I'm wondering how many of you run house clearing drills in your home? This turned into a somewhat heated discussion at dinner last night, with opinions ranging all over the place. Extremes of the argument ran from the young fellow who said his wife would lose her mind if she found out he was doing something like that, up through mine, as I run such drills several times a week when I end up home by myself for a few minutes. The motivation for this comes from having a child sleeping on a different floor on the opposite end of the house. Should a hostile entry occur in the night, the Mrs. will barricade in our bedroom and hold her own. I'm going for the kid and fully intend to unleash the fires of Hell on anything that gets between her and me. One typically does not unleash the fires of Hell by stumbling naked through the house and tripping over furniture while waving a pistol.
It's my strongly-held belief that in the middle of a hostile event is a horrible time to be developing a plan. You have a decided advantage when going up against an intruder in your own home, so it makes sense to me that one would do everything possible to optimize that advantage. Knowing how many steps are between floors (and which one squeaks), likely points of concealment, fields of fire, obstructions, and so on, in advance, is an enormous asset in such a confrontation. An intruder will likely be operating in a totally unknown environment, buying you valuable seconds as they process their surroundings upon entering each room. Having ran these clearing drills over and over and over, I can clear my home in something of a full-auto state. Instead of forcing my brain into solving the numerous complex puzzles presented by moving through a house in the dark, I can focus instead on what's out of place, threat identification, and reduction.
Your thoughts?
It's my strongly-held belief that in the middle of a hostile event is a horrible time to be developing a plan. You have a decided advantage when going up against an intruder in your own home, so it makes sense to me that one would do everything possible to optimize that advantage. Knowing how many steps are between floors (and which one squeaks), likely points of concealment, fields of fire, obstructions, and so on, in advance, is an enormous asset in such a confrontation. An intruder will likely be operating in a totally unknown environment, buying you valuable seconds as they process their surroundings upon entering each room. Having ran these clearing drills over and over and over, I can clear my home in something of a full-auto state. Instead of forcing my brain into solving the numerous complex puzzles presented by moving through a house in the dark, I can focus instead on what's out of place, threat identification, and reduction.
Your thoughts?