A sobering experience...

[HyFiveGuns]

I have three children, a 21 year old son, a 19 year old daughter and a 13 year old son. Here's the scenario. My 13 year-old is away at sleep away camp for the summer so he's not home. My older son and daughter both went to their friends houses out east for the weekend, so they were both supposedly not home or coming home until yesterday (Monday) morning. My oldest son tells me specifically Sunday afternoon that he's sleeping at his friends house because they're gonna be drinking and no one is going to drive (all good). Sunday night, my wife and I go to bed not expecting either of our children to come home and at 2:00 am, we hear the burglar alarm warning chime going off that a door has been opened; then silence, then another chime. My wife and I are both startled, groggy and somewhat disoriented from being fast asleep but she says "what the hell was that, go see whats going on". At this point, I didn't grab my gun because I'm not too worried since the alarm is not actually going off, but I open my bedroom door and in the darkness, I see two men walking down the hall which under the circumstances was very alarming so I yell out and it's my son and his friend who decided to take an Uber because he wanted to sleep in his own bed. Now, he shoots with me all the time, so he is very aware that there are firearms in my house.

I'm telling this story as it was very sobering to me and wanted to share it because this could have ended VERY badly. For the next several hours, I laid awake thinking about what could have happened. Here I was, startled awake in the middle of the night, not expecting anyone to be coming home, but knowing someone had entered the house. I was groggy but on edge and I jumped out of my skin when I opened my bedroom door and saw the shadows of two guys walking down my upstairs hallway. The adrenaline spiked for sure and who knows what reflexes would have kicked in at that moment had I had a loaded gun in my hands. Your senses and mindset are not the same when you get jostled out of bed out of a sound sleep.

Food for thought....

[M14Shooter]

You should establish a rule that if your kids are entering the house at night they should call first BEFORE entering house.

[HyFiveGuns]

You should establish a rule that if your kids are entering the house at night they should call first BEFORE entering house.

Yes, I have had that discussion already with the older kids, ESPECIALLY my older son who knows that I'm armed. My other kids know as well, but he is much more aware than them because he shoots with me when he's home from college. I have specifically told them, "Don't EVER surprise me in the middle of the night, if I'm not expecting you, you need to call me first". We had that conversation again yesterday morning. He's a great kid, but after a few drinks, he might have just not remembered the rules.

My point is... these things are unpredictable and you really need to think about all of the possibilities...

[Barnslayer]

You need to lay down some law in your house. My daughter knew….. any noise at night in my house will be greeted by me with a gun. That's regardless of whether she was still living at home or staying over to visit. Coming home late at an unscheduled time was not an option.
I also recommend you take a firearm home safety course. If you have no confidence in yourself in these situations you'd be much better off using your bedroom as a safe room. Lock you and your wife in with you weapon, then call the police.
BTW, get a large dog… or two.

[Russian]

Having a bright flashlight, maybe even with strobe ability, would help a lot in that situation.Son or intruder, rules or no rules- you are ultimately responsible for pulling the trigger.

[Joshatkarps]

As someone who is lucky his parents let him live to 32, give him a big hug and then slap him up-side the head. Then another hug.

[Havfun]

that is a constant worry. you must always be 100 percent sure before you fire.

especially if you have kids. they may be sneaking in a friend may be sneaking out you never know.

i will of course kill them if that happens but not in the literal sense.

[HyFiveGuns]

Barnslayer: I thought I was pretty confident but I agree... the home safety course would certainly help. It wasn't lack of confidence that I didn't get my gun, it was more instinctive that I didn't think there were intruders. If the alarm had actually been going off indicating a break in, I would have grabbed my gun for sure. I also thought my first plan was to lock ourselves in, but then there's the wife....prodding..."go see whats going on". Dogs not an option... the youngest is highly allergic.

Russian: My home defense handgun has a light (with a strobe) on it.

Josh: I did exactly that... in that order... LOL

[Mad Russian]

Didn't someone once say "Don't shoot til you see the whites of their eyes!"...

[mossy930spx]

I'm glad nothing bad happened. JIC he fails the rules again have a handheld 300 lumens flashlight on the night stand. You can identify who it is without muzzling your kids.

i learned a lot in taking the MDTS low light course.

[LI Ammo]

Two lessons learned.

Lesson one, your 1-year old son should be sneaking in with a GIRL at 2:00am.

(or maybe just a pizza)

Lesson two: Around here, the odds are much better that one of your quasi-adult children will surprise you at night than a stranger, especially since you have an alarm. You have to reset your thinking and take that chance.

[Dan 0351]

I have three children, a 21 year old son, a 19 year old daughter and a 13 year old son. Here's the scenario. My 13 year-old is away at sleep away camp for the summer so he's not home. My older son and daughter both went to their friends houses out east for the weekend, so they were both supposedly not home or coming home until yesterday (Monday) morning. My oldest son tells me specifically Sunday afternoon that he's sleeping at his friends house because they're gonna be drinking and no one is going to drive (all good). Sunday night, my wife and I go to bed not expecting either of our children to come home and at 2:00 am, we hear the burglar alarm warning chime going off that a door has been opened; then silence, then another chime. My wife and I are both startled, groggy and somewhat disoriented from being fast asleep but she says "what the hell was that, go see whats going on". At this point, I didn't grab my gun because I'm not too worried since the alarm is not actually going off, but I open my bedroom door and in the darkness, I see two men walking down the hall which under the circumstances was very alarming so I yell out and it's my son and his friend who decided to take an Uber because he wanted to sleep in his own bed. Now, he shoots with me all the time, so he is very aware that there are firearms in my house.

I'm telling this story as it was very sobering to me and wanted to share it because this could have ended VERY badly. For the next several hours, I laid awake thinking about what could have happened. Here I was, startled awake in the middle of the night, not expecting anyone to be coming home, but knowing someone had entered the house. I was groggy but on edge and I jumped out of my skin when I opened my bedroom door and saw the shadows of two guys walking down my upstairs hallway. The adrenaline spiked for sure and who knows what reflexes would have kicked in at that moment had I had a loaded gun in my hands. Your senses and mindset are not the same when you get jostled out of bed out of a sound sleep.

Food for thought....

Thanks for sharing.

You just can't get away from that TARGET IDENTIFICATION thing.

On a side note, if you don't mind: This is one of the reason I do NOT like when people use firearms with mounted lights on them without training. If you use your mounted light for target ID, then you're pointing your gun at - in this case - your son. I know your finger shouldn't be on the trigger, but you know how that goes, cloudy, stress, etc......flashlight AND a mounted light is fine.

[LI Ammo]

And one more thing, thank you for sharing the learning experience for all of us. I'm glad it's a happy story with a moral, not a tale of woe.

[spider]

Get a dog. When my knuckleheads stumble in at 2 AM all hell breaks lose. Therefore, they have to be home at a reasonable hour. Therefore, they stay at someone else's place. Problem solved.

My house, my rules.

[Havfun]

GOOD OLD DAYS 30 years ago i was stumbling in while my father was on his way to work