The Hard Part of Armed Defense

I wrote about this story earlier. Now we know a little more after the defender spoke to local reporters. A mom with two kids was attacked in her home at night. She announced to the robbers that she was there. She shouted that she was armed. The robbers shot at her about a half-dozen times and wounded her twice. She was wounded as she held her infant daughter on her hip. She shot back and retreated. She huddled in her bedroom as she was protecting her two small children. The wounded mom begged the robbers to leave. Eventually, they did, but not before they shot at her home 30 times.

One of the robbers was wounded. All three were arrested. This is what we can learn.

Bad guys avoid a fair fight. If they responded to fairness and justice, then they wouldn’t have broken into your home in the first place. Your priority is to be there so you can take care of your children when this is over. You want to avoid being shot, and even being shot at. You definitely want to avoid facing multiple attacker at the same time. The sooner your attackers can’t hurt you the less shot you’ll get.

You don’t have to announce that you are home. You don’t have to announce that you have a gun. You don’t have to say anything to three men who broke into your home in the middle of the night. This isn’t an old-time radio drama. This isn’t a movie where the good guys and bad guys give a monologue before the fight scene. You don’t have to shoot the bad guy from the front or from a position where they can see you at all.

For example, it is hard to get shot if you’re shooting from the back of a dark bedroom and the bad guys are standing in a lighted hallway. Consider that situation for a moment. Some people think that a gunfight is won by the person who draws and shoots the fastest. That tells me you have been watching too many late-night westerns. The person who wins is usually the person with a better plan.

The hard part of self-defense is being ready for a serious but unlikely event.

Notice that the bad guys had to break into this home because the doors and windows were locked. They made noise. That noise alerted the mom and gave her time to react. She called her partner on the phone and then grabbed their gun.

You want to know when you can legally use lethal force to defend yourself. Study that enough so that you recognize a situation rather than having to think it through as it unfolds. Learn if you can shoot a stranger who breaks down your bedroom door in the middle of the night. Knowing what you can and should do makes you faster.

Practice a safety plan with your family. There are good plans and bad plans. Avoid a plan that puts you in a gunfight where bullets are going both ways. Don’t stand in the middle of your hallway and talk to people who broke into your home. Your children will be less frightened if they have rehearsed the family safety plan with you several times.

Let us imagine a very different encounter than this news story. This defender would have a huge advantage if-

• her children were under her bed,
• she was crouched down behind the bed,
• she had her gun pointed at her locked bedroom door,
• and 911 was on the phone.

How would your safety plan make you and your family safer?

This mom did a lot of things right. She and her child are also lucky to be alive. She was shot twice while she had a child in her arms and either shot was a few inches from being a fatal wound. This was the first time she had held a firearm. Give yourself every advantage so you survive even if you don’t have luck on your side. Practice with your defensive tools before you need them.

As a final aside, the robbers broke into her home looking for drugs and money. Lose your roommates who have a drug problem.. and then change the locks.