Imagine this scenario. After a long week at work, you are finally able to relax at home with your spouse and two teen-age daughters. You?re in your living room watching TV with your spouse. Your daughters are in their own rooms doing?whatever. Because both of you have worked hard for many years, you are now able to live more comfortably in what you thought to be a safe community.
At 9:00PM you hear a knock on the door and your spouse gets up to answer the door. After the door is unlocked you hear a sudden outburst as two strange young men burst through the door and into your living room. As the door crashes open, you see your spouse is being punched and beaten to the floor. Before you have time react you are overcome by physical force and threats of harm to you and your family. The two men are brandishing guns and are shouting obscene threats and commands simultaneously as they push you onto the couch. One of the men quickly searches the house for other occupants while the other stands guard over you.
Your mind is racing. Will we be killed? Will these attackers beat us or molest our daughters? The level of terror and anxiety is enormous and will cause victims to sometimes act irrationally. Some will freeze and become incapacitated from fright. Others will instinctively resist and try to fight back. Others will run away if possible. Psychologists have labeled this phenomenon as the ?fight or flight syndrome.? The first thirty seconds are the most critical to your family?s survival.
Most people don?t know for sure how they will respond to a personal crisis until it occurs. Many are surprised afterwards by their behavior as having been heroic, calm, cowardly, or stupid.
The response possibilities are endless, but most fall into three general response possibilities. You can resist the assault; comply with all commands; or you can try to stay calm, wait, and resist, comply, or flee as the scenario evolves. One thing is clear, there is no one single correct response to a life-threatening home invasion scenario. The choice is personal, based on your own assessment of your physical and mental capabilities and your belief as to the level of eminent danger.
Have an Escape Plan
If someone in the household can escape and call for help, the home invaders will have lost their advantage of having privacy and time. To some, running away from your family in crisis is distasteful, especially to men or women with children. However, the alternative might mean being handcuffed or tied-up or otherwise incapacitated and left to watch in horror as your family is molested. If you have a plan for escaping, make sure you include were to run and what to say. Sometimes a radical escape measure pays off, in life and death circumstances, like diving through a plate glass window, jumping from a balcony or climbing onto the roof. Although you might sustain minor injuries you must weigh them against your chance of survival with the assailants.
Home invaders will sometimes threaten harm to children to get adults to comply with their demands. But at the same time, children are often overlooked as potential rescuers and sometimes are not as well guarded. If the opportunity presents itself, a trained child can dial 911, activate an alarm panic button, or escape to the neighbor?s house to summon the police. If they are capable, they should do it.
Handguns and pepper spray can provide a means of self-defense in a life-threatening situation. Homeowners have successfully defended their families in the past from home invaders using such weapons. However, sometimes homeowners have lost their weapons to home invaders because they couldn't get to them in time to use them. Most chemical sprays are tucked away somewhere and many handguns are kept unloaded or locked up to prevent children from getting their hands on them. During a home invasion, you cannot always count on your ability to get to these weapons before being injured yourself. Ordinary household products can work in self defense. Chemical fire extinguishers work great to disorient the robber.
Fighting with the intruders sometimes works, especially if you have some training and are physically fit. But for most, fighting doesn't work because the victim was pre-selected for their lack of fight capability. In a life-threatening situation there are no rules for fighting in self defense. The idea is not to stand toe-to-toe and duke it out. All you need is one incapacitating blow to the nose, eyes, or throat to allow time to get out of there and call for help. Take a self-defense class together with your family so all can learn the proper techniques and can practice the procedures. A practiced technique has a better chance of being used effectively in a crisis.
What Not to Do
Don?t ever try to pull a weapon on an armed perpetrator who has you covered with a handgun unless you feel it?s your last chance. Don?t ever agree to be transported somewhere else like to an ATM machine or other location unless you feel it's a life or death decision. The second crime scene is almost always more violent than in your home. If you have a choice, never agree to be tied-up, handcuffed or be placed in the trunk of a car because it takes away most of your self defense options. Don?t ever follow an intruder once they leave your home. Leave that for the police. Don?t fight over property loss, it can be replaced?your life cannot.
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If you stop and think about watching someone rape your wife or children in front of you, thats all it takes for me to make sure this will never happen to my family.
Not sure what kosar would do to protect his family. Maybe screaming real loud would work. Or maybe trying to reason with them would work out well.
For me , even if they get the drop on me,
there is going to be hell to pay shortly.
If you think about it anyone's house can be staked out and get the routine down. When someone comes home from the grocery store, alot of trips in and out. Alot of opportunity there.
just sayin
