A Home Invasion Drill

One of the many gun magazines I subscribe to is Combat Handguns. Each month they have a section titled “It Happened to Me” where a person tells the story of how having a firearm saved their life.

This month’s story is about a woman who was home alone at night with her children because her husband worked a late shift. She heard a noise coming from downstairs and she grabbed her Glock and went to the top of the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs was a man with a knife who proceeded to charge up the stairs toward her. She fired six rounds at the intruder and ended up killing him. She later found out the man had a prior criminal history of burglary and rape.

Needless to say, this proves once again why it’s so important to have a firearm for self-defense. Just imagine what horrible things could have happened to this woman and her children if she hadn’t been prepared for a home invasion.

But it’s also a good reminder that we should practice a simple home invasion drill so that we know we are able to accurately fire towards the bottom of the stairs. What I mean is, for my own home defense plan I am going to go to the top of the stairs with my Glock 19 that has a Viridian C5L laser/light combination on it.

Obviously, if an intruder charges up my stairs threatening to kill me I need to be able to fire down the stairs and stop them. In my house, this is rather simple to do because I have a straight staircase. But I still dry fire down the stairs to practice doing this. (I only do this dry fire practice when nobody else is in the home.) I also practice using one of the walls at the top of the stairs as concealment and leaning out and firing down the stairs, ensuring I expose as little of my body as possible.

To make dry firing down the stairs a little more exciting, I also use the LaserLyte Plinking Cans. This is a new product from LaserLyte and it comes with three cans that are about half the size of a soda can. When you fire the laser training gun at the cans (and hit the target on the can) the cans tip over.

What I do with these cans is to set them on a chair at the bottom of my stairs. I then practice leaning out from the top of the stairs and seeing how quickly I can tip over each can.

Like I mentioned a minute ago, this makes dry fire more interesting and I get immediate feedback on whether I’ve hit the target or not.

If you haven’t practiced dry firing from the top of your stairs to the bottom or practiced the same thing while using cover I encourage you to do it this week.

Obviously, you don’t want the first time you’ve ever tried this to be when some maniac is charging you with a knife. Also, don’t forget to try this both during the day and at night while using your flashlight, whether it’s a hand held light or a weapon mounted light.