Preparedness for a home invasion

[Bullgrit]

Wow! That's a mindset beyond my ability to even imagine!

Mindset? It's called imagination. And my imagination has been sharpened by decades of role playing gaming. Heck, I used to imagine how to defend my high school against an orc army.

Bullgrit

 

[MechaPilot]

I would definitely attack, and that would not be a nice situation for anyone involved. I'm not as fit as I should be, but I am ferocious. I don't fight like people in some kind of fistfight; if someone is fighting with me I assume they mean to kill me, and everything I do is intended to do as much permanent harm as possible. I go for eyes, the throat, and the genitals. I bite and scratch and spit. I will try to chew someone's throat/jugular out like a dog. And, I won't stop until the person is physically incapable of getting up again.

Also, firearms. So if I can get to one of those I will use it.

 

[Tonguez]

I would definitely attack, and that would not be a nice situation for anyone involved. I'm not as fit as I should be, but I am ferocious. I don't fight like people in some kind of fistfight; if someone is fighting with me I assume they mean to kill me, and everything I do is intended to do as much permanent harm as possible. I go for eyes, the throat, and the genitals. I bite and scratch and spit. I will try to chew someone's throat/jugular out like a dog. And, I won't stop until the person is physically incapable of getting up again.

Also, firearms. So if I can get to one of those I will use it.

have you done this or is it hypothetical at this point? especially the chewing the jugular thing

 

[Morrus]

I would definitely attack, and that would not be a nice situation for anyone involved. I'm not as fit as I should be, but I am ferocious. I don't fight like people in some kind of fistfight; if someone is fighting with me I assume they mean to kill me, and everything I do is intended to do as much permanent harm as possible. I go for eyes, the throat, and the genitals. I bite and scratch and spit. I will try to chew someone's throat/jugular out like a dog. And, I won't stop until the person is physically incapable of getting up again.

You appear to be speaking in the present tense. Is this a frequent occurrence for you? How many people have you killed? What do chewed out throats taste like?

 

[Umbran]

It isn't something I consider too much. I never thought about it at all until my wife moved in with me. It just doesn't happen often enough to be a major concern.

Exactly how I'd respond is entirely situation dependent. Am I upstairs or downstairs when this happens? Is my wife home? Do they have guns? And so on. There are too many variables for a general answer.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I consider it much more likely to be hit by a car when crossing the street. This I prepare for by being observant.

But intruders in our home? Completely unprepared for. We don't own any weapon (save some good cooking knives). None of us has ever received any martial training.

But what I don't know is how my wife or me would react to such an extreme situation. I think I'd try to defuse it first. But what if the intruder threatens our children? I really don't know.

 

[Morrus]

I really don't know.

Nobody knows until it happens. And I expect that most of the time, people don't react the way they think (or hope) they would.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have dogs and weapons in the bedrooms (no firearms). I'm more likely to retreat/run away from the house than confront, if given the option.

 

[Janx]

I have dogs and weapons in the bedrooms (no firearms). I'm more likely to retreat/run away from the house than confront, if given the option.

retreating is highly dependent on available exits.

My back door is in the same room as my front door, and it leads to my fenced backyard which has locked gates (because they were unlocked when the burglars broke in so security trumped convenience).

ultimately, this is why a home invasion is so bad. You are at your most vulnerable. Houses are not defensible positions to fend off an attack.

 

[Ryujin]

I'm probably midway between Morrus and Bullgrit.

I don't plan out every place I go into, but I do at times consider the places I am at and whether I am in the best defensible status.

Well there's paranoia, and then there's situational awareness. If you're in the bad part of town at 3:00am, then having your wits about you is only prudent.

I work at a university in downtown Toronto. Not far away, off campus, is a somewhat rough area and, occasionally, the inmates break containment. I generally get to work some time before 6:00am and one morning while walking from my car I noticed that two rough looking types, one on foot and another on a bike, clocked in behind me and started following me. As my first stop was just down an alley to our campus security building I wasn't too worried. the one on the bike kept riding slowly behind me, up the alley, about a hundred feet back. The other one cut around the church next to our security offices. He was clearly going to cut me off and I'd have been stuck between them, if I'd gone right.

I went left and walked into security. Security didn't seem to believe me when I said that I was being followed (the lot of them have since gotten a talking to, as I frequently do work for their bosses). The two were also waiting for me when I left security. I made sure to make a stop where three of our overnight cleaners were chatting and the guys following me thought better of keeping it up, as by now they had to realize I knew what was up. They tried to sell us their stolen bike and then buggered off.

The moral: There's no need to be paranoid, but occasionally someone really is out to get you. Keep your wits.