Tactical Decision Game ST-2: Home Invasion (Solution and Discussion)

Our second TDG scenario presented the following problem: Your home in a rural subdivision is the second target of a home invasion in as many weeks. In the middle of the night, you awaken to a crash and an alarm from your phone when the downstairs back door is forced open. You and your wife are in the master bedroom; your adolescent daughter is in her bedroom at the other end of the open second floor hallway. You hear voices from the first floor. You and your wife each have a Glock 19 in your nightstand; you have discussed such a scenario but have not planned or rehearsed a response. What do you do now? 

Solution #1

I tell my wife to move to the open doorway between our bedroom and the master bath, stay put, call 911, and then shoot anyone who comes through the bedroom door.

I will grab my pistol and sprint the length of the hallway into my daughter's room. Once inside her doorway, I'll watch the top of the stairs and can engage anyone climbing the stairs to the second floor.

Rationale:

• Based on the gunfight during last week's home invasion at a neighbor's house, I assume that this is likely to be the same crew, that they are armed and ruthless, and that they won't hesitate to fire on whomever they see. Verbal challenge, negotiation, or surrender are not options.
• My wife and I have trained with our handguns but haven't trained together as a team or in close quarter tactics. I don't want to expose her to immediate danger, but I trust her to go where I direct her, stay there, and shoot well if anyone comes through the door into the bedroom.
• I don't know if the intruders are yet in the front half of the house with a view to the open hallway upstairs, but if I wait, they will be soon. The time to move is now.
• My daughter is not mentally or emotionally prepared for this, and I don't know how she will react if left alone in her room. I can only communicate with her by shouting, which the intruders could hear, understand, and exploit.
• I am fit enough and already adrenalized enough to sprint the length of the hallways fast enough that an intruder (if one is even in a position to see me) is unlikely to be able to acquire me as a target and hit me in the 2-3 seconds it will take me to get inside my daughter's room.
• From my daughter's doorway, I can see the top half of the stairs and the entire upstairs hallway. My wife will be safely out of my line of fire if I need to shoot. From a braced kneeling position just inside the doorway, I will be able to engage anyone coming up the stairs but remain invisible to anyone on the first floor.
• My possessions and property on the first floor are of no importance compared to the safety of my family. None of us will move from these positions until deputies arrive in response to our 911 call.

Solution #2 (This solution differs in one significant respect)

I tell my wife to grab her weapon and reload, stay close, and follow me to our daughter's room – fast as we can. I'll wait for her at the door and confirm her readiness before I move.

Rationale:

Despite the risk of exposure to both of us in this move, it is better for us to stay together than be separated: Two weapons, two shooters, twice the ammo, and both of us to defend our daughter and provide care for one another.

DISCUSSION:

What prior preparations or actions would improve your chances of success in a situation like this?

Train. Any training is better than none at all, but proficiency with the firearm is only the first step. Tactical training appropriate to your situation is at least as important. The husband in this scenario at least understands the principle of the 3-second rush, and the importance of having a clear field of fire that doesn't endanger your partner. There are many more lessons regarding the use of cover and concealment, and other aspects of fighting inside a structure that would make he and his wife safer and more effective.

Plan. Dwight Eisenhower, reflecting on the SNAFUs that occurred on D-Day in 1944, famously said, "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." Especially after a home invasion in the neighborhood last week – which should definitively cure your "It can't happen here" normalcy bias – a plan for just this scenario should be in place, discussed, and rehearsed. At least in the first critical moments, the plan gives you an anchor point, an initial response, upon which you can improvise as needed. In the heat of the moment, any tattered shred of memory of the plan may provide an answer to "Oh no, what's happening, what do I do NOW?" Let each eventuality be not a surprise, but a recognizable branch in a timeline that you've considered and devised a response for.

Rehearse. When the plan is in place, walk through it with everyone, more than once. Modify the plan when problems show up. Rehearse more. Those who shy away from even thinking about such things can treat it as a game, or may even achieve some level of stress inoculation, giving them a simple, learned path to follow when they're scared out of their minds and unable to think clearly and react appropriately.

Immediate Action Drill. What you've actually done here is more simply and accurately described as the creation of an IAD. We discussed this in Community Defense Part 4, with a variation of this same scenario as an example. An IAD, simply put, is an immediate response to a specific stimulus, that can be performed with minimal thought and without waiting for instructions. Here, the stimulus is an unanticipated, violent break-in at your home when all family members are upstairs. Most plans have branches, variables, and complex decision trees, which are fine when you have time to gather information, assemble assets, and consider the next step. In the scenario presented here, you have only seconds, that must be utilized for action, not contemplation or debate over possible courses of action. Lacking a well-formulated and rehearsed IAD, you would have no time in a situation like this one to plan, debate, decide, and communicate; and everyone else in your family or on your team is going to be reaching for their own answer that may not mesh well with yours.

Equip. You solve problems and save lives primarily by applying your most effective weapon – your mind. All the above considerations are more important than equipment, but since we can all walk and chew gum at pretty much the same time, you might give thought to whether 9mm handguns are the optimum tools for home defense. If that is what you have, you must simply understand their strengths and limitations, and use them well. In advance of trouble, however, you might consider that we only rely on a handgun for situations where a long gun is impractical or unavailable. A shotgun or semiautomatic rifle that you have trained with is easily an order of magnitude better in a gunfight. Within reach when the back door is kicked in, it could provide a significant advantage or at least level the playing field if your adversary brings his own to the fight.

If the bedside kit included body armor with an IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit) attached, a few seconds spent donning it would greatly enhance our odds of survival and success.

Anything that provides you with earlier detection of the adversary, and therefore more time for reaction on your part, would shift the odds in your favor. Dogs that will rouse you from a sound sleep may occasionally be an annoyance, but could be a lifesaving asset in this situation.

Every barrier, obstacle, or difficulty you can pose an adversary accrues, and may deter him, or at least delay him so you have a few more seconds or minutes to gather your wits and "prepare to receive him."

You will find much more discussion of various useful options in our multi-part Force Multipliers series, starting here.