommend that if you are in your house and you hear a thump in the night to

1. Get your gun
2. Get to your safe room
3. Call 911 and keep them on the line
4. Shout out "I have called the police and I have a gun. Leave now"
5. Wait for police to arrive

(For the sake of this illustration, you are alone so there are no family members to be concerned about)

Do you think this is a good game plan?

PS After watching that video, I do not want to be in a position to have to clear a house. Very high risk. :gah:

Personally, if I were a sociopath in the home invasion business, and a "customer" did what you describe, I would probably be rather irked. I might well see if I could put a barricade of some sort in front of his "safe room", and set fires in at least a couple places in the house.

I might not succeed in getting loot, but setting to your house with you in it will at least create an amusing distraction as I escape. Lets see you deal with a burning couch in front of your bedroom door.

I don't think much of the scenario, you are passive, and trusting that he will be so panicked, he just runs off. Don't count on it.

If someone breaches your home, I favor massive, rapid, and ruthless response.

--Travis--

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TravisABQ

Personally, if I were a sociopath in the home invasion business, and a "customer" did what you describe, I would probably be rather irked. I might well see if I could put a barricade of some sort in front of his "safe room", and set fires in at least a couple places in the house.

I might not succeed in getting loot, but setting to your house with you in it will at least create an amusing distraction as I escape. Lets see you deal with a burning couch in front of your bedroom door.

I don't think much of the scenario, you are passive, and trusting that he will be so panicked, he just runs off. Don't count on it.

If someone breaches your home, I favor massive, rapid, and ruthless response.

--Travis--

---

+1 I like his idea

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TravisABQ

If someone breaches your home, I favor massive, rapid, and ruthless response.

--Travis--

---

Well If its just me and the wife, I will baracade her in the closet with one of the shot guns. Pick up my Mossberg 500 and pistol on my hip. Create a SAFE WORD that she wont forget. Then being to clear the upstairs while she calls the police. There is only one set of stairs. Now I also clear building and homes at work so I am some what comfortable with this. Thats just me though some people would disagree.

why give away the element of surprise?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TravisABQ

If someone breaches your home, I favor massive, rapid, and ruthless response.

--Travis--

---

Hmmmm, Like it. Reminds me of the following.

Quote:

---

Mission of the Marine Corps Rifle Squad:

To locate, close with, and destroy the enemy, by fire and maneuver, or repel the enemy assault by fire and close combat.

---

I think that would probably scare off an intruder 90% of the time, the remaining 10% scares the hell out of me.

That's in the same vein as racking the slide of your shotgun to "scare 'em". I wouldn't give up any tactical advantage I have......and the element of surprise is always a huge tactical advantage.

If I have an intruder, the only thing he will hear is the snick of a safety going to "FIRE".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JD

Hmmmm, Like it. Reminds me of the following.

---

So do I....one can not under estimate the element of surprise.

Rick

personally i think that shouting 'I have a gun' would greatly add to your legal defense if you had to shoot the intruder anyway. Just something to think about if you live in a state without the castle doctrine.

I still have my targets from my last range visit lying on the living room floor...(part of it is my avatar). If he can't figure out I have a gun from those, I'm definitely not going to tell him.

If you call 911 every time you hear a noise the police are going to put you on the crazy list. From wind to romping pets to raccoons in the garbage there is an extremely high likelihood the noise you heard is in fact not an intruder.

As hazardous as a video may make clearing a house look, you have the home field advantage. You should be able to navigate in perfect silence and utter darkness from one end of your home to the other. Almost every story of home defense I have heard about the home owner gets the drop on the BG's for this exact reason.

Every noise I hear I investigate myself to determin if the sound was crated by a human or not. As I investigate If I heard men talking I MAY not sneak up and shoot them. But if they approach my stairs I'm getting slide lock. My wife can call 911 from the baby's room.

Interesting advice. I remember the NRA video they showed in the CCW class I had to take. They encouraged this very thing; the calling police and then giving a warning that you are armed. I think it says the same in the NRA book about personal defense that I got from the class, but I haven't seen that book in while, so I can't be sure.

I questioned it at the time for the very same reasons I see brought up here.

So why would the NRA encourage this? There must be some legal precedent somewhere. That doesn't make it right, but for legal reasons they may have to teach that.

Quote:

---

As hazardous as a video may make clearing a house look, you have the home field advantage. You should be able to navigate in perfect silence and utter darkness from one end of your home to the other. Almost every story of home defense I have heard about the home owner gets the drop on the BG's for this exact reason.

---

<slight thread drift>

My boys helped us develop a home-defense plan. Background, we have five sons who are now (all but one) into their teenage years. This was a couple years back, when the kids ranged in age from 5 to 10.

One night, we decided to play "hide and seek" in the house. My husband and I gave the boys some unusual rules.

1) Each boy was armed with a rubber band gun.

2) They were to find a hiding spot in the front part of the house -- the living room, hallway, downstairs bathroom, or kitchen. All of those rooms together comprise the area between my bedroom door and any outside entrances.

3) They could do anything they wanted to do in order to get me or my husband with their rubber bands -- they could stay super-still and wait for us to find them; they could move around; they could scrunch into a corner and jump out when they saw us. Whatever they wanted.

4) My husband and I would take turns coming out of our bedroom and trying to find them. If they saw us first, they could shoot. If we saw them first, we would tell them we saw them and order them to come out of hiding; BUT if we told them that, they could shoot us if we were close enough or they could see us well enough.

5) Every man for himself. Catching one kid didn't mean the game was over -- we had to catch every one of them.

We then turned off all the lights and had a grand old family-bonding time playing with the kids. The kids thought it was great fun, and had no real idea how much their father and I were learning.

Biggest thing we learned: looking for someone to kill you is STUPID. We lost just about every time, even though we knew the basic skills and knew the house perfectly, and even though the kids were armed only with close-distance "weapons."

<mild thread drift>

What's all this got to do with whether or not to call out "I've got a gun"? Not much. But it has everything to do with working out your own family plans in the event of a home intruder.

Me? I'm quietly gathering my family, staying put behind a locked interior door, & calling the cops. They won't clear a house without good back up. So why should I?

pax

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pax

Biggest thing we learned: looking for someone to kill you is STUPID. We lost just about every time, even though we knew the basic skills and knew the house perfectly, and even though the kids were armed only with close-distance "weapons."

---

Your kids had all the advantages only you would have over an intruder. You all knew the house perfectly and your kids knew exactly when and from what direction you would be coming. And never give orders to someone who breaks into your home armed. As soon as you identify the treat shoot.

1. Get your gun
Agreed.

2. Get to your safe room
I chose not to have a gunfight at the door to my daughters room; my wife will go there with cell phone and gun.

3. Call 911 and keep them on the line
not in the middle of a fight I won't, someone else can call. BTW the fight starts as soon as someone breaks in.

4. Shout out "I have called the police and I have a gun. Leave now"
I reason the advantages this may offer do not outway the disadvantages such as giving away my position, the elemnt of suprise, etc.

5. Wait for police to arrive
But of course. Someone needs to take the intuders to jail or the morge.-Jay