Parents...need some input.

[faterikcartman]

Not trying to crusade one way or the other here, but in response to 911 I just want everyone to think about what that may or may not accomplish. I live within a city's limits, but on the very edge. A couple years ago a neighbour's alarm went off and I had a chance to speak with the officer that responded for quite a while. I realize he was then responding to an alarm, but he was speaking about police response in general where I live. He said in that case he happened to be free and near, but that isn't always the case. He said (off the record mind you) that he didn't think it was realistic to rely on the police if we're home during a break in. Whether that is from an unforeseen delay in response time, or unwillingness to enter until a special team arrived if there was an armed person inside. He suggested just what all the folklore says cops say: get a big dog, a gun, and be sure to shoot them inside, not outside. He felt that often they only picked up the pieces rather than dealt with a crime in progress. This was just one K-9 officer and there may be many many more who disagree with everything this guy said. I'm just passing it along as food for thought.

[GunNutz]

I use a 1911, but I don't have kids. The revolver suggestion is a good one, and you don't have to worry about brass being thrown around. On the other hand, a pistol is nice because you can leave it completely unloaded (with a mag with home defense rounds ready to go) and have the clip in there in a fraction of a second. Not all pistols are ambidextrous, but for a 1911 it's easy enough to add ambi parts.

[Monticore]

Great points, for sure.

We have security lights, and motion sensors but as we are renters (soon to be buyers) of the house we live in, a dog and an alarm aren't possible right now. Good thing is that we live in a very low crime, rural area just outside of san diego. We simply favor being prepared. (we have an awesome earthquake kit/bug-out bag ready to go, too)

btw, the kids are 5,3,1 years old respectively. Not exactly able to be active participants of 'the' plan. The one i'd be going to get is the 1 year old.
She's easily picked up with one hand and carried.

My only kid will be 1 in late July.
There has been a lot of great advice that will all work. I thank you the OP for a great topic and I thank all that have given advice as it is helping me in my thought process as well.

I just bought the M&P40 for target fun and home defense.
You can get them with manual safety but mine does not have one.
I like the idea of grab, make hot, go boom.
I personally like the magazine disconnect in case I get in a grappling situation I can just drop the mag and not worry about the gun firing during the scrum.

I plan on having a weapon light and a handheld. (two is one, one is none) If I am the one scooping up my daughter while the wife unlocks the shotgun, I want the light on the gun. If the wife grabs the baby and I have both hands I will have the flexibility of using either or both lights. My handheld has a strobe mode, which may come in handy. We get to our alamo where I will take the shotgun and stand guard in my spot of cover that sees straight to the only stairs leading up to us.

Do not forget the cell phone in the alamo.
I have an old blackberry that we keep on a charger in our alamo.
Even without service, it can still call 911. The speakerphone will come in handy as my wife will be armed as well.

Hopefully none of us need our plans, but thank goodness we have at least put some thought into them.

[Monticore]

I forgot to mention that I took my M&P40 out last night for its maiden voyage to the range.
I made sure to practice one handed, with my off hand in a position as if I were actually holding my baby girl. Repeated on the other side. It gave me the confidence that I can be on target in that position.
I feel it's worth trying at your next range trip.

[saber]

This might sound like a crazy idea but have you thought about trying a dry run or practicing in some way.

I'm sure you can think about making a game out of it with your kids. Don't have your guns or flashlights around and do it with the lights on. Try and figure out what is the most efficient way to move through your house.

Also, you might want to think of a couple of alternative scenarios. For example, there are three main ways inside my house (front door, garage, back door). Depending on where someone came into my home, my response might be different.

[CALATRAVA]

This might sound like a crazy idea but have you thought about trying a dry run or practicing in some way.

I'm sure you can think about making a game out of it with your kids. Don't have your guns or flashlights around and do it with the lights on. Try and figure out what is the most efficient way to move through your house.

Also, you might want to think of a couple of alternative scenarios. For example, there are three main ways inside my house (front door, garage, back door). Depending on where someone came into my home, my response might be different.

We do practice earthquake drills with them, i don't see why we couldn't do the same with this scenario, keeping it fun, with rewards for the quietest, quickest kid to boogie to the decided upon safe spot. Be good to see how it all works.

Thanks!! Great idea!

[CALATRAVA]

So I think i'm definitely still in favor of a gun mounted light as i think one of the most important things that has been brought up is the fact that a bump in the night may very well be one of my family members.

I don't see myself walking down the hall with the light on, because i know my house well enough to use my night vision and i don't fancy giving my position away until its a necessity. I don' think i could shoot at someone, or something, without knowing exactly who/what they were.

[RolinThundr]

Streamlight offers colored lenses (red, blue, green) for many of their tactical lights, like the Scorpion, for those interested in maintaining night vision and still having sufficient light to identify others. Looks like they also have them for the TLR-1 weapon light as well.

[lazs]

make sure of your target before you shoot.

[eastershawn]

whatever gun you get, get glaser plug ammunition. the last thing you want is to shoot thru a wall

[themailman]

My suggestion to you would be a M&P9C with a Streamlight TLR 3, or, even though you dont like Glocks (but somehow youre ok with the Sigma) I would suggest a Glock 26/19 with a Streamlight TLR2.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4651/9ctlt3b.jpg

[CALATRAVA]

My suggestion to you would be a M&P9C with a Streamlight TLR 3, or, even though you dont like Glocks (but somehow youre ok with the Sigma) I would suggest a Glock 26/19 with a Streamlight TLR2.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4651/9ctlt3b.jpg

it was mostly the grip that i didn't like. Otherwise i've got no issue with the gun. It doesn't fit my want for a manual safety, tho.

I'm more familiar with surefire( i had an e2d) so i'll have to check out steamlight's stuff. And yeah, i dig m&p's. I'll try one out at the range again.

Probably gonna get something in a week or two

[gravedigger]

I see a problem here.

Why are you focusing on dealing with the "bump in the night" IN your house while there is no discussion about preventing the bump? You have a door into your garage, then into your kitchen. It is night time. Family members are asleep in their beds. I'll betcha your yard-to-garage entry and garage-into-kitchen doors are hollow core doors. BOTH of those doors should be SOLID CORE doors, with three hinges. If either of them have hinges exposed to the exterior (doors open out) then use "security hinges" so the pins cannot be removed. Each door should have either a deadbolt and doorknob accessible from the exterior AND two interior cane bolts or interior-only accessible deadbolts, one near the top, the other near the bottom, to prevent forced entry, or some other fortified means of preventing forced entry.

Get your SGD coated with 3M film, so an intruder cannot smash the glass for entry. Install a good lock on the door frame, and/or use a physical bar to prevent lateral movement of the door panel, and make SURE the sliding door cannot be lifted out of the track without physically removing a spacer strip installed at the top. Nylon strips can be installed such that you must open the sliding panel fully BEFORE it can be lifted out of the track.

Home invaders are a real threat, but if you don't take common sense precautions to make your home's entry points strong enough to resist an intruder, you are basically talking about home defense tactics while sleeping in a screen tent!

Do you have cameras around the exterior, with AUDIO? Do you have cameras IN your home, with audio? Did you know that a simple $40.00 B&W camera in one corner of each room with a fish-eye lens and IR illumination fed to a monitor next to your bed will allow you to see the entire interior of your home when you hear that bump? Better than IR is a simple 7 watt night light in every room, so the cameras can see. They don't need to be high quality. You only need to see that someone is in your living room. That should be enough to respond to an intruder.

How old are your kids? I used to run a handyman business. One of my customers actually installed dog doors into the interior walls of his home. I thought it was strange, but he said that his dogs (I think they were labs) could access ANY room in the home, regardless of closed doors and blocked entries. I liked the idea! Do your kids have another exit from their bedrooms? Small passages through walls are easy to install through the double layer of drywall, and easy to seal off when they are no longer needed. Interior walls do not normally have insulation, but AC lines for outlets need to be routed above them, and you have to make sure there are no water pipes or sewer vents where you choose to create a room-to-room passage.

Work more on making your home's vulnerable entry points damned difficult to breach, and worry less about how you will handle the person who breaches them.

[CALATRAVA]

I see a problem here.

Why are you focusing on dealing with the "bump in the night" IN your house while there is no discussion about preventing the bump? You have a door into your garage, then into your kitchen. It is night time. Family members are asleep in their beds. I'll betcha your yard-to-garage entry and garage-into-kitchen doors are hollow core doors. BOTH of those doors should be SOLID CORE doors, with three hinges. If either of them have hinges exposed to the exterior (doors open out) then use "security hinges" so the pins cannot be removed. Each door should have either a deadbolt and doorknob accessible from the exterior AND two interior cane bolts or interior-only accessible deadbolts, one near the top, the other near the bottom, to prevent forced entry, or some other fortified means of preventing forced entry.

Get your SGD coated with 3M film, so an intruder cannot smash the glass for entry. Install a good lock on the door frame, and/or use a physical bar to prevent lateral movement of the door panel, and make SURE the sliding door cannot be lifted out of the track without physically removing a spacer strip installed at the top. Nylon strips can be installed such that you must open the sliding panel fully BEFORE it can be lifted out of the track.

Home invaders are a real threat, but if you don't take common sense precautions to make your home's entry points strong enough to resist an intruder, you are basically talking about home defense tactics while sleeping in a screen tent!

Do you have cameras around the exterior, with AUDIO? Do you have cameras IN your home, with audio? Did you know that a simple $40.00 B&W camera in one corner of each room with a fish-eye lens and IR illumination fed to a monitor next to your bed will allow you to see the entire interior of your home when you hear that bump? Better than IR is a simple 7 watt night light in every room, so the cameras can see. They don't need to be high quality. You only need to see that someone is in your living room. That should be enough to respond to an intruder.

How old are your kids? I used to run a handyman business. One of my customers actually installed dog doors into the interior walls of his home. I thought it was strange, but he said that his dogs (I think they were labs) could access ANY room in the home, regardless of closed doors and blocked entries. I liked the idea! Do your kids have another exit from their bedrooms? Small passages through walls are easy to install through the double layer of drywall, and easy to seal off when they are no longer needed. Interior walls do not normally have insulation, but AC lines for outlets need to be routed above them, and you have to make sure there are no water pipes or sewer vents where you choose to create a room-to-room passage.

Work more on making your home's vulnerable entry points damned difficult to breach, and worry less about how you will handle the person who breaches them.

Both the front door and "kitchen to garage" door are solid core with deadbolts, additionally both the front door and the "garage to yard door" have steel security screens with deadbolts. So i feel pretty good in that arena.

The SGD to the back patio is latchable but we use a anti-slide bar none-the-less.

I like the idea of 3m film, for earthquakes as well as break-ins. I'll have to do some research on that.

We won't be cutting the doors or the walls, since as i stated, we haven't bought the house yet. We are in fact longterm renters with a lot of leeway, but "crawlholes" in the wall might not go over well. Haha! Cool idea though!

The 3m

[FreedomMom]

I would put motion flood lights on the outside, that way any intruders would be lit up. You will then have the advantage as you are in the dark and he is lit up.
Do you have a dog??? I think a good bark is like a good rack on a pump shotgun. It might keep you up at night sometimes but its worth it to me.
Since yo mentioned the CZ I am assuming you are comfy with that weapon. The weapon I would use is the one I am most comfortable with. Seeing you have mentioned it a couple of times and I am guessing you are debating getting it again.
Good luck and be safe.

I second the pump shotgun, that's what we have for home defense. I'm hoping if I ever have to get it out, then the sound in itself will scare away any would be prowlers. May be silly, but I feel better knowing I can make that sound if I ever need to.

*Edit/addition: I haven't read through all the posts, but there was some light discussion and I wanted to add....since we live in a neighborhood where our houses are close together, and the kids are opposite of our bedroom where the shotgun is located, I'm sure as heck not pulling the trigger till I know good and well (get a visual) there's a true threat-IN MY HOUSE. I won't be walking around in the dark (have a small bedside flashlight that I can handle with the shotgun if I can't turn on the lights) waving a handgun around - that puppy will be looking at the ceiling until I know where to point it! That, and the sound is why we have a shotgun instead of a handgun for our primary self defense gun.