semi

If someone foreign to your family breaks into your house in the middle of the night, just make sure you hit him in the front and not in the back. This usually looks bad to jury's. You have to feel threatened in order to shoot. Usually a warning is in order to dis-arm and lay on the floor, but you NEVER know if the intruder is armed or not, especially in the middle of the night. DOn't take chance with your families safety. If this individual is coming towards you or walking up the stairs where you and your family are, don't hesitate. That split second decision could save your life. Granted it would be a tough decision, but i would rather be in jail or dead then see my wife be raped in front of me or my kids taken. And usually you will not get in too much hot water these days especially if the person is not supposed to be in your house. That alone is a threat.

rybohunter

Unfortunately in this day and age, even if you are cleared of criminal charges(justifiable shooting) you are probably going to have to battle a civil suit. Your life will change the instant the scumbag presents you with a split second life or death decision. Good luck to you all, that you never are faced with it. If you are, shoot center of mass, and do not shoot someone who is retreating.

bigcountry

Common sense should prevail in all situations. If I get out of this crummy world without killing another person, I will be a happy man. If you feel your life is endangered, and feel the need to protect your family, do what you got to do. If you feel the need to make a point, when you didn't have too, thats between you and your maker one day. I am not sure how he would feel about it. I just know how I would feel.

People that tends to have this itch to kill someone kinda bothers me. I think they got a screw loose. And those people give honest gun owners a bad name and causes us alot of problems.

I found out about 15 years ago, that you don't know what you will do until it happens. I was being chased by a bunch of jerks on old Ky backroads. Somebody fired off a 30-06. I freaked out and unloaded my 9mm blindly in my rear view. Didn't think about it, just acted. Fortunately, they spun out. I got away. I should have saved my ammo. Instead of wasteing it due to being scared. I mean what would have happened if they didn't spun out? I would there holding an empty 9mm.

3DNWV

This is easy. 1st if your going to be armed either in your home or on the street as part of your training you should think out every what if in the world before any of them come up. 2nd If your not willing to take a life in your own or someone elses defense lie down play dead and hope for the best. 3 If hes big or small you can never tell of his true intent (If hes in the house is has some bad intent) ( Charles Masion is a very small man), training, back ground, drug use etc. And I could go on and on. But cutting to the chase If he in my house he has sealed his fate..............

CBM SC

I would've said the same thing before .......but my stance got comprimised by a story from my wife's cousin ! She had a drunk teenager mistake her house for his own while walking back from a party. He came in unnoticed and crashed out on her couch ! Obviously she freaked out and called the cops from the neighbors house.......but wow......I just don't know what I would have done !

I'm a pretty light sleeper and god knows......I'd have felt aweful if I mistakingly shot a drunk teenager in my house for a criminal ! I really can't say what I'd do......but when it comes to my wife and son....in a doubtful situation........I'm going to do what I think is best to protect them ! Not a lot of questions or thinking.....things would have to go my way quick !!

But I tell you.......I really hope it never happens to me or any of you !!

Wolf killer

Since bigcountry shared a story with us. I will tell you my close encounter.
1991-Arizona I am living in a town of about 10,000. I found this woman that I liked very much. We had a casual relationship for 3-months. One night we decided to go out skinny dipping. She left my truck & started walking towards the pond. I was getting ready at the truck. All of a sudden I hear a big scream, a bunch of swearing & what I think is an attack on my woman? I grabbed my 357 and ran to her aid. I arrived at full draw with the hammer cocked ready to kill the attacker. What I found was her screaming at her HUSBAND for following her. I had no idea she was married. When I got there they were so busy screaming at each other they hardly noticed me & my gun. I walked back to my truck & drove off. I went back home and just sat there numb thinking about how I almost shot that guy. The events of that night are still clear to me, like they happend yesterday.
That is the only close call I have ever had.

oldelkhunter

I would do anything before lying down and hoping for the best from someone that broke in your house.

First off depending on what state you live in you may be viewed as a reckless redneck, because you took some poor underprivileged burglars life that just needed money to feed his family. In other states taking this burglars life would be perfectly acceptable ie Colorado.

Its not a situation that most people ever want to face but I would exhaust all means to keep the assailant at bay until the authorities arrive, face and body flat on the floor, arms outstretched legs spread. If they refuse to cooperate and are packing some sort of weapon or are strung out on crack and refuse to heed my command they will be shot to death pure and simple. I don''t want them wounded because I would probably be sued for depriving them of their livelihood.

I had a very good friend of mine who was a cop in Miami for a number of years. He basically told me that a policeman arrives at the scene of a crime to cleanup not to prevent the crime. At that point it may be too late for the victim.

BigBore1895

Let's see, my girlfriend is in the bathroom with nothing but a doorlock and my trust and faith in law enforcement should I not stop this guy. A naked intruder is perhaps a tab disturbed, making me feel even more uncomfortable. Now, should I "take him" in a fist fight? Well, to further complicate things what if he has AIDS? Do you know he doesn't? Me neither. Then why would I want to draw him closer and possibly obtain any disease this fella may have?

I am going for the shot on this one. I live in a strange neighborhood in college, and I made up my mind a long time ago that since my girlfriend lives with me, and I am trained in defense, her safety is MY RESPONSIBILITY. Given the circumstances, I would shoot. A fist fight can be won by anybody, you or him. If you fire on him when he ceases to halt, you are the clear winner. If there is a 1 in 100,000,000 chance that this guy is going to get to your wife/girlfriend/kids, whoever, would you take that chance? Not me.

mlaubner

A persons "natural" reaction to this is to put their hands in front of their face to sheild their eyes from the blinding light. This would possibly reveal whether or not they were armed. If they are...shoot, if not, try non lethal forms of stoppage, possibly OC spray or non-lethal loads designed for the 12ga.
I have pondered this type of ? many times, the problem for me is that there is no commercially available non-lethal load for my M-4.[:@][]

Nomercy

Ok, here's my take on "subduing" your intruder....I'm 5'10", 165-175# depending on the week, I wrestle competitively in college, wrestled in high school and "kids fed", I also box and have taken classes in various combative arts, I bounced at bars and night clubs for a couple years (reminded me of the movie "Roadhouse"-"I thought you'd be taller"), I powerlift, don't compete much any more but still bench three and a quarter or so, and I'm a bull rider, which counts for a lot in itself IMHO....

As a bouncer, I naturally handled people of all weights, but usually men 50-100# heavier than me, as a wrestler, I spent all of high school weighing 155# but wrestling in the 215# and heavy weight (250#) classes at tournaments, and still frequent these classes at open collegiate tourneys-over the last 6yrs I'm 49(28)-0 at 215# and heavy weight combined (the "(28)" is victories by pin)...In 171# class I'm 105(44)-38, the light guys are a LOT harder to handle than the heavy guys!

I also once saw a lightweight girl (capped at 130#) about 5'6-7" bench 265# and hang clean 270# and my 140# all conference wrestler uncle (43yoa) can KILL me everytime we step on the mat (I'm 35# heavier and a lot younger). I've also taken classes from 120#, 5 foot nothing old oriental men that could whoop me like a red-headed stepchild.

Moral of the story, don't be confident in your size to win you a fight. I'm not saying you don't handle yourself well, but the bigger you get, the harder it is for guys to handle themselves well, it's kinda like a ferrari vs. a Semi-tractor, the ferrari might be lighter and doesn't have as much horsepower, but the 18-wheeler will do good to ever even touch the ferrari!! Maybe you will do some damage if you ever get ahold of a light guy, but not if he's only a little lighter and too strong for his own good and could go 12rnds with you without breaking a sweat. It's not a good idea if he's unarmed-you don't know how good of fighter he is, I wouldn't be much worried to have a 6'3" 250# man who just woke up come after me empty handed, had he a gun, I'd snap to. It certainly wouldn't be a good one if you think he might be armed...I got stabbed twice while working as a bouncer-I'll be danged if I know to this day where the knives were before they were in me. You don't bring a knife to a gunfight, but you certainly don't come empty handed!!! No matter how well trained I, or anybody else, is at fighting, it's mighty hard to whoop a 5yr old if he's got a .45 and knows how to use it.

As for my advise otherwise, either get outside and stay out, or stay in your room, don't make any noise, have a cell phone in the bed room in case he cut the phone line, but try the land line first because cops will get you on "caller ID" and come investigate even if you don't say anything for a house phone, not so for a cell phone-finding you is usually too hard.

Get a dog, even a small one, most small dog breeds make very good guard dogs because they bark like maniacs at the smallest sounds, bigger dogs make for good deterents of couse, but a yapping **** Tzu will wake you up quick too.

Have your wife familiar with a gun-either buy her a gun or have her practice a bit with one of yours-preferably a handgun-taking a shotgun from a woman is a lot easier than taking a handgun.

If you've got kids, move to their bed room quietly and GET THEM OUT OF THE HOUSE, you can either stay and find out what's going on, or leave with them, have a pre-planned spot for you all to go in such an emergency, and let the cops know where you're going to be. You might consider covering the approach to their rooms from a barracaded position with your shotgun and having your wife jump outside and wake them up through the window, you can safely get them outside and gathered that way without having to run them through the house-usually that's only good for older kids that don't sleep like the dead-infants/toddlers aren't going to walk and can't open the window, younger kids might be too scared to do it, but it's a better idea than running your older kids through the house.

Don't go downstairs-if he's just robbing you, he's not worth shooting, going downstairs either has you shooting him for no good reason-maybe going to jail, or has a robber with a gun to protect himself shooting you to avoid letting you shoot him-if he's there to kill you, you might give away your position and wind up getting shot when you could have barracaded in your room and had the upper hand.

Best bet is to just get outside-dropping out a 2nd story window isn't always great, but tying a bedsheet to the foot of the bed at least gives you a gentle Hanging drop of about 4-6', hard to get shot by a robber/intruder in your house when you're out behind the barn or at the neighbors.

If you go to the neighbors, it's sometimes good to go to the back door or their bedroom window if you know them well enough-bedrooms are closer to the backdoor usually and if someone's out to kill you, it's likely to be darker in their backyard-he doesn't have you illuminated to shoot you from a dark shadow like he would on their front step.

If you're going to stay inside and defend yourself, barracade yourself in-push the bed up against the door if you can do so quietly (just so he can't kick open the door and shoot fast), turn a dresser out a bit from the wall and use it as cover, a walnut dresser full of clothes makes pretty good cover.

Be sure of your target, in a town near my ranch a few years back, a man killed his own son, found him in the middle of the night in their kitchen, thought he was a robber, 12ga shot to the head, the son was sneaking back in after sneaking out with a girl...the year before a man killed his daughters friend who was sleeping over, she had gotten up to get a drink...granted these cases were both teenagers, you won't likely mistake a 5yr old for an adult robber, but they're tragedies all the same.

I've also heard stories of men shooting their young kids in such situations, they wake up and hear a bump in the night, grab a gun and shoot as soon as their door opens, turns out it was their young child who was woken up by a bump in the night and was scared.