Basics of Home Security

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When to shoot, what to shoot and how to keep your family safe

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  Many people own firearms or “guns” for hunting or personal protection so in many homes having “guns” are just a normal way of life.  I personally believe in the concept that when “seconds count, the police are minutes away”.   So in the last few articles I talked about the concept of escaping your home with your kids as being your first option.  

 

  If you’ll remember, you don’t want to get into a shoot-out inside your home where your kids are running around, screaming and trying to grab you for safety.  So when you think about having a “gun” for home and personal protection, think about it as your last means of defense and not your first.  

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  From previous articles we talked about never shooting through your front door as you will most likely shoot a family member, friend or lost foreign exchange student so let’s make that a “rule”. 

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  So you’re woken up by your Small Yappy Dog, then your children bust into your bedroom screaming.  You grab your gun and shoot the next person running into the room, which is your husband, who's been rough housing with the kids.  So let’s make another “rule”:  Know who you’re shooting at, it’s a very simple rule, and it will save the life of someone you love. 

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  So where do you keep your firearm or “gun” at?  It depends…Got kids?  How about a mentally unstable family member?  What about lots of strangers in your home?  If these situations are occurring in your house then I’m thinking quick access finger coded single pistol safe. 

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  What if it’s nothing but stable adults in the home?  Or you’re living out in the country where the county sheriff can be an hour away?  Or you’re worried someone from your past will call on you at “Zero Dark Thirty”.  Then you want your primary gun within arms-reach, but the pistol is not chambered with a round.  Why?  What if you have a nightmare and someone busts into your room to check on you?  You shoot them.  So always have at least one physical action from having the weapon being able to fire, which is no round in the chamber.   So let’s make another rule:  Keep the weapon away from kids, crazies, strangers and protect innocent people from your own dumb mistakes.

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Let’s talk pistols, rifles and shotguns for home defense

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  Pistols are easy to hide, easier to handle and fairly easy to learn.  But here’s where it gets complicated:

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  Pistols can be revolvers, normally holding 6 shots or bullets and semi-automatics which can go from 6 shots to 20 shots.  Here’s the problem, very few females have the arm strength to pull the slide back on an automatic, whereas revolvers are quick to open up, but slow to reload even if you are using a speed loader.

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  Rifles are good, but they tend to go through people then walls and kill your neighbors in their bed.  Plus unless you have a semi-automatic you’re either pumping the shells into the chamber, using a bolt action lever to load the rifle, or working a lever action, or even firing a single shot rifle.  All of which takes time to do and we haven’t even talked about properly aiming the rifle in a life or death situation.

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  Shotguns are awesome, but few women can work the pump action, then aim the shotgun and fire the shotgun fast enough to make them count in a house shootout.  Plus I use double “ought” buck (size 00), which does kick a little and makes it even more hard to pump, aim and fire again, especially if you’re a 100 pound woman.

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Bullets…Don’t worry I’m grouping them together so you can understand them better.

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  So next is the bullet you will shoot, now the “professional” shooters will say the bigger the bullet, the better, but here’s the deal.  A .22 caliber bullet is the smallest bullet that is easily bought in a sporting goods store.  A .22 caliber bullet can punch into a person or animal, but it doesn’t have enough energy to exit the body, so it bounces around inside the person causing many injuries to internal organs.  The mafia loves .22 caliber bullets to the body or the head as FBI statics show the .22 caliber bullet is the mobs most preferred bullet, yes even over a 9mm.  The recoil is very easy on the hands and they really aren’t that loud.

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  Now normally the .380 and its big brother the 9mm are very popular calibers.  It’s easy to find the bullets in most sporting goods stores and they do a fair amount of damage, but they tend to punch through the body and hit whoever is behind them.  The .380 has less recoil and less penetration while the 9mm has a bit more recoil but better penetration. 

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  The .357 Magnum and .45 caliber bullets, these are my personal favorites.  These punch holes in people and they are highly effective at stopping people.  Lots more recoil and depending on the type of bullet, they can injure or kill anybody behind your target or just stop at the first person that you shoot.

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  Now within each type of bullet there are different types of bullets like personal defense or hollow points, search the web to learn more about the different type of bullets if you interested.

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  The bottom line on pistols and bullets and even the FBI agrees with me on this concept:  “You have to like the weapon and the bullet; otherwise you won’t practice enough to be effective”.  So guys if she wants a pink .22 revolver, then get it for her!  If she likes a .44 Magnum then give it to her and if she can handle a .44 Magnum, then let her have your pickup truck too as she already owns you.

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So how do bullets kill people?

 

  Bullets damage people's bodies so that they don't work properly, like lungs not pumping air, heart not beating, or limbs not working.  It's harder to kill people than you think it is and even two shots to the body and one shot to the head doesn't work as body fat, ballistic armor, bullet performance and even metal plates in people's heads all play into the equation.

 

  Let’s say the bullet completely makes the bad guy’s heart explode and vanish, guess what, he’s still fully functional for up to 4 minutes and thirty seconds.  That means the bad guy can still attack you.  Shoot off an arm or leg; then it’s up to 15 minutes if not longer and most likely the wound won’t be fatal, to include the femoral artery.  So think at least 15 minutes for them to bled out and lose consciousness and until then they can still hurt you or threaten your family. 

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  Where’s that instant kill shot that we here about?  Imagine a triangle between the eyes and the top lip, get a bullet in there and it should instantly kill them, the same as an ear shot where the bullet goes through both ears.  Here’s the problem, sometimes the bullet goes around the skull instead of through it as bullets follow the path of least resistance and yes even the big bullets do this. 

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So if what you’re saying is true, then is this why the police shoot people so many times?

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 Police and the military are trained to shoot until the threat is eliminated or at least stops being threatening.  If the bad guy is still coming toward them, then the police  will keep shooting at them.  So that’s the same way you need to respond to bad guys too!  You shoot them until they stop coming toward you or stop being a threat to you and your family.  Once they stop being a threat secure their weapon, maybe secure them or at least keep your distance from them, whichever is safer for you.  Then wait for the police to get there.  Then listen to what the police tell you to do and since they are coming in blind to the situation don’t wave your firearm around at them.

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Be Safe!