5 scenarios your family should train for

Many of us realize that the key to a good bugout is all of the preparation which is done prior to the actual event taking place.  Pre-positioning all of the bugout gear, talking through various scenarios, conducting rehearsals with family members which results in being able to efficiently evacuate a home in mere minutes with all required equipment.  Natural disasters aside the chances of having to conduct an actual SHTF bugout are slim.  Admittedly most of us would prefer to bug in given the choice and still we train just in case the need ever arises.  We train because we do not want to be caught off guard, 20 minutes to leave the home and all of the SHTF gear is in unorganized piles throughout the basement and garage.

It’s safe to assume you have your bugout strategy nailed down but what about other life threatening scenarios which are far more likely to occur in your home?  Do you practice with your family what each person should do in the event of a home intruder?  Do you have a plan for multiple intruders?  Or is the shotgun under the bed and the knowledge that “dad knows what to do” your family’s only plan?

Because home invasions are typically filed as a robbery, burglary, battery, assault, rape, or murder, keeping the public informed of the frequency of home invasions within their communities is difficult. However, thanks to data gathered by the FBI and Statistics USA, we’re able to get a better idea of the prevalence of this sinister crime:

-Home burglaries occur approximately every 15 seconds in the U.S.

-Most home intruders force their way into homes through the front door.

-From 1994 to 2000, an average of 3,600,000 home invasions occurred each year.

-In the U.S. alone, 1 out of every 5 homes will be victimized by a violent home invasion or burglary.

Source: Global Security Experts

I would submit to you that any well laid plan to defend your home against evil doers should involve discussing a few scenarios which I have listed below and rehearsing your plan of action to deal with those scenarios.  Rehearse them during daylight hours first, just talking through some of your considerations and “what ifs.”  Once you feel like you have a decent plan try to implement it during the evening or even during the middle of the night unexpectedly.  Dialing 911 should always be part of your plan and additionally please remember to never train with loaded weapons.   I can only assume that my plan(s) will differ from yours because we all have different family sizes, ages of children, home layouts, dogs/alarms and proximity to law enforcement).

5 Scenarios To Train For.

1- Bad guy(s) outside the house, trying to gain entry.

It’s the middle of the night and your dog starts barking.  You wake up and look out the window, you think you see a shadow and a bit of movement outside…or did you see two figures?  What’s the plan?  Someone calls 911 but they are at least 10 minutes away on a good day.  You hear glass break downstairs while you reach for your shotgun.  What to do with your family?  Your dog won’t stop barking now and your wife is freaking out.  You want to go downstairs but aren’t sure how many men there could be in the home.  What are you going to do?

2- Intruder in the house, unknown location.

You wake up to the sound of breaking glass, instinctively you reach for the shotgun beside your bed.  You hear your dog barking loudly and then a large yelp, your dog has gone silent.  Nobody else is awake yet but in the fog of your mind you quickly realize someone is in the house, either going through items in another room or mere seconds from entering your bedroom.  The kids are down the hall, you need to call 911, you are fumbling with the safety on the shotgun and stubbed your toe trying to quickly move across the bedroom.  Your wife calls your name out, it’s only been 15 seconds since waking up but feels like an eternity.  You shouldn’t have drank those 4 glasses of wine before bed, you hear another sound in another room.  Now what?

3- Multiple Intruders in the house, unknown location.

Everything that happened in scenario #2 except you hear multiple voices.  You’ve only got one shotgun which happens to be a side by side coach gun (2 shots), will it be enough?  Your wife could use your pistol to back you up but you have never practiced that before.  Does she even know what sectors of fire means?  You have seconds to react, no time to explain.  You wish you had practiced this like PJ told you to.  This is when you realize your pistol is locked up in the safe in your office along with the rest of your shotgun ammunition.

4- Unexpected attack, forced entry.

Ding dong, that’s your doorbell.  Your wife opens the door because two men in uniforms are standing there holding clipboards.  As soon as she opens the door they bum rush her and force their way into your home, pulling pistols out simultaneously.  In a mere second this has gone from mundane to armed robbery and you are in the garage working on your lawnmower.  Are you even armed?  Where is everyone else in the house, do they know what to do?

5- Dad isn’t home, intruder alert.

This is one of my biggest fears.  Let’s say you have to travel for business and any one of the above scenarios happens while your wife and children are home.  Do they know what to do?  Has your wife actually trained with weapons enough to know how to employ them in the dark?  Or does she just pop a few rounds off at the range and hand you an empty gun which you reload for her…

The bottom line.

I’m not suggesting that everyone in your house should sleep in a 360 degree perimeter keeping one person up at all times to pull guard duty.  What I am suggesting is that you take a little time to discuss/rehearse practical and rational reactions to likely life threatening scenarios which statistics tell us are quite likely to occur.  You might be thinking something like this could never happen to you, after all your home is in the suburbs and you live next door to a cop.  I bet Melinda Hermin never thought she would be putting her recently acquired gun skills to use earlier this month to defend her children from an intruder.  I also believe Dr. William Petit never thought it could happen to his family either (tragically it did).

In dramatic testimony, a prominent Connecticut doctor described how he was beaten in his sleep and woke up face-to-face with two men who sexually assaulted, tortured and killed his wife and two daughters in a brutal home invasion.

Dr. William Petit, who took the stand Tuesday at the trial of one of the men accused of murdering his family, was the sole survivor of the 2007 attack. He told the court for the first time how Steven Hayes, along with co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky, allegedly broke into his Cheshire home, raped his wife and one of his daughters and set the house on fire.