on my nightstand. Do you know the direct number to your local police or sheriff department? Remember, 911 on your cell phone will not always get you to your closest law enforcement agency. Figure out who is your local law enforcement and get their number into one of your speed dial buttons on your cell. Waking from a dead sleep to a bad guy beating down your door is stressful enough without having to fumble through your cell’s phonebook looking for a number. You should be able to press and hold one button to get help on the way.
John Russo
Who Does What? Now that you know how to call
ing my gun and fl ashlight from the nightstand. My wife im- mediately began calling 911 while simultaneously check- ing on our two sleeping children. Once assured they were safe in their beds, I went downstairs to the front door and took a look through the peephole while calling, “Who is it?”
A Has this ever happened to you? If
so, how did you handle it? Did you have a plan and do something simi- lar to what I just described, or did you simply open the door to the un-
known? There are countless horror stories, occurring almost daily in America, of bad guys using this very tactic to gain entry to your home at all hours of the day, especially in the dark of night. Do you have a plan to deal with this? In our house we call it our Family Safety Plan. There is no right term for it, use whatever you like so long as everyone understands it. So where do you begin? First off,
Anything that can ID you as the good guy is a good thing. This QD-360-ID banner from Brownells rolls up into a tiny pouch on your belt until needed and is quickly and easily deployed.
80
you have got to have total buy-in from each family member. Sit your family down and explain to them that there are bad people in the world who will hurt them for no reason. Obviously you will temper this and make it age appropriate for your children, but you need to do it. Too many families are afraid of scaring their kids only to fi nd their child was too trusting and easily victimized. Once everyone understands the need for the Family Safety Plan you can move on to the details. One of the most important is communication. Of course you need to know how to dial 911 but what if your hard line phone isn’t working. Do you have a cell phone charged and close by? I keep mine plugged in
loud pounding at the front door awakened me in the middle of the night. I cleared the cobwebs from my sleep-addled mind as quickly as I could while retriev-
for help, fi gure out who is going to do it. In my house, it’s my wife’s job to call 911 while checking on our kids. It’s my job to defend the castle. This isn’t sexist; it just simply works for us. Tammy is a great shot, especially with her custom Robar Glock, but she prefers to hold it while protecting our most precious possessions. It is my job to make sure the bad guys don’t get that far. Speaking of the kids, give them
a simple task in an emergency, such as go straight to mom and dad’s bed- room and do what mommy and dad- dy say. Once again, this is age appro- priate. The older they are, the more duties they can handle. When I was a kid, I grew up on a remote ranch that saw its share of trespassers over the years. By the time I was in my teenage years, Dad and I were confronting armed bad guys together. Now for those of you taking on
the job of confronting the intruder, let me start by saying don’t do it if you don’t have to! If you can protect your family by securing yourself in an upstairs or back bedroom while call- ing 911, then all the better. So what if they steal your TV or computer, these things are easily replaced. But unfor- tunately, scum who break into homes knowing there are people inside are too often unafraid of meeting you face to face. You must be prepared to do this should it be unavoidable.
Tools For Preparedness So are you prepared? You may be
thinking, “I’ve got a gun in the night- stand, what else do I need?” In addi- tion to the cell phone already men- tioned, a fl ashlight is an indispensable tool for this application. Maybe you don’t even have a gun, just a phone to dial 911. A good quality, super- bright, hand-held light is a weapon unto itself. I like to have a handgun with a weapon-mounted light and a second hand held fl ashlight next to it. And since I have a handgun, I always
REALITY CHECK • 2012 SPECIAL EDITION
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