[OK Sun]

Have your gun--actual good advice from a TV news station. For a change.

[fredhead]

I sleep on the far side of the bed from the bedroom door. There's just me in the house. Hanging from the bedpost is my 1911. On the floor, Mossberg 500, plug out, loaded sequentially with 00 and #4 shells. On the nightstand, three more mags for the 1911. I would just slip down onto the floor behind the bed and wait. Sooner or later one or more of them is going to come in that bedroom door.

[ansel12]

If I can just reach my safe room and my secret exit, to find my way to the underground tunnels at the Walmart, I’ll be OK.

[smokingfrog]

I don’t know that I’d give the invaders a warning, especially if there are more than a couple of them.

[QT3.14]

[DCBryan1]

...and of course, our favorite. My first and only time at photoshopping. Thanks to Joe for hosting:

[Obadiah]

It's the middle of the night and your house is being invaded by armed men with guns who plan to take you hostage and take what they want.

Does this include SWAT teams and no-knock searches?

[Billthedrill]

I’d poop my pants. That way I’ll be less attractive...oh, no, wait a minute, that’s for rape. Dang it, I’m depending on the media for good advice here...

[archy]

Have your gun--actual good advice from a TV news station. For a change.

Well, that's one option. But it's a bit predictable, and I like to surprise those who might like to overawe me with their greater numbers or violence.

[JimRed]

Kill the invaders first, check ID later. Bad guys will always yell “POLICE, FREEZE!”

[JoeFromSidney]

You won't have 15 minutes. 15 seconds is more like it.

One night I awoke to find an intruder in my bedroom.My wife made a noise that woke me. I was already well behind the situation. I kept a gun at my bedside, a 1911 with a loaded mag in the mag well but no round in the chamber. I started yelling, grabbed the gun, and racked the slide. The intruder ran. I followed him downstairs, but he made it out the front door before I could get a clear shot at him.

I got away with it, but what did I do wrong? Lots of things. No burglar alarm and no dog. I had no warning until the guy was already in my bedroom. It took two hands to get the gun into operation. Had I been fending him off with one hand, I'd never have been able to use the gun as anything but a club.

Ironically, I had arranged to get a dog, and was to pick it up the next day. So after that I had a watchdog. The landlord installed a burglar alarm. And I started keeping the gun the way John Browning intended: full mag, round in the chamber, hammer cocked, safety on.

In every house I've lived in since that day, I've had either a dog or a burglar alarm. I'm always within reach of a gun when I'm in the house. (Yes, that experience left me kind of paranoid.)

I was extremely lucky, or the intruder wasn't very competent. I now try not to rely on luck. Plan for every eventuality you can think of, and be ready to act promptly and vigorously when "the day" arrives. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can fumble your way through it. When you have to act, you won't have time to think.

[Nailbiter]

bflr