Welcome to Aftermath, a portion of our First Line email newsletter where Attorney Anthony L. DeWitt walks you through a real-life self-defense incident and shares his key takeaways.
In a quiet Chicago neighborhood where witnesses say nothing ever happens, an 80-year-old man answered a knock at his door and found a young man and a woman waiting for him. The duo pushed their way in and assaulted him, demanding the homeowner give them money.
The gentleman fought back. The bigger, younger and stronger male beat him badly, putting him in critical condition when he was later hospitalized. In spite of being beaten nearly to unconsciousness, the defender retrieved his firearm and shot the attacker once in the chest. The woman fled. Both intruders were arrested. The shot attacker was in critical condition from his gunshot wound.
How important is it to have quick access to your firearm in a home invasion scenario? What are effective ways to ensure your firearm is both secure and accessible?
Very interesting. We’ve talked at length about this. I don’t live in the most peaceful and calm area, I have, on occasion, answered my door with firearm in hand, not visible to the guy outside but ready. for this discussion I think I’ll have to go with Concealed Carry, have it on your person and ready to fire. That way if the visit is criminal you have defensive means readily available, if the visit is innocent the visitor is none the wiser.
The more secure your weapon is, the less accessible it is. On the other side of the coin the more accessible your weapon is, the less secure it is. It’s a Catch 22. Keeping a firearm ALWAYS secure and ALWAYS accessible is nearly impossible.
The best option would be to have a vault with some sort of biometric scanner or touch pad. You place your fingers on the scanner or punch in a code, taking precious seconds away from you and your vault opens. In theory. There is always a chance there is a failure in the scanner or in your haste to punch in the code, you punch it in incorrectly. You have to redo, taking more of those precious seconds away from you.
I’m one of those guys who has his EDC on his hip almost 24 hours a day. I take it off only when the hour is late and its shower time/bedtime. By the time I get ready for my shower, My Wife is already in bed. The kids are already lost in dream land. The only other person awake in the house is my oldest son/ninja spider monkey in the front room with his face stuck in some anime cartoon on his laptop. My Wife’s pistol is on her nightstand. My pistol goes on my nightstand. I go get a shower then crawl in bed. Morning time rolls around I put on my pants, belt, holster and pistol. then everything else. The routine does not change.
Is my weapon always accessible? Yes. Is my weapon always secure? No, only when it is in the holster on my hip.
Same as @BRUCE26 and @Mike164 I live in the country but I also have a locked screen door and alarm system more for wife’s comfort when I was gone alot but now retired and home.
Sounds a lot like my house. When I get ready for a shower and put my weapon on the nightstand, I put a revolver in the towel cabinet which is right outside the shower.
I’ve recently installed door bell camera with motion detection and phone / tablet notification.
I don’t need to struggle with firearm being accessible or not. I can see on time if I need my firearm or not.
Reinforced door with secured hinges and 3 point lock make me feel safe overnight.
I live in very quiet and safe neighborhood… but even that I want my whole Family feel safe. You never know who is driving or walking near by until something happens… Always be prepared.
Silly, criminals are mobile and can visit you where you are.
Like kids trick or treating for Halloween visit the better neighborhoods for better loot, so do criminals.
Now with all those invaders we have Venezuelan Gang members burglarizing upscale homes in bedroom neighborhoods of Nashville, Tennessee. They follow the Interstate network from the Southwest states and infiltrate all of the continental USA .
Unless your state in not part of the National Interstate Highway System, or you live in Hawaii or Alaska beyond the limited roads in the south part of that state and need an airplane to reach you, as some day you might be more vulnerable than now.
That’s what I’ve noticed at my location.
Criminals are using tricks these days. You can have visitors from your City Hall, or Comed, or Nicor or any utility Company… and those visits are only to investigate and test your house and house security. They wait few weeks or months to be sure you forget about them and then strike…
Why do I get the sense it read like, “once upon a time?”
Ring doorbell camera is cheap but dependent on wifi. Still, the most affordable option out there other than the free,
“don’t answer the door if you’re not expecting anyone.”
As for accessibility, I mostly carry IWB at home.
If not, I have three specific spots where I keep my pistol in a pocket holster depending on what I’m doing.
Lazy criminals are lazy. There are also stupid criminals.
But those two groups can be found on low level security neighborhoods.
If you feel safe at your location, you may expect smart criminal who really knows who you are, what is your daily schedule and what is the best time to act.
In this case, you need to be smart and prepared. Find something more than a gun in your holster.
I always have it on me until I go to bed. I’m not one for staging. And depending on the time of day, I might not even open that door. …unless they’re pushing a cart that says, “Free Ammo”, in which case I’d probably get sucked into that one.
Also, if I decided to open the door after seeing who’s out there, I only open it a little and have my foot up against it (toes on door, the rest of the foot on the floor). It provides a lot of friction (wearing shoes, of course) and someone would have to get a running start to force the door open any more than that.
Of course my primary “defense” is that the front of my house looks the least appealing from the street (this area is all custom homes, not a housing tract). If anyone was looking to break into a house in my neighborhood and they evaluate based on risk vs reward, mine would rank at the bottom for potential reward. I like my neighbors so the grass is green and the roses look nice. But the house itself is very uninteresting from the front and you can’t see into the backyard. Some of the other houses are much larger, with four car garages, expensive boats and RVs that are visible, decked out entryways, and backyards that are visible from the street with expensive pools and $50k outdoor kitchens with big screen TVs. Mine is not the house that anyone is going to be looking to break into.
A lot of doors that work “against” law abiding citizens, don’t stand up to being forced by those that don’t care what they break.
Many give in to one, or two well placed kicks shattering the locking mechanism out of the frame if not reenforced.
Motion detector lights, and a driveway alarm might be a help beyond reenforcing entry points giving more time to get your defensive gun into play before being rushed.
P.S. If they want to target a home on a “Jeep Road” they will just steel or jack a jeep.
Granted not being an upscale home in an upscale neighborhood won’t attract this particular high end Venezuelan gang.
But, any punk desperate enough to get his next drug fix before he goes into withdrawal has motivated some otherwise lazy individuals to seek a path to their next fix.
Or, a desperate fugitive using your area as an escape route from his pursers might attack any target of opportunity for whatever he seeks:
A place to hide, money, food, another getaway vehicle not yet known
to his pressures.
Whatever he wants.
A lot of off the beat and path properties get burglarized because the criminals know enough people are lax about their security, and will lazily take advantage of those lax attitudes.
.
a home on a “Jeep Road” they will just steel or jack a jeep.