The other night my wife woke me up about 2:00 in the morning. I was half asleep as she told me the helicopter had been circling our neighborhood for a while. Since I was half asleep and because I didn’t hear any helicopter, my only comforting words to her were “okay.”
About five minutes later she asked me if I heard a noise in the back of our house. I did not and still didn’t hear a thing. She asked me a few more questions over the next few minutes and I’m pretty sure the only answers that kept coming out of my month were “uh huh” and “okay.”
However, what I was thinking was a little bit different. As I laid there in bed, although I truly didn’t hear a thing, I wasn’t worried at all about some criminal trying to break into our house that night. Why?
Well, it’s probably not what you think.
You see, when it comes to home defense you want to have multiple layers of security. And I know that both my doors and my locks are solid so it’s going to take quite a bit to get through those. Even if a burglar did manage to get through those, I have an alarm system, so I would immediately know if someone was entering my house.
Of course, I also have my firearms, which is my final line of defense and one I hope I never have to use. That line of defense includes a revolver for my wife, my Glock 19 and my Remington 870 home defense shotgun, which are only a few feet away from us.
I knew that if for some reason a burglar tried to get into my house that night I would have plenty of advance notice to grab my guns and take action. However, the important thing to remember is that I have this peace of mind, not only because of my layers of defense, but also because of the plan I have.
What I mean is…
Just because you have a room full of guns that doesn’t mean you’re prepared for a home invasion. You literally need to set your alarm for 3:00am one night and when it goes off you need to hop out of bed, grab your gun and either run to the top of the stairs… Or you need to grab your gun, lock the master bedroom door, and barricade yourself in, depending on your plan. The second plan is ideal if it’s just you and your spouse in your home or if everyone can be quickly and easily corralled into your safe room.
My point is, you need to have a plan and practice it, because if you do you’ll have the peace of mind that I had when the helicopter was circling my house last week. I wasn’t worried at all and I knew I had a plan in place and that my main home defense weapon – my shotgun – was loaded with 00 buckshot and could be ready in a moment’s notice.
So if you’re not prepared for a home invasion or you can’t quickly access your self- defense firearms in your bedroom, please change this as soon as possible, because with the way the economy is likely to continue heading, there’s going to be a lot of people with too much free time on their hands.