Tactical Home Defense for Home Owners - Pt. 2

This is a brief entry tied to the first entry on this subject here.

Again, this isn't designed to turn you into an expert in urban warfare or even skilled - I don't like warfare and I hope I never see anything like it again in my life - strangely though I feel very comfortable in the midst of it and turmoil because turmoil provides its own level of anonymity and while the massess are hysterical and trying to make sense of it all and figure out what's going on that's the time to move and take action.

While I was a missionary for the LDS church in Baton Rouge some time ago, I was making friends in the "hood" or the ghettos of east baton rouge and was talking with the local drug dealers who were interested in getting their lives in order, a drive-by occurred where we were at.  I was a civilian again.

I heard the first shot and no stranger to gun-fire, I immediately knew what it was before the slide had even finished loading the next round, and from a sitting position, I cleared a full blown picnic table in one leap - from sitting - and was on the other side of a building and taking cover and then was across a clear gap between two buildings and took cover in an abandoned building while everyone else in the projects were still screaming.  The next people to catch up with me were a good 45 seconds at least behind me which is two lifetimes when gunfire is being exchanged..  People were still screaming while I was running and taking cover.  In short - people don't handle hysteria that well in dangerous situations. They go into shock.  Part of that mentality in my personal experience is that people expect too much and think they are entitled to things they aren't entitled to - like an explanation - and have the mentality that "it can't happen to me" or "I'm special so it won't happen to me" and when people live their entire lives this way - it's a cozy comfort to them but totally unrealistic - when it does happen - it totally discombobulates them to the point that they can't function.

Again one of the first parts of my training was being prepared to go all the way, and realizing that we aren't superman - it CAN happen to you - and if you aren't careful in our profession (military / law enforcement ) it WILL happen - it was only a mathematical certainty and matter of time.  Being prepared, cautious, ready, and following your training won't guarantee you that it won't happen - but it will improve the odds.

At any rate, I'm not going to go into detail on how to clear a house.  Clearing a house is something that's better left to the professionals - law enforcement.  If you think someone's in your house - call the police!  Don't go in unless you're trained and have help.

HOWEVER - if you do decide to do this - one thing you don't want to do is "corner" an intruder.  Always give your intruder - YOUR intruder - you own him now - his @$$ belongs to you - you can even name him! - something like "Idiot" or "jackass in my house" would be appropriate - a way to escape.  The goal is to avoid confrontation where they feel trapped and combative.  Unlike what you see in military films where the objective is to "get" the guy", as a civilian your objective is to avoid harm, secure your house, avoid a confrontation, and let the authorities deal with it and avoid getting in trouble yourself by breaking the law.

scenic walk through a building!

This in mind, a few things apply if you find yourself in a situation where you're clearing your own house - the main one being: leave them an out - an escape path.  You don't want to corner someone in your house.  Normally when clearing a house - often - our tactic as military police was to start at the top floor and work our way down.  This allowed our adversary/intruder/suspect the feeling of safety where they could "escape" out the ground floor and run out of the building.  There we had other police waiting for them to catch them - but they weren't cornered like an animal, trapped, scared, combative -and on who-knows-what ready to do who-knows-what to defend themselves.  Jump out a window?  You don't want that.  Depending on how we were doing things, we often would be noisy if we knew they were in there and would try to "drive" them - give them the opportunity to know where we were to drive them and make it clear which way they were to escape and they would choose to escape away from us....and into the trap set outside with other waiting officers.

Worst case we'd use the dogs but dogs scare people if they don't intimidate them and they can provoke all sorts of reactions from someone who's trapped, hiding, scared and on heaven knows what. 

This is just a thought but I thought I'd share.