Episode 1: Safe at Home

[justbill]

Staging Weapons

a.   Evaluate your family’s level of comfort and responsibility with purpose-designed weapons and make your plans accordingly

b.   Home-defense weapon attributes
•   Instantly accessible
•   Capable of causing serious damage to an attacker
•   Provides reach while being appropriate to the environmental constraints of your house
•   Easy to wield with one hand

When families are involved, each person with disparate skill levels, this becomes a big issue. I've done a fair amount of handgun competition and still try to get at least 100-200 rounds of combined handgun/shotgun/rifle practice every month. I'm not exactly "high speed, low drag" but I'm not "low speed, high drag" either. My wife, however, isn't a firearms enthusiast at all despite my best efforts at re-education. But she does understand the need to protect herself and our two small children. I get her to the range about once a year for some refresher training. While I'm confident in my abilities to handle just about any HD weapon, she is only comfortable with a medium frame revolver loaded with .38 Special loads. Considering her level of practice, she's surprisingly effective with that combination out of 25-30 feet. So being a firm believer in the K.I.S.S. principle, the bedside firearm has been a 3" S&W M65 with spare Safariland Comp II speedloader for many years. It's supported by a 12 ga. Remington 870 if I have time to get it. The revolver is fully loaded and in a spot inaccessible to our kids (1 and 3 yrs). The shotgun is unloaded but equipped with a Side Saddle for rapid magazine charging if something goes bump in the night.

[shooter32]

Watched TBD for the second time with my wife. She loved it. She was interested in seeing the "how to " when your home is entered. At this time in our lives home and self defence has become more of an importance. I'm working two jobs and our youngest will be out of high school in the spring and leaving home soon. Also we no longer have a dog. Which was a big comfort to my wife.

Can't wait to see episode 2

[tombogan03884]

Dear Scott:

Great question. If you consider the full scenario the way it was shown in the context of everything that was shot, that would have been addressed. When I choreographed the scenarios for the first episode, they went in this order:

1. Attacker at front door, escape safely out the back. Learning point = Nothing in your house is worth dying for. The best way of being safe may be to go out another exit, as long as you have a plan once you're out.
2. Attacker at front door, escape out back door, only to be surprised by a second attacker. Learning point = Look before you open the door.
3. Attacker at front door, retreat to safe room. Learning point = If you cannot exit or due to age of physical limitation can't flee quickly, hunker down.
4. Combined scenario--what you saw at the end of the show.

This is what I wanted everyone to see. Based on my background in video production (I founded Paladin Press' video department and ran it for 10 years), I was used to the "run to length" approach. In simple terms, you shoot and include as much video as necessary to present all the information. Broadcast television is very different and there's no way to cover all that in 22 minutes. I'm learning as I go.

The ultimate goal is to provide as much good information to you guys as possible. With that in mind, here's the written outline I did for episode 1. It shows the full scope of what I consider to be the basics of home defense. It will also form the foundation of what I share in the book Rob and I are working on.

The Best Defense against a home invasion is making your home a hard target

a.   Your first priority should be to invest in the external security of your home
•   External lighting and motion-activated lights
•   High-quality, solid doors, deadbolt locks, reinforced strike plates
•   Eliminate or reinforce weak points (i.e. windows in or near front door)
•   Get a dog or create the impression of the presence of one
•   Get an alarm system or create the impression of the presence of one
•   Get to know your neighbors and work with them to support each other’s home defense plans

b.   Make security rules and stick to them
•   ALWAYS lock your doors
•   Don’t open the door for strangers
•   Don’t discuss or share exact details of your home defense plan with anyone outside your family

If someone does manage to gain entry to your home, you need to have plans of action.

a. These should include plans to:
•   Escape out another exit
•   Repel him at the door
•   Withdraw to a predetermined location and fight
•   Retreat to a safe room and barricade

b. These plans should be integrated into a dynamic and flexible flow of tactics

Staging Weapons

a.   Evaluate your family’s level of comfort and responsibility with purpose-designed weapons and make your plans accordingly

b.   Home-defense weapon attributes
•   Instantly accessible
•   Capable of causing serious damage to an attacker
•   Provides reach while being appropriate to the environmental constraints of your house
•   Easy to wield with one hand

c.   Types of staged weapons
•   Environmental improvised weapons (i.e. kitchen knives, frying pans, hammers, screwdrivers, brooms/mops/mop handles, etc.)
•   Pre-positioned less-lethal weapons (i.e. sticks/canes in umbrella stands, OC staged in appropriate places (Velcro above doorways), hardwood dowels in window/door tracks, or anything else that denies unauthorized access while providing high-speed accessibility)
•   Openly displayed “decorative” weapons (make sure they arm you, not the bad guy, and that they are appropriate to the physical constraints of that part of the house
•   Hidden firearms (primarily reserved for safe room(s))

Develop and practice reaction plans for different rooms in the house

a.   Assess your physical skills and condition and your willingness to employ extreme violence

b.   Based on your assessment, develop primary, secondary, and tertiary plans of action, for example:
•   Escape out another exit: Check visually first to ensure you’re not running into an ambush. Have a pre-determined safe rally point outside and away from the house—preferably a neighbor’s house.
•   Deny access: If your physical security is good, you should have considerable warning. You may choose to make your stand at the front door and not allow the attacker entry.
•   Arm yourself and retreat to a defensible choke point on the way to either your safe room or another exit. Use the choke point to funnel the invader to you and fight on your terms.
•   Fight a retreating action as necessary to get to your safe room

Quiz and remind yourself often of your “go-to” weapons in different parts of the house
•   Practice grabbing a weapon and maneuvering to a fighting to exits and safe rooms while “collecting” family members and moving them ahead of you.
•   Identify projectile weapons that you can throw to cover your retreat.
•   Have simple verbal commands to get everyone in the house to immediately follow the plan, i.e. “safe” for retreat to safe room, “fire” or "out" for exit.
•   Stash a weapon in the bathroom as well, in the event an invasion occurs when you are using the facilities or as a last-ditch defense if you are taken hostage.

I hope this helps "fill in the blanks" and gives you an idea of our overall throught process in approaching the topic for episode 1.

Stay safe,

Mike

This is why the show needs to be an hour ! Since that is not likely to happen, at least this season I hope that you are stressing that people should come here for clarification, or that more in depth information IS available to them.

[Rob Pincus]

As the season went on and it became obvious that not only was the extra information really important, but also that we were confident that we were going to be able to do it, I did mention visiting the website for more information. We are also hoping to be able to work in information about the companion Book into the episodes near the end of the season as they are edited.

-RJP

[DonWorsham]

Some people do carry at all times, including when at home, and only take it off at bedtime. I'm not sure how they handle showers though.  

We have a bathroom gun silly!

[Sponsor]

[CDR]

We have a bathroom gun silly!

I bet you keep it taped up behind one of them old fashioned "terlits"............you know, the ones with that chain thing.

[TAB]

I don't know why I didn't think of this before... if you guys have any real world questions about how to go about securing a door, feel free to ask me.  This is something I do for a living.

[DonWorsham]

I bet you keep it taped up behind one of them old fashioned "terlits"............you know, the ones with that chain thing.

CDR, my man! You know I do!

[CDR]

CDR, my man! You know I do!

You.....and Louie's Restaurant in the Bronx.  The best veal in the city.  

[bryand71]

TBD Team,
Great job on episode 1, I can't wait for the rest, gave me some things to reconsider in my home.  I really appreciate the feedback from Mike B., Mike J and Rob P. I don't know of any other shows that you can actually talk to the hosts and get their honest opion on what is going on.

I have to agree with some of the others, the show needs to be an hour at least. If we start complaining to the right people, would it help for future seasons? I also strongly suggest putting this show on DVD or making it available for download, I know I would watch it more than once. I have Mr. Pincus' series of defensive shooitng DVDs at home and plan on watching them more than once, as soon as I get them back from my neighbor.

My question for you is: How do I get my wife who has no interest in guns or self-defense to take our home security and defense more seriously?She asks me why I lock the door when I come home from work and with me working 7 days a week, its mainly her and our 2 children at home alone. I don't know if this is something that can be covered in future episodes in the next season, but I want to keep my faimly safe.