We've all had the thought about a nutcase breaking down our door looking to rape your couch, eat your pizza, and ruin your day, right? We've each gamed out how we'd react to an intruder, and it usually ends with them staring down the barrel of your home defense gun...
So I just had a thought about a less-obvious "shoot or don't shoot" scenario, a "what would you do?"
You're downstairs in the kitchen having a midnight snack, and your two or three family dogs are "there to help." Their attention is focused on you when there's a violent banging on the door. A loud, and possibly inebriated man is beating your door down, shouting profanities, threats, etc.
The dogs go completely ape, and they charge the door barking like the zombiepocalypse has finally arrived. You retrieve your handy XDm/Glock/SIG and right as you do, the knucklehead outside shoots through the door...
And kills your dogs.
How do you respond? This is a toughie, because we're taught not to shoot through obstacles because we can't see where the bullets are going. You're certainly NOT going to open the door to the maniac, but he HAS presented a mortal threat to you.
Do you:
He may instead be trying to figure out how to get in so he can finish the task (and you). If you expose yourself at a window to see, you stand a chance of taking a bullet if he's actually going to enter. Shouted commands at the miscreant may not be effective because he's just discharged a gun several times next to your door and may be deafened as a result.
Notes: I'm not trying to "stir up trouble" with this post and request when the inevitable name-calling and impolite behaviors commence they are toned down. Also, I don't have any answers, but suspect that complex problems like this are the way these things go down, not a simple "crazy breaks down your door" scenario. Gaming out these weird-but-possible situations may prevent us from having trouble because we never thought about them before they came up.
So I just had a thought about a less-obvious "shoot or don't shoot" scenario, a "what would you do?"
You're downstairs in the kitchen having a midnight snack, and your two or three family dogs are "there to help." Their attention is focused on you when there's a violent banging on the door. A loud, and possibly inebriated man is beating your door down, shouting profanities, threats, etc.
The dogs go completely ape, and they charge the door barking like the zombiepocalypse has finally arrived. You retrieve your handy XDm/Glock/SIG and right as you do, the knucklehead outside shoots through the door...
And kills your dogs.
How do you respond? This is a toughie, because we're taught not to shoot through obstacles because we can't see where the bullets are going. You're certainly NOT going to open the door to the maniac, but he HAS presented a mortal threat to you.
Do you:
- Engage through the door?
- Run for your safest room and call the "first-chalk-outliners?"
He may instead be trying to figure out how to get in so he can finish the task (and you). If you expose yourself at a window to see, you stand a chance of taking a bullet if he's actually going to enter. Shouted commands at the miscreant may not be effective because he's just discharged a gun several times next to your door and may be deafened as a result.
Notes: I'm not trying to "stir up trouble" with this post and request when the inevitable name-calling and impolite behaviors commence they are toned down. Also, I don't have any answers, but suspect that complex problems like this are the way these things go down, not a simple "crazy breaks down your door" scenario. Gaming out these weird-but-possible situations may prevent us from having trouble because we never thought about them before they came up.