Had a break in that calls for it's use?  What worked?  What didn't?  How about our rural members, perhaps something goes bump in the night, you get outside and those glowing eyes are trying to get at the livestock (for example)?

Early disclaimer:  get all the weapons you want and place them around the house, I'm all for it

Eta:  Despite my disclaimer a significant amount of stupid is being posted due to what I believe is a RIF failure. The below is 8yrs ago and I'm merely curious if you put your preps to use. I use an M&P9 as my bedside firearm.


In 2001 I had what I'll call an attempted break-in.

I was living in Warren, MI, a suburb of Detroit. 8 Mile Rd (yeah the one from the movie) is the border to Detroit and my house was just south of 9 Mile Rd. I believe it was June timeframe.

I had one room set up as an office and the window in that won't stay up, it has to be propped if you want to keep it open.


I wake up and I hear air moving, crickets, etc. Apparently the window was moved up (despite the lock) and came crashing down. I figure this is what woke me up in the first place.

I walk into the office and see the window up. He had taken my long business card box and used it as a prop. So it must have taken me a few minutes to wake up.

Then I see his shape, a black man, and say "What are you doing?!"

have you ever seen a genuinely shocked face?  He froze for probably two seconds and then just ran across the yard, hopped the divider fence (typical packed suburb) and kept going.


I wasn't a gun enthusiast at the time and wasn't in that mindset either. I'd had handguns and a shotgun in the past but not that night. It didn't even concern me about being unarmed, not even later on.  Despite that, to reiterate from earlier, I have my M&P9 by the bedside

It would indeed have been a great story to say I racked the slide, his guts fell out and he ran but alas I'll have to stick with having racked my voice

FAIL on so many levels

I haven't had many accidents either but I still have insurance. Playing it safe is generally going to lead you to a better outcome if something does happen, but it's not like I haven't learned this through experience also and had my situations of trouble.

Nope. I've never had it happen. But I've got it in case it does.

So we should wait until a close encounter, before getting prepared?


Stupid.

I've not had a break in, but my grandparents have at their residence.

The thinking behind; it hasn't happened to me yet, so therefore it won't happen to me in the future, is flawed.  

If that statement were true, then the statement :  I haven't died yet, so I won't die in the future, is also true.  (obviously not)

I thankfully live in a pretty nice (mostly COWs:  conservative old white people) neighborhood - one single street, 30 houses or so and tucked out of the mainstream.   Nary a problem, much less a confrontation, in the 3 years we've been here.   The nearby neighborhoods are also pretty solidly composed of the productive class with mostly local traffic - and the passer-throughs are heading towards more rural farms and very small towns.

However, I am cultivating the "don't fuck with that guy" persona at every opportunity.    Thus, any break-in, no matter how unlikely, will hopefully be by strangers unaccustomed to my house (meaning a random crime, giving me a small advantage).

I say small advantage because I know the insides of my house well in the dark, keep unused rooms locked and closed, hardwood floors that creak with any movement (lol), attack lapdogs, and I have a sidearm on my person 95% of the time with a pistol for the wife in the bedroom and a 00-buck shotgun in the corner.   Our home alarm is door/window and motion-activated, and is on most of the time even when we're awake.   I've tried to reinforce the main entry points and am planning a walk-in vault/safe room project for the spring months.

My wife and I are blessed, and we know that for good or bad others will eventually come looking to take what we have.   So, she tolerates my paranoia and encourages me to further my training and preparations.  So even if I smell like piss afterwards, if ever faced with an unpleasant occurance I hope to make ARFCOM proud!  

Actually, I'm in the process of changing out all my hide-out guns with hide-out samurai swords.

not yet, but I liked to be prepared.

I awoke one night with my girlfriend to the sound of voices outside the front of the house. I heard my roommate, who is a cop as well, challenging them from the front door. Grab the 1911 from the nightstand and decide to go back him up. I came up just behind him to find he was empty-handed. I asked where his gun was, to which he responded, that all his "ready-guns" were safely ensconced - in his locked vehicle in the driveway. Including his duty belt and gun, backup gun, off-duty gun, shotgun, patrol rifle...





I asked if he was going to verbally beat them into submission?





Step aside. I got this.





Ended up being his girlfriend's son and daughter who escaped during the night and were trying to get back in before we found out. I guess they were not happy staring down the bore of a .45.





The roommate, after being on-duty for the better part of 19 hours, said he forgot to get his stuff from the truck and fell asleep instead. My gear comes with me when I exit the vehicle, and I'm wearing my duty belt which has my gun, which then goes back into the nightstand.

 

anyone else?

So because you were lucky and had a non-violent criminal break in, everyone else is misguided in being prepared?

please enlighten me as to how you could POSSIBLY infer that?  Perhaps I should shorten my post so that people read all of it?

I've had a couple of close calls.



About a month or so after I moved to Bakersfield, I came home one afternoon because I had forgotten my security badge. I wasn't in the door more than 10 minutes, when I heard someone trying to get in the back door. I usually keep at least one pistol in the living room, so I grabbed the one I had a mag for (the other I had to leave the mags back in OR) and had it ready to rock. They must have heard me or something, because the noise stopped.



I went to the window and saw a couple of shady guys walking briskly away from my window. I called apartment security and stayed home the rest of the night. I bought a shotgun a few weeks later.



The second was about two or three weeks ago, I was playing a game on the computer and heard some shouting and running sounds through the complex. I look out the window to see a couple of youths running through the complex being chased by police. They were looking around like they wanted a place to hide, so I went to the bedroom and grabbed the shotgun in case they decided to make the mistake of choosing the apartment with its lights on.



Thankfully, I haven't had to use any of the weapons yet, but it's nice to know I have them in case I need them.

That's pretty much what I got out of it as well.

I've had several times where I've had a look around outside to see what a noise was and I was damn happy to be holding an AR, regardless of whether I had to "get it on!".  One time I heard a bang, so I got up (had a 12 gauge this time), and looked around a bit.  Then I looked out the front window and saw a police car rolling by veeerrry slowly, turned the corner and stopped, using his spotlight to check out a nearby field.  So I thought SHIT, they're after some guy and he's trying to get in my house (or already did).  Called the local popo and they just have a recording to call 911 since it was after hours.  So I cleared the house and went back to bed.

I made some edits.  Lets see if it works lol

I live in a "nice" neighborhood. The people who live here are nice. The people who visit may not be. I keep a 442 in my hip pocket. Right now it's in the drawer of my computer desk since it's a PITA to sit on. I think this is better than leaving weapons "hidden" in the house that might be stolen if I'm not as clever as I think I am.

When I get up to walk the dog or go to another part of the house it will go with me.

I voted "yes."

Yes my wife has used a gun in home defense.

When we were young (21-19) we moved into our first place together. A crummy apartment on the outskirts of town. She was 6 months pregnant and often home alone at night since I worked second and third shift. Some of the neighbors out there were creepy to say the least and she felt uncomfortable being there alone. At the time the only guns I owned were a Remington 870 and a 10/22. I took her out to the family farm one day and taught her how to use the 870. It was a small two room place so I left it loaded on an empty chamber in the bedroom closet.

The people in the unit next to us were unemployed drunks who spent all day at the bar across the street. I had altercations with both of them numerous times due to the noise. They would come home the same time as me and play their huge radio at full volume until seven in the morning or so while I was trying to sleep. More than once I went over and told them to turn it the fuck down. They would for an hour or so and then it would be back at full volume again. Eventually I grew tired of this and just started calling the Sheriff on them. One time I did this and he ended up getting arrested when the deputies saw drugs on his coffee table. He was not happy to say the least.

A few days later while I was at work my wife came home and he was sitting on his porch obviously out on bail. He called her a whore and a few other things as she went inside. A few minutes later he was banging at our door screaming he was going to kill her. She ran into the bedroom and grabbed the 870 and her cell phone. Before dialing 911 she racked a round into the shotgun and upon hearing this the banging stopped. Now I know its a popular joke around hear but there is some truth to the old legend of "The sound of a shot gun being pumped". It is enough to test the convictions of a bad guy for sure. When the Sheriff arrived they hauled the fucker off kicking and screaming. Lucky for her enough neighbors saw and heard the event to send him away for awhile. One of the deputies was nice enough to unload the weapon and put it away for her. We moved the following week. She later told me that had he got through the door she would have killed him without a second thought. That day a gun may have very well saved her life.

awesome

nope, no break ins. house has not caught on fire either. I still have a fire extinguisher and gunz. more gunz of course.

I have never had to deal with a break in myself.  The closest I have ever come to self defense involved some angry dogs.  I have seen and heard of plenty of crime were having a firearm may have helped people I know.  

My elderly next door neighbors at my last house were robbed at gun point in their drive way, and a friend scared off a burglar on two separate occasions by being home at the time of the home invasions.

I have also been close to one case were a firearm was used to prevent a crime.  One night we heard a gunshot near our house and saw a man run across our street limping shortly after.  It turned out he was trying to steal a car from a house on the block behind mine, and ended up getting shot with birdshot by the owner.

All of this occurred when I lived in Detroit in the area known as east english village near I-94 and well south of seven mile.  Their was a lot of crime, but the worst that ever happened to my family were some stolen cars over a period of twelve years.

Crime does happen, and you do need to be prepared for it.  

If there is an intruder in your house, and your first response includes WORDS... you have failed.



I will let the gunshot do the speaking for me.

I was sitting in my living room about 11pm. Surfing Arfcom no lights on.
I heard a small noise to my back maybe a twig falling nothing more
heard it but didnt pay too much attention. Defcon 4.
A light from a spot light one of those 2 million candle powers
went in one window and out the other from kitchen to living room. Defcon 2
I grab my mossberg 500 and slowly start to pump silently.
Someone starts beating on the glass door really hard. Defcon 1
I pump as fast as i can 1oz slugs.Hide behind center wall of house
between living room and kitchen and peek at glass sliding door.
I told myself as soon as they broke the glass or i saw a firearm I would dispatch them.
As all of this happened i heard nothing finally i noticed sounds again as the guy jumped off the porch.
It was my roommate trying to play a joke on me. I didn't think it was too funny.

Six years ago a druggie neighbor broke into our house while I was on midnights and my pregnant at the time wife was home with my other child. I had a 357 revolver loaded and ready in the closet but she had no idea what to do with it. Fortunately the police were looking for him so the K9 unit was in the neighborhood. The perp took off and the dog tracked him down.



Changes since then: There is now a loaded, cruiser ready, 870 in the closet and my wife knows how to use it.

I guess for people it is more of a "it's better to need and have, than it is to need and not have". Most of the people who own this gear will NEVER EVER have to use it, but there is a comforting factor that goes with buying this stuff and feeling that IF SHTF, you will be prepared for it.

unless they are "im yo' huckleberry"

and no, havnt needed to.

LIke I said in my op, I'm all for it.

I now have a 5.11 vest (almost-sheepleflage) set up as a 'go-to' rig.