Something to consider...

[Yodaman]

Something to consider...

You probably need a better dog, better door lock and a better made up scenario.

Use a dragon and a shark with a laser next time. No one will question it.


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[TRICKSTER]

Hire a mage to ward your house, then you won't have these problems.

[larkja]

Okay, I'm still calling BS. You're not telling us something. Per your reply, I have to make assumptions because you're leaving out information. More comments/questions:
1) When you enter the kitchen and look to the front door, why not turn on some lights so somebody knows you're there?
2) Doesn't your front door have a peephole?
3) Doesn't your front door have a deadbolt?
4) You state the door is opening, even with all the racket going on.

The scenario leads me to believe (must make assumptions since you're leaving out so much info).
1) The individual entering the house had a key,
2) If no key, then you left the door unlocked - big fail - and perhaps the person trying to enter was on drugs, drunk, lost, etc. thinking it was his house (even with all the commotion).

BTW, what came of all this? Did you yell out and tell the person to leave? Did the person leave of his/her own accord? Was it your celebrity chef coming in early to cook you a special breakfast?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Not a BS scenario, actually happened last Wednesday morning.

Your points however are valid, but with a lot of assumptions. My post only shares what happened from waking up from a dead sleep to seeing the front door start to open and I had to make a decision on how to react while still half asleep, not the rest of the story. Your points are things one would consider while fully awake and alert, not while half asleep and events are happening as you are trying wake up.

I find the armchair quarterbacking in this thread amusing, but I have done the same in the past myself. The point here is that this incident has made me think harder about home defense , especially at those times when you are not fully "on your game" and are more vulnerable, even in your own home.

To break them down:



Assumes that the intruder was in their right mind and not hopped up on something...



Just because there are dogs means someone is home? I never said anything about turning on any lights or indicating that I was at home to the intruder in my post.



See my answer to #1



See #1 and #2



Where did I say my door was unlocked? I said my first thought was "How did the dog open the door and questioned if I had left it unlocked" not that the door was actually unlocked...

[HUTCH 7.62]

If you had a camera at the front door you could off seen who was on the other side of the door.

[Tango_Down]

What movie is this scene from? I didn't see it mentioned.

[baggss]

Okay, I'm still calling BS. You're not telling us something.

Of course I'm not telling the whole story. I'm asking others how they would react given the info I had up to the point where I had to decide how to react. The idea is to let others consider what was happening and see how they would respond, or how they think they would respond, to the situation I found myself in.

BTW, what came of all this? Did you yell out and tell the person to leave? Did the person leave of his/her own accord? Was it your celebrity chef coming in early to cook you a special breakfast?

Inquiring minds want to know...

I'll share that in a bit, I still want to see what useful input others may have. Some people have actually provided good advice and some have even suggest things I hadn't considered.

[DrScorpio]

If youre leaving parts of the story out, why not just make up an entirely new story? I dont see why when people question parts of your made up story, your response is along the lines of "well you dont know the whole story, I only want you to react to ONLY the parts im telling you"

Many parts of this story make no sense to me, but might make sense if you arent playing coy with the full story.

[smashycrashy]

Not sure why this is a deal, the OP has been a great contributor to the ccw forums.. he presented a simple scenario and asked for reactions..

If you were half awake and the door is opening unexpectedly and you are unarmed, what do you do?

[ChuckDizzle]

If I wake up t ok a potential emergency or intruder I'm armed.

If you're too groggy to wake up and fight step your man game up bruh.

[Sousuke]

This happened last week. Tell me how you would react...

0600 and asleep in bed. Wife snoring next to me. One dog (110 Lbs.) gets up and goes to the living room and starts to bark. Not unusual, this dog barks at the wind regularly. Second dog (90 Lbs.) gets up and runs after her and starts barking as well. This dog only barks when something is actually going on. I get up and, half asleep, stumble down the hall to the kitchen to see what they are barking at. Standing in the kitchen about 6 feet from my front door I realize the dogs are not barking at the front window and the front of the house but are barking at the front door. I'm confused. Why are they barking at the front door?

I gaze up at the small frosted window at head level on the door. I see nothing but light from the porch light. Suddenly I realize door handle is jiggling. I'm still confused. Then I realize the door is opening. My first thought was "How the hell did the dog get the front door open? Was it open all night? was it unlocked?" Door is still opening and dogs are trying to push through now...

I'm 6 feet from the door and 30 feet from my EDC. My wife is still mostly asleep....

What would you do?

It would depend on the layout of your house. You say your are 6' from the door. How close is the hallway to your bedroom. If you were only a few feet, then retreating seems the better option. I'm guessing though your in an open space in the kitchen where the front door is actually your closest passage.

In that case I'd run hard at the door and assuming it knocks the person / thing back a bit I'd try and lock it before retreating. Or let your dogs through.

[larkja]

Not sure why this is a deal, the OP has been a great contributor to the ccw forums.. he presented a simple scenario and asked for reactions..

If you were half awake and the door is opening unexpectedly and you are unarmed, what do you do?

I have had this happen to me a couple times (and we live in a nice area). Once when a perp was hiding in our backyard under our trampoline; another time somebody was wiggling the front door at a time where the front door should not have been wiggling. Both the door lock and dead bolt were engaged.

Both times, the dogs woke us up and I was immediately WIDE awake. We called 911 for the backyard perp while the family and I stayed inside with gun in hand. I told the 911 operator I had a gun so when the cops came, they wouldn't shoot me.

The second time, I turned on the porch light and looked through the peephole only to see the back of somebody running away. (We have since installed a camera).

Not saying OP isn't a good contributor. Just too many things about the story don't add up.

[RANGER295]

Yet you failed to comprehend it...

No need to be a Richard about it...

I moved this to the general gun forum because it is not a CCW issue.

To answer your OP... in the first case, I would not have been unarmed. I would have had a 12ga with a 2,000 lumin light on it 95% of the time. Sometimes I grab a .45 but most of the time it is a shotgun. I live out in the country and often investigate bumps in the night and things that get the dogs riled up. With one exception it has always been an animal or I never figure out what it is. I have had to shoot predators or stray dogs attacking my livestock before. So in short my first advice is not to respond unprepared in the future.

To your specific scenario, it would depend. I tend to agree with others about trying to close the door. Even if you are not that large, from six feet away and with the element of surprise, you could almost undoubtedly power the door closed. It is not like they are pushing against it. If that is not an option, I would yell that I was armed and command them to leave while making a "tactical" retreat to my room to arm myself and instruct my wife to call 911. I do not know what your situation is but I have young children so I would leave my room again and station myself in the hall and instruct my wife to get the kids into our room. If I did not have the kids, I would wait in my room and would not venture back out to engage them. They would have to come to me (chances of them doing this are slim to none) and I would wait for the police.

OK enough responses... time for the rest of the story.

[smashycrashy]

Retreating you create time and space, if you go towards the door and it’s someone who is armed or means you harm you could potentially be caught in a bad spot.

[Pardini]

Got to be careful about blowing holes in people that walk in to your home through an unlocked door.

[Sousuke]

I think that just depends on your house layout. In my house, if I am 6' from the door I'm in a hallway entry foyer where I have only two other options beyond charging the door - retreat back about 12' and turn to get out of line of sight or go in to my kitchen where I'm trapped. I'll get to the door alot faster.