The person breaking into your living room through the window with you standing in the living room. They’re inside your house and quickly realize their error when they see your gun pointed at them. They drop their weapon …
What would you do now?
(This is meant to be a mental training scenario. Think through the logistics and legalities as you answer. Please share your answers so we can learn from each other. I’ll post some questions and ideas after you all have a shot at it!)
Tell them to back away from their gun to a distance I’m satisfied they can’t reach it. Have my wife call 911, while I remain standing across the room from the invader with my weapon trained on him/her. While we wait for the police, I’d have my wife an son go to our “safe spot” just in case the burglar had accomplices. I would much rather explain to an officer why I have a person lying on my living floor, alive, while I held a gun on them, than to be explaining why I felt the need to shot them. Mentally, I think the fallout would be less, than if I shot them. I don’t want to shoot anyone. I want to end a threat to me and my family.
I’m on board with 45 on his scenario. The last thing I want to do is having to shoot the intruder.
I’m agreeing 100% with @45IPAC
Get family safe, position myself where I control the angles of the room incase there are multiple suspects. Staying on the line with law enforcement and giving them as much detail as possible so they don’t come into the house ready to shoot. Gotta let them know the situation is under control. I’m not bagging on cops but they’re responding and the adrenaline is going to be flowing. I want them as calm as possible cause I don’t want to get shot.
Y’all are all over this 
Adding some details: after having them move away, have them put their hands behind their head and either kneel or lay face down (depending on where there are and available space) and cross their ankles. If its too tight, I might scoot the gun away with my foot (but don’t touch).
The 911 phone on speaker and set on a nearby surface so my hands are free.
Someone else in the household on another phone making calls to family, lawyer, uscca.
If hubby’s home, he’s probably covering them while I make phone calls, regardless of which of us originally stopped the threat.
Again, like @Zee said, @45IPAC and everyone are spot on.
But what if, this is one of the Druggies that feel like they are God and they want to test you, inching little by little towards you? Not everyone will just lay down and comply.
If they broke in through the window, and in my apartment with the setup I have it’s no easy feat, then they are not planning on sitting down and having a cup of joe with you. They mean to do you and anyone with you, serious bodily harm or death. If they didn’t, they would have turned around and ran out. It is illegal to shoot someone running away. So if they were still coming at me, I would be forced to shoot to stop them and if they still had the ability to come at me I would have to put them down.
Of course, the other scenario is the best where they lay down, I put Zip Tie Handcuffs on them and wait for the police to arrive. Nobody wants to terminate someone’s life.
Question: I have cameras in my apartment. Should I tell them I have cameras and any attempt at harming myself or my wife will be recorded and they will be caught?
true, they won’t. closing distance of 21’ takes less than 2 seconds so if they are closer than that, and they come at me, I probably have to shoot. if they’re down on the ground or kneeling, and they get up and come at me despite my yelling at them to stay down, I may have to shoot.
that’s one thing I absolutely don’t do… I’m someone’s greatgrandma and I’m not young enough or fit enough for grappling, nor am I trained for it, so I’m not getting anywhere near them. Getting zip ties on someone is a specialty skill and it’s a dangerous thing to do, even trained officers who do this want a backup at a distance with a drawn firearm. Definitely not something I should be trying with my life on the line.
I’ve gotten distance from them, so I don’t want to give that back.
Even if my hubby is there, I don’t want either of us moving into the “down range” area in front of my gun, so I don’t want him moving over there either.
Plus, if it all goes to heck in a handbasket, I’ve just given him a potential hostage.
Nope, not going anywhere near the bad guy.
May be useful - if they’re rational. If they’re still coming at you despite your drawn firearm staring them in the face, they may not be processing the situation very well and cameras may not make a difference. But maybe they will, so since they’re already inside your house, and you’re not giving away secrets at that point, probably worth a try.
Good point on the Zip Ties! My wife is in no way healthy enough nor strong enough to put Zip Ties on the person and she definitely is not able to handle any firearm so she can’t be my backup at a distance with a drawn firearm. Scratch that idea. No Zip Ties.
An additional thought from a LEO perspective. Sometimes the suspect will realize the police will be a few minutes away and they will hop up and run to escape or to fight. As @zee said, have them cross their ankles as they are lying face down and either place their arms straight out from their sides (like an airplane) or have them put their hands behind their head, interlacing their fingers. Those two arm positions don’t allow them to push off of the floor and get up with out broadcasting they are going to do it. Don’t let them keep their hands by their sides in a push up position because the can get up quickly and you don’t know what other weapons they may have faster access to on their body.
Also, if it is a safe position to put yourself in, get behind them, slightly to the side, so they can’t see you. They can’t formulate as strong a plan of action because they don’t know exactly where you are.
@Shepherd, How about practicing sounding like a Police Officer with commands to get on the ground and to not move? Maybe they could be convinced that you are a LEO yourself and that you are just waiting for your backup to arrive. Would they be more convinced to not ‘Try You’ and just lay there and stay alive?
@NJStraightShooter, practicing the commands would be a good idea. The practice would help two-fold in that you would actually know what you were going to say in that situation and the confident manner in which you were giving the commands would make you seem less a likely target. As you said, that confidence might convince them to not try you. If they thought you were a police officer because you gave them a strong series of commands, hey, you can’t control their thoughts. I wouldn’t identify yourself as one, some states have very strong penalties for impersonating a police officer and you wouldn’t want to fall into that situation.
Yes, that last part is understood. I have friends on our local force and if they were on and heard this call or my alarm company because I wasn’t able to respond to them, I think they would be there immediately.
@Shepherd thank you, the arm position thing was something I wanted to know more about and forgot to ask 
relative position - that makes sense. I was thinking I’d want to see their face, to watch for expression changes or tells to impending action, but that means they can see me too.
That said, if they get up and bolt, moving away from me, that’s just what’s going to happen… at that point I’m not threatened, so I’d let them go. Satisfying as it would be to have them still prone when 911 arrives, I’m not the cops so I don’t get to prevent their fleeing under those circumstances.
Thanks for encouraging me to think through another part of this.
@Zee, I don’t know how detailed you want to be, but in addition to being in the airplane position, have them put their palms up towards the ceiling/sky with the fingers spread open. This also hinders them being able to push up since their palms aren’t facing the ground. Some people don’t know, but criminals train for various situations in prison and even though you are putting them in a position of disadvantage, you might encounter one that has practiced getting up from this position. The probability is low, but still there.
I agree, if they get up and run away, your part other than being a good eye witness is done. Don’t go chasing trouble as the expression goes.
That was one of the things I was going to add - nicely done!!
I’ll put my two cents in at a future time. I want to see what everyone has to say. 
I don’t want to put in too much info into my answers because I don’t want it to sound like I’m lecturing or that I’m a know it all, so I try to balance answering stuff without over doing it. People here aren’t like my twins that readily tell me when I’m over sharing
Then they are still a threat, and like you pointed out, they didn’t break in to have a Pepsi and watch Netflix. Self defense until there is no threat.
I’m 40 years old, 6’1” and 270 lbs. I’m in fairly good physical condition. I’m not getting close enough to them to put zip ties on them. I would then be comprising my greatest assets of the moment, distance, and the “high ground.” If I’m that close, and trying to use a zip tie, which hand has my gun? I’ll stay across the room thank you.
@Shepherd, I always want to know everything all the details, so thank you! I never thought about the idea that they might train for that but it seems totally obvious now that you mention it. I train for my job, why wouldn’t the more successful criminals train for theirs?
@Zee, What else are they going to do with their time in jail? 
Maybe they studied these things in the Prison Library. 
I wonder if anyone here has actually trained to detain someone? Proper use of restraints?
I am trained with the use of handcuffs and own a few pairs. Too tight and they cut off circulation, which can cause nerve and muscle damage. Too loose and they can escape, or injure themselves trying.
Additionally applying restraints is not always intuitive and can open you up to a counter attack where they may possibly get your weapon.
In this litigious world we live in, you are likely to be sued for restraining someone, especially if they get hurt. The person you are restraining may also do this intentionally so that they look like more of a victim than a perp. Does USCCA help in this regard? I’m assuming that’s going to depend on your states laws.