My [old] plan should the alarm go off in the middle of the night: grab my handgun, go to my daughter’s room, grab my daughter, bring her back to my room, put her behind me, call 911, switch to a shotgun, assume a defensive position, wait for the cavalry. To that end, I’ve practiced my weapons handling and marksmanship (including force-on-force training). I’ve thoroughly briefed my daughter and conducted run throughs. Even so, I approached the challenge knowing two things: 1) the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, and 2) I don’t know anything about armed self-defense . . .
Well, I know what I know. By the same token, I don’t know what I don’t know. But at least I know that. I know: it’s a bit confusing. If you want a really good self-defense plan it’s best to think about home security in terms of the Firesign Theater: everything you know is wrong.
You just think you’ve got a good plan. To quote Field Marshall Helmuth Carl Bernard Graf von Moltke . . .
The tactical result of an engagement forms the base for new strategic decisions because victory or defeat in a battle changes the situation to such a degree that no human acumen is able to see beyond the first battle.
In other words, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. So even if you have a good plan it still sucks, in ways you’ll never know until you do. By then it may be too late. In fact, there’s only one likely way to find the potentially fatal flaws in your home defense plan: hire someone else do it.
No matter how experienced or smart you are—and we don’t call you our Armed Intelligentsia for nothing (although we did for the first two-and-a-half years of operation)—you’re too close to the problem to see it clearly. A fresh set of eyes can pick apart your home defense plan, so you can reformulate it “properly.”
For example, to get to my daughter’s room I have to pass by a staircase with more angles than an LA grifter. Gun guru Christian Pullano suggested that my daughter should either lock herself in her room or head for an alternate location on her own. If she wasn’t in lockdown I’d join her there and that would be our safe room.
To make that happen I needed to reposition ye olde Benelli M2 and buy some door locks. Better yet, I bought an M4 and tactical gun safe so I could have a Plan B should my daughter revert to the old Plan A (which is now Plan B).
So, for a reasonable fee, Christian tore my Bump In The Night home defense plan to shreds, helped me rebuild it, discussed daylight robbery scenarios and offered simple suggestions that could make all the difference (e.g., park my car facing out of the driveway).
Maybe you reckon you’ve got it wired; you don’t need to “waste” your money on hiring an independent, trustworthy consultant to reality check out your home defense plan. If so, you’re wrong. If you didn’t know it before, you do now. Don’t you?