Originally Posted by MudderChuck

I once got caught flat footed bad. We'd just moved into a new house and had contractors and others in and out all the time. I answer the door and two guys with suits are standing there, one says they are there to collect the $5000 I owe them. I told them I had no outstanding bills for $5000, send a bill or call. I was standing door partially opened, foot behind the door and then the guys hit the door together and launched me backwards onto the four steps behind the small foyer. They both marched the length of my body. I laid there stunned for a few seconds. Wife calls down from upstairs, asking who is there. They bound up the stairs, I head for my pistol. Wife screams, they both come stomping down the stairs, I figured they were headed the right direction, away from my wife. I took cover in a doorway, only thing showing was half my head and the pistol. They stop at the bottom of the stairs, staring at my pistol. One guy says to the other, don't worry he won't shoot. I put one into the brick wall right between their heads from around six feet (probably powder tattooed them both). Told them to get the heck out and as far as I was concerned it was shoot on sight the next time I saw either of them. Figured out later they were a pair of leg breakers hired by some guy who the previous owner of the house owed money to.

Like mentioned, each situation is unique. I think of these encounters as most times being pretty darned bizarre to one degree or another.

No castle law here, if I would have shot them I'd be the one in jail.

My front door now has four hinges and nobody is going to kick it in. I never answer the door without looking out of a side window. For years I've had an outside dog that was pretty much a man eater and an inside dog that was pretty much the same. I call it defense in depth.

Twice now I've been trapped between parked cars, one guy in front and two behind. Both times it worked out OK. Like mentioned, situational awareness.