Middle of night - door is kicked in - do you shoot?

[Mikey]

I would try to hide 1st, so i could get a better look at who it is, other wise I am throwing my knife!

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[srfl]

Mikey...help me understand something: your first step is to hide so you can determine who kicked your door in. Got that. Your second step is to throw your knife if you can't hide or you can't get "a better look?"

(You put "other wise," which throws off what your plan of action will be.)

Just curious, sir!

[Mikey]

lol. If I can't hide, because it happened too fast and my guns are usually in the safe and I have knifes that placed everywhere in the house. So yeah I am throwing a knife!

[AirForceShooter]

If I don't instantly hear somebody shouting "POLICE" I'm opening fire.

AFS

[boscobeans]

Too many people watching "Cops" on TV.. On both sides of the law.

I've seen the ram busting in a front door before the knock and announcement were even finished..

I walk the line and always have. I have well lit doorbell buttons.. Front door getting forced inwards means lead going outwards.

bosco

[Scott]

lol. If I can't hide, because it happened too fast and my guns are usually in the safe and I have knifes that placed everywhere in the house. So yeah I am throwing a knife!

I think you may be better off just lying down in the middle of the floor with your arms outstretched so you don't get shot. Everyone will be jacked up when they come through the door, police or BG. You throwing something is going to result in trigger pulling, and given that you have thrown your only weapon away, you will likely be shot. Well unless you keep 3-6 of them stashed in the same spot. Now that would be being really prepared to bring a knife to a gun fight.

[Mikey]

I think you may be better off just lying down in the middle of the floor with your arms outstretched so you don't get shot. Everyone will be jacked up when they come through the door, police or BG. You throwing something is going to result in trigger pulling, and given that you have thrown your only weapon away, you will likely be shot. Well unless you keep 3-6 of them stashed in the same spot. Now that would be being really prepared to bring a knife to a gun fight.

at that point it prob. won't matter, if I am going down I am taking at least one more with me.

[HotGuns]

Sounds good in theory Mikey, but it never works out that way.

When you hit the ground because you threw something at a guy holding a gun on you, you wont be getting back up.

[Mikey]

I am not expecting to go up.

[Stetson]

The police execute hundreds of these around our country in a given week ,like anything else we only hear about it when things go bad.That being said, the war on drugs is a lost cause with billions of dollars being spent every year.
We should legalize ,tax the hell out of it set up all kinds of rehabs for people who will develop a habit.We will accomplish a couple of things take the profit
out of it so thee will be less crime,have more tax dollars to fund pet projects,
generate more jobs.this problem is always going to be around so lets make some money off it and we know prohibition didn't work so how do we expect this war on drugs to work ?

[Duisburg]

The police execute hundreds of these around our country in a given week ,like anything else we only hear about it when things go bad.That being said, the war on drugs is a lost cause with billions of dollars being spent every year.
We should legalize ,tax the hell out of it set up all kinds of rehabs for people who will develop a habit.We will accomplish a couple of things take the profit
out of it so thee will be less crime,have more tax dollars to fund pet projects,
generate more jobs.this problem is always going to be around so lets make some money off it and we know prohibition didn't work so how do we expect this war on drugs to work ?

Exactly, regulation and taxion of all drugs would put drug gangs out of business and end territory fights between them, that way cops won't have to beat down doors so often and we home owners know to a more certain degree that the person barging through our doors at 2 AM will be a criminal. This makes my home safer, streets safer and would allow the cops to persue bigger and worse things. (totally tied guns and the topic into that :) )

[Tangle]

We're drifting from the "What would you do..." to legalizing powerful drugs, a political issue. Let's get back to the topic.

[svinfinity45]

I was going to post almost the same question but didn't because I thought I was one of the only ones who worried that the police gear might be a ploy and shoot anyways. It looks like almost everyone would fire in response. This really is a good example of a lose-lose situation and I agree that it should be a banned practice exept for the real hard core criminals where the probability that they will resist is very high.

The person who posted about only going after the guys with enough drugs/guns(illegal)/explosives/child pornography ect. that they can't get rid of it in the 3-5 seconds it takes to announce and enter is a great idea and would keep all of us from fearing that horrible night of mistakes.

[SelfDefense]

I guess it depends on what you mean by 'know your target'. But, in this case the 'target' is a serious, imminient threat not a target. And he/she is exhibiting very aggressive and threatening behavior.

Under these conditions, the threat is 'known' - it's the guy breaking down your door to get to you. I believe shooting is justified.

I simply think we must be more careful than sugegesting to shoot anything that moves. There is a difference between knowing your target and knowing about your target.

I remember that story about a man shooting his daughter as she broke into the home. I believe the consensus then was to identify your target. The strategy and mindset seems to change depending on what is being discussed.

After all, a horse is an elk, no?

[Tangle]

I simply think we must be more careful than sugegesting to shoot anything that moves. There is a difference between knowing your target and knowing about your target.

I remember that story about a man shooting his daughter as she broke into the home. I believe the consensus then was to identify your target. The strategy and mindset seems to change depending on what is being discussed.

After all, a horse is an elk, no?

I don't think anyone is meaning to shoot anything that moves, but my goodness, the scenario is "...door is kicked in...". Hence given a specific situation such as this fairly well defined one, we need to address this specific scenario. E.g. kicking in a door is not something anyone would do to get in their house, i.e. the man's daughter 'breaking in'.

Self-defense must be situation driven. We need to treat a situation where someone kicks in a door, much differently than someone working the door lock, trying to pry open a window, etc. In one case, the former, we have an imminient threat in our house. If he's a BG, he has no rules. Kicking in a door is a violent act by an obviously powerful, determined person. We will likely have to take action as fast as we can before we lose any advantage we may have.

If there is enough light or artificial light can be brought to bear on the threat without jepordizing us or our family, then sure, perhaps that's the better choice, but again our reaction must be driven by the situation we face.