How to Survive a Home Invasion

Imagine for a moment that it’s the middle of the night and you’re sound asleep in your bed.  All of a sudden you wake up to the sound of breaking glass and voices coming from down stairs.  You’re groggy and tired but decide to go investigate.  As you come down stairs and round the corner you find yourself face-to-face with two guys in dark hoodies. They have crowbars in their hands and suddenly you realize there is another guy coming up behind you.  You have just walked into an ambush.  

Now let’s pause to explore techniques on how to avoid this scenario.    

Home defense is much more than just owning a gun.  It is all too common for people to believe that by simply owning a gun they are somehow magically protected.  I call it the “coveted object syndrome”.  It is true that a firearm is a great fight equalizer or even stopper however, without proper firearms training and mindset you are more likely to be a liability rather than an asset.  Just because you have a gun does not mean that you are armed.  When it comes to personal protection and home defense it is better to avoid a confrontation before it even begins. Accomplishing this is easier than you might think and I’m going to go over some tips on how to better fortify your home and develop a plan if those defenses are breached. 

How to Make You Home a Hard Target.

As stated previously, the best home defense is deterrence.  The ultimate goal is to not have the criminal element enter your home in the first place.  Since most home invasions are pre-planned, the less enticing you make your home the more likely a bad guy will move on to easier targets.  Listed below is a short list of some simple things you can do to get started building your home defense plan.  

• Motion Sensor Lights - Installing motion sensor lights to pre-existing exterior light fixtures are a simple and effective method of deterring would-be-criminals from walking up to your house.  Criminals don’t want to be seen doing their nefarious activity, so having a bright light turn on when someone walks up to your house will make a bad guy think twice.  It has the added benefit of acting as an early warning for you if someone does walk up unannounced.  When installing motion sensor lights it is important to have as many angles of approach covered as possible.  

• Plant Thorny Bushes Under First Floor Windows - This one should be pretty self-explanatory.  All you are looking to do is create an aesthetic physical barrier to deter people from looking through or entering through windows. 

• Get a Dog - Not only are dogs great campaigns, they also serve as great early warning alarms when someone steps into your domain.  All a dog needs to do is bark.  They do not need to be vicious just vociferous.  

• Cameras and Alarm Systems - This is another pretty obvious one.  However, I did want to make mention that just having an alarm company sign posted in your front will deter most criminals.  This is also true for “fake” cameras that aren’t connected to anything.  However, in this day and age there are multiple great affordable home alarm and camera systems that you can install yourself and monitor through your cell phone.  So do your research and choose a system that fits your needs and budget.       

• Re-enforce the Locks on Your Doors and Keep Them Locked - This is a very cheap and easy way to help fortify your home.  A standard house door lock or latch mates up with a striker plate on the door jam.  All of those components:  the lock, latch and striker plate are usually screwed in place with small 1-1.5 inch screws or smaller.  By simply replacing those screws with longer 3-4 inch screws you significantly reinforce all those components for the very low cost of a few screws.  There are additional components you can buy from your local hardware store that would add additional protection.  You should also consider a security door for even further protection.  Above all, you need to make sure you lock your doors and keep them locked. When you come home lock the door behind you.  

This is not an exhaustive list but is a great starting point.  Remember the #1 goal is to keep the bad guys out of your house.  Now let's talk about some ideas for what happens if some unwanted person does enter your home in the middle of the night.  

Have a Home Defense Plan and Work Your Plan

Just like having a plan for a house fire, earthquake, or some other natural disaster it is best to have a plan if you fall victim to a home invasion.  Your first priority is to establish positive control of the people in your home that you are in charge of protecting.  That means grabbing your gun and moving your ass to get to them. This is the only time you should maneuver around in your home. When you move, do so deliberately and with a purpose. If you find yourself in a position where the bad guy is between you and your kids, you need to harness your inner momma bear and fight.  This is where training comes into play.  Knowing when it’s safe to shoot and when it’s not is extremely important. Once you have positive control of everyone you’re protecting, either barricade yourself in place or go to a predetermined location.

Barricade in a Predetermined Location

When establishing your plan it is important to choose a space in your home that you can fortify and easily defend.  If exiting your home safely is possible, I would recommend doing that.  Go to a trusted neighbor's house if possible and call the police.  You want to keep the bad guy(s) away from you and your loved ones if at all possible. No “thing” in your house is worth putting yourself or them in harm's way. 

There are a few things to consider when choosing a room to barricade in.  One is how many points of entry the room has, ideally there should be only one.  Next, consider where you and your family will be in the room.  I recommend getting behind something such as a bed or dresser towards the opposite corner of the door with your family behind you.  This is to provide cover and reduce your silhouette. While choosing your positioning, also consider where you will be aiming your firearm.  You should be aiming straight at the door with consideration of where the bullet is going to go if you miss.  Remember your firearm safety rules; “know your target, what’s around and behind it.” If you miss and shoot into your neighbor’s house you could possibly injure or kill someone you don’t intend to.  That could lead to you facing criminal and or civil charges.  So think about these things when you are coming up with your plan.  

Once you have positive control of your family and you are all barricaded in your predetermined location, you need to get the cops on the way.     

Call 911 and Leave the Line Open

Ideally another responsible member of your household should be in charge of calling 911 while following you to gather the rest of your family.  This could be anyone mature enough to speak clearly on the phone with police dispatch.  Someone like your spouse, a grandparent or your eldest child for example.  

When the 911 dispatcher answers, the person calling needs to say in a clear voice your address, that there is an intruder in your home, you are in fear for your life and your family’s life, that you are barricaded in a room, have a gun, and to send help immediately.  It is a good idea to let the police know what room of the house you are in.  You can do this by either marking a window or hanging something bright out of it and letting the police dispatcher know so they can inform the responding officers. 

Now here is the other really important part.  Keep the dispatcher on the line until you are face-to-face with the responding officers.  The reason for this is because 911 records all calls so as long as you keep the line open they will keep recording.  This will serve as a record if you do have to use your firearm to defend yourself.  You want to be able to prove that you did everything in your power to avoid an altercation.  

When the police arrive on scene follow all their instructions and allow them to secure the scene.  If you are armed it is extremely important before you let them in that you make your weapon safe and put it on the floor away from anyone.  When the police enter the room they will secure the weapon and check to make sure everyone is ok.  Do not greet the police with a gun in your hand.  The last thing you want is to be confused with the bad guy they are looking for. 

Don’t go Hunting

Once you secure your family and call 911 it is vital that you stay put and wait for police to arrive.  There are several reasons why this is important but it really boils down to a few key points.  

One of the main reasons is that you don’t know how many intruders are in your home. If you start “clearing” your home, you are more likely to walk into an ambush or be overwhelmed by your attackers.  One-man room clearing requires a different set of tactics and it is a dangerous gamble.  If you do not have to do it, don’t. Don’t get me wrong, when you are in the “gathering your family” stage of this process, you absolutely need to do what you have to do to make sure your loved ones are safe and secure.  That could mean moving and maneuvering with your weapon through your house with a good chance you will make contact with the intruders.  So be ready and seek quality training so you know what to do. However, once you and your family are secured the risk of you leaving them to play “SEAL Team Ranger” is not worth it.  And again when police arrive you don’t want to be confused with the bad guy.

Another reason is if you do go hunting, make contact, and kill or injure the intruder, now it looks like you went looking for a fight.  You became the aggressor and the courts might see it that way.  You do not want to leave any doubt that you had a choice to defend yourself.  

And finally, let's say you do come out on top of that fight and you kill the intruder(s).  You have to live with that in more ways than one.  There will be an investigation and possibly criminal and or civil charges.  Your home will literally become a murder scene, so investigators will be all over your home and that will eventually need to be cleaned up professionally.  Your family will not feel safe, so more than likely they will want to move and will probably need counseling.  Those are just some potential things that need to be considered well beforehand even if it was a 100% justified shoot.        

Final Thoughts

Going back to the story in the beginning of this article you can now get a better picture of how that situation could be handled better.   

I realize that this is a very heavy subject and unfortunately there is not a foolproof solution that will solve every situation.  This article is not meant to scare you but rather to make you aware of some considerations while developing your home defensive plan.  There are a lot more things to consider when it comes to home defense so I highly recommend you seek training from qualified professionals.  Our team at Intuitive Self Protection offers courses on home defense as well as many other disciplines such as Defensive Firearm Training, Active Shooter Training, and Edge Weapon Defense.  We offer customized training to suit your specific needs.  There is no substitute for legitimate training. Solid tactics in conjunction with a sharpened skill-set will always put you in an advantageous position in these situations.  It is your responsibility to be ready.