SHOTGUNS AND HOME DEFENSE – Part Three

In a perfect world, in a perfect reality, if a citizen is in danger because a criminal has broken into his home, the first thing to do would be to call the police, wait for them to arrive and secure him and his family.

Unfortunately, the world is not absolutely perfect and reality is not only imperfect but also merciless.

It is obvious that calling the police remains one of the main priorities but if I want to get to do a reliable planning, I have to rely on the logic that is aseptic.

Calling the police necessarily involves 2 factors, time and noise.

Now the time is an extremely variable parameter and depends on several factors but even if you lived in the building next to the police station, the intervention time could be longer than that of a direct contact with the threat.

What you need to do is a simple analysis of some parameters based on where you live:

a) average time for the operator to process a call

b) average time for police intervention at your home

c) any setbacks or delays in the intervention

This will give you a projection of the approximate time in which you will be alone in facing the threat and you will be the one who determines the position of the call in the field of priorities.

Another parameter that you will have to manage is the noise, since it is a phone call, considering the high level of stress, this too will be difficult and requires training in being concise and communicating essential information to the operator in the shortest possible time, trying to stay rational and calm ( won’t be easy , would be really important that you train the whole family to face that call under stress ).

The call will involve noise, which could track your position and the fact that you are awake and you are calling the police.

This could generate 2 kinds of reactions in whoever has entered your home: Escape or Attack.

I want to be clear, the police, the officers, they do an extraordinary work everyday putting their life in danger for the community, they do it with enormous sacrifices and if sometimes they fail to response in efficient time to a call, this depends not on their fault but on an endemic lack of the system in terms of public security which is common worldwide.

It is the same principle as fire extinguishers, fires and firefighters, in this case firearms are essential tools to cover the emergencies and immediate needs of a citizen who is in danger of life due to a criminal action that is undergoing.

Owning a firearm is like owning a fire extinguisher, both are tools that can save our lives in an emergency, the difference is only in the fact that improper use of the former can lead us to the morgue or to court.

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TARC APPLICATION

You will have to establish what the threshold will be, the point of no return, that is the threshold, that once crossed by the threat, will involve your maximum application of force, but however things will go, if you are the one who prevails, it will not be over there, you will have consequences and it will not be at all like a walk.

THE 7 DEFENSIVE PRIORITIES

1) PREVENTION – Prevent Access or Detect the threat as soon as possible (technology and active security measures )

2) READY CONDITION – Access to the weapon and go to ready condition in the shortest time possible (planning and training)

3) FAMILY ORP – ( Objective Rally Point )Gather the family in the closest and safest point previously planned (train the procedure with the whole family, if there are children put it in the form of a funny game – Timing everything phase by phase )

4) STATIC DEFENSE – Defending the position, this means defending the ORP in a static way, we must be sure that the whole family is behind us and in front of us there is only the threat. At that point we will defend the threshold of the point of no return. Identify strengths such as corridors, stairs or doors and find the best vantage point to cover the threshold.

5) CALL THE POLICE – In a rational order of priority based on the TARC model the call should be made when I am in a ready condition and I have secured my family, it can also take place simultaneously, i.e. performed by another member of the family, but remember this will take TIME and will generate NOISE.

If there is no automatic call sent by your alarm system to a security company or directly to police, you need to decide when to make the call. This may take time and generate noise, if the threat has entered your home, you will be in direct contact before the police arrive, especially if they hear you, at which point it may be too late to recover the family members, gather them and defend the threshold. You must avoid having dirty lines of contact in every way, this means that there must never be a threat between you and your family or even between you and a single member.

6 – APPLY THE 2 LOOP

LOOP 1:Breathe – Listen – Analyze – Rationalize – Act

LOOP 2: Hold your position – dominate your critical area – Wait for Police

7 – CALL YOUR LAWYER

If you have acted with your firearm to defend yourself and the family, call your lawyer because you will be in a state of strong agitation or shock, like the rest of the family, but you must pay absolute attention to what you say or how the “scene of crime” will be collected.

The accidentally moving of a single object of the scene could change completely the dynamics of the facts .

Remember that a judge will be called to evaluate your actions even after years from “that night”, he will do it calmly, inside an aseptic courtroom based exclusively on crime scene findings and witnesses included the first officers arrived on the scene.

No one will ever be able to actually evaluate your emotional state of that moment.

If there are no immediate health needs, the timely presence of a lawyer is essential.

WARNING

If you don’t live alone, and if there aren’t specific needs, forget to go around the house to clean up the various rooms like the FBI HRT, just because you have done some CQB courses and spent a few hours in a killing house at the range, this could generate 2 fatal errors.

1) You would go and look for direct contact, which you should instead avoid, because at best, you will have are legal consequences and costs, but at worst you will pay the price of the gamble and your family could also pay high price for your presumption .

2) By moving you would leave your family and if a threat were to come between you and them it means that by shooting in the direction of the threat you would shoot in the direction of your family, evaluate the consequences by yourself .

Gentlemen you can write what you want in your comments on social media, because it’s easy and quite safe, but the reality is imperfect, merciless and offers no guarantee or certainty to anyone .

Do not base your strategy and tactics on some cool action movies or on some cool videos on YT , because in the movies everyone shoots, many die but no one ever pays the consequences in a courtroom and at the range nobody shoot you back.

For those who say : ” …Better a bad trial in a courtroom than a good funeral in the cemetery … ” remember you might have both leaving also the bill to pay to your family !

NEXT POINT : WEAPON FLASHLIGHT POSITION IN HOME DEFENSE pros and cons .