My home is all concealment. My finger controls the cover.

We have a loft bedroom looking down on the main entry. If someone breaches the front entry at night I have a killing field below me. If they come through the back door I will still hear them and I will sit tight in my high ground and hope police respond before they reach the front of the house into my line of fire.

If it's before beddy bye time and I'm downstairs I have a gun on the table next to me on the couch. We have a open floor plan so it would be a shootout at that point with neither having the real advantage of any cover. Well we do have a cast iron free standing gas fireplace in the living room but it's too close to the wall to get behind it the best I could do would be to crouch down alongside of it.

The only real cover you have in a stick built home is the two 2x4s sistered up to make the rough opening for doorways….that’s basically a 4x4 with drywall on each side….

And your bookcase…if you have one…and it’s only good from one direction…

So, you had better execute a violent plan first and overwhelm said bad guy from the start..cause you refrigerator is basically a large fancy cooler that won’t stop a .22lr. Much less anything else.

You should think of everything in the home as concealment vs cover. With the exception of any plates or soft body armor you may have on.

There is probably almost nothing in a house that is good cover. The fridge is just a sheet metal box, and how are you going to get behind it? Maybe a bookcase, but again, how are you going to get behind it?

Maybe a brick wall or fireplace wall. That is about it.

Elevation offers a significant advantage to the homeowner. Top of the stairwell or looking down from loft. Use it if you have it. (and need it)

There are bullet resistant drywall panels that are built with kevlar and fiberglass materials. You could screw them on top of existing drywall, mud, and repaint. No one would know.

https://www.armorcore.com/
https://www.armortex.com/product/fiberglass-panels/

Once you've made the decision, shoot first and shoot often.

Most Doors, Walls, Cars, Refrigerators, etc, are all *deceivingly-terrible* cover against firearms and will get one killed if they mistake its supposed bullet resistance for anything beyond basic concealment.

Very, very few things are effective cover.

Loads of things offer some concealment.

Don't confuse the two, ever.

Watch those YouTube videos about sheetrock penetration, and more. Shit, most vehicles, other than engine blocks and a few bits or things like Dumptrucks, are thin enough to stab through with a fixed blade knife, much less a firearm.

It's quite counter intuitive for most...

Teach your friends/family the reality.

quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:
Once you've made the decision, shoot first and shoot often.

THIS, once you’ve sent the first one, the paperwork is the same regardless of number sent.

———————

Wanna know how drywall really reacts to ammo…. https://www.theboxotruth.com/

When I was a cop I saw a few suicides and had to explaine to rookies why there was holes in the house …we called them “verification shots” ..the victim test fired the gun before turning it on himself and even the lowly 22lr will go thru your home…think baseboard, drywall, insulation, plywood sheathing and hardyboard….the 22 will go the distance…

So don’t think your home is gonna protect you from incoming….maybe from the exterior if it’s brick veneer, but anything else won’t stop bullets. And it isn’t cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw8IiRgSMFQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MhoO6er_Gc&t=316s

Don't forget to consider sight lines and angles. cover and concealment only works if you can keep it between you and them.

Also watch where you put your foot when taking cover/concealment. SIM rounds don't lie.

Makes you feel like one of the three little pigs. At least I’m a #3 pig. But a lot of windows even it out.

I've never been foolish enough to consider myself "safe in my own home", most all of us know that anything could happen anywhere. I do know the layout of my home better than anyone that might decide to enter uninvited and only one of us knows I'm armed.

quote:

even the lowly 22lr will go thru your home

*Sigh* again no love for the lowly 22lr

Not really something I worry about.

In another life I worried about drivebys. Sometimes slept with plate armor propped up beside me. I don’t miss that shit.

These days, if someone makes it into my house with me home, they’ve had to do some serious work and I’m going to know about it. And, as they say, those locks/window security film were there for their protection, not mine. They’re walking into an ambush and there’s no cover.

Not puffing my chest, bullets go both ways, but that’s the plan.

quote:

Originally posted by Voshterkoff:
A plate carrier with ceramics and an IFAK is a good start.

This, or even steel. I just wonder how much time would have have to throw it on, but if you’ve got time to, and a pair of Peltors, you’re in better shape than the average home owner.

Might I offer an approach that I have never seen discussed?

I have an HK VP9 with light and 20 rd. mags in my nightstand and a 11-1/2" AR with a Meprolight M21, Surefire light, and 30rd HK mag of 62gr Gold Dot. Each firearm with over 500 rds. fired.

Years ago, racking a shotgun would usually clear a house of uninvited guest. Now days, they are a different breed.

Going back to my personal experience of night ambushes in jungle, unexpected fire will induce quite a pucker-flight reflex.

So, my plan is this:
1. If I am awaken by noise, dog, etc. and cannot positively identify it as an inside intruder, I will arm myself, stay in my bedroom and wait for other sounds.
2. If I can immediately identify the sounds of an intruder, I will fire three quick rounds into the far ceiling of the 16' hallway to my bedroom and call 911.
This will give anyone a chance to identify themselves or flee. If I do not hear either response, I will stay at my bedroom door, covering the hall, and wait for the cops.

I realize the shots will degrade my hearing, but I will be relying primarily on sight anyway.
I also realize that if I can refrain from killing anyone, I will have less stress. At a disabled 75, I do not have quick enough reflexes to clear the house.

.

The only thing that resembles cover in a modern home is a brick fireplace. Even then a lot of those are too thin.

A 9mm round will to right through a modern refrigerator. A 5.56 round will go through just about everything (including the brick fireplace).

Have:
- A gun in a secure location that you can easily access (but not the bad guy)
- A powerful and reliable flashlight that you can use to ID the person you think is breaking into your home (to make sure it's not a loved one or your drunk neighbor that went to the wrong house)
- A phone with speakerphone ability to call 911 and provide a description of yourself and the bad guy and with which to take direction as the police arrive

...if you identify a stranger in your home and you believe your life is threatened then shoot them to defend yourself.

"The first indication they'll have that I'm on to them is when they start taking incoming fire."

And the will be the start of a serious legal battle under any self defense statue that I have read in detail. You own the issue of identification in some form absent some version of deadly threat.

quote:

The only thing that resembles cover in a modern home is a brick fireplace

Here is one of the few benefits of living in a 17th century house. Massive fireplaces, clearly cover for anything up to .50bmg and maybe more (take a look a shelled house pictures lots of old world fireplaces still standing in a totally destroyed house). But its truly difficult to conceive how one would use them defensively...

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Not really something I worry about.

In another life I worried about drivebys. Sometimes slept with plate armor propped up beside me. I don’t miss that shit.

These days, if someone makes it into my house with me home, they’ve had to do some serious work and I’m going to know about it. And, as they say, those locks/window security film were there for their protection, not mine. They’re walking into an ambush and there’s no cover.

Not puffing my chest, bullets go both ways, but that’s the plan.

I like this plan, a lot.