SCENARIO: Someone is Kicking In Your Front Door

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aaaaa

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Training I had says you have to see the target and be at threat of bodily injury or death before you can shoot, so my guess is if someone is kicking in your front door, you cannot shoot until they actually come through the door and present themselves as a threat. I guess there are other, legitimate reasons someone might kick in your front door that would make it unwise to shoot through the door as it is happening? Maybe there is a fire and the fire department is trying to get in. Maybe you attended a political rally at the wrong time and place and the FBI is kicking in your door. But seriously, I would anticipate if my front door was being kicked in, maybe some drug dealers are at the wrong house.

So, given we can't shoot through the door, and it is being kicked in, the next step seems highly dependent upon if there are others in the house who could be at risk, in which case retreat may not be an option as those others could be harmed by the perp. Unless you had wisely created and practiced what to do in such a scenario, and everyone rushes to the safe space, which does not always work depending what they are doing when this happens. And , depending on the state, one may not have to retreat within their own home.

Certainly if home alone, retreat is a good idea, like out the back door if time permits. Then run to the neighbor's and call 911. Well, too many variables in this scenario once we get past the kicking in of the door. And it does seem you can't just shoot thorough the door.

I once had a spooky situation late one evening and well after dark where someone beat on my front door so hard it broke the plastic clips retaining the storm window in the storm door. Fortunately, it must have been a prank as they left right after beating on the door.

Decades ago, a friend's father-in-law was killed in the middle of the night when someone knocked at the door, he came down to see who it was and they shot him dead right through the door. That must have been a drug hit at the wrong house.
 
It may be legal to shoot through the door, depending on your state's laws and the circumstances. There was a case in this area a few years back where a guy was drunk and taking some kind of stop-smoking prescription and the two substances apparently mixed very badly in his case. He started banging on an older couple's doors and scared them pretty much out of their mind. The husband got so frightened that he put a round through the door, ostensibly as a warning shot, that was aimed high. Problem was the guy was very tall (6'5") and it caught him in the head, killing him instantly. There were no charges brought against the homeowner.

NOW, please don't think I'm recommending that approach because there are a number of obvious problems with shooting through a door. I just think that to be accurate, it's important to note that it is not automatically illegal to shoot through a door in every situation and every locale. Should you do it if it is legal in your area and the circumstances justify it? I think that it's possible to come up with a scenario that is bizarre and crazy enough that it might be a reasonable option. I also think that it's pretty clear that it's not a great strategy except perhaps in very unusual and extreme circumstances--and I mean very unusual and extreme when compared to a group of situations that would all qualify as unusual and extreme compared to normal life.

The typical advice for this kind of scenario is to immediately contact the authorities and retreat to a pre-selected and prepared area of your house where you can best defend yourself if the attacker does manage to breach the door and press the attack.

As far as retreating out of your house, that's probably not a great idea in the general case unless the law in your area requires it. First of all, a house offers a lot of security that you give up when you leave it. It's very possible that there is more than one attacker and you may retreat right into an ambush. Second, there's no guarantee your neighbor will just pop open their door and let you in. A lot of people don't want to get involved, and even those who are willing to get involved may have enough of a sense of self-preservation and trepidation that they might not want to open their door and compromise their own security in a situation as hairy as the one you describe. Third, you don't even know if your neighbor is home. Fourth, you should have called 911 already as soon as you realized someone was trying to illegally enter your house. Fifth, if you encounter an attacker outside your own house, your justification to use deadly force may not be as simple to prove as it could have been while you were still in your own home. It's common for deadly force laws to have exceptions or special cases that can simplify the legal defense of persons defending themselves in their own homes against someone who makes illegal entry.
 
aaaaa said:
Training I had says you have to see the target and be at threat of bodily injury or death. . .
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Not precise enough. I would restate to, "know your target. . ." In some cases, the circumstances plus 'person kicking my door' is enough knowledge of the target to shoot it; often not.

aaaaa said:
. . . like out the back door if time permits. Then run to the neighbor's and call 911.
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Lack of target ID is a terrible reason to abandon the tactical advantage of your house for a mad dash into uncertainty. Unless your house is on fire, or there's artillery incoming, you're better off inside it.
aaaaa said:
. . . a friend's father-in-law was killed in the middle of the night when someone knocked at the door. . . they shot him dead right through the door.
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There is no sure defense against a surprise first strike; you only get a chance at defense if the attacker fails to land the first blow effectively. That's life, so make your first shot count.

In the situation you describe, my default would be to occupy the hardest cover available with a view of the door, prepare to effectively retire the threat kicking it ASAP when it opens, and keep an eye out for a second element coming in the back. And 911 when someone had a hand free for a moment.

This approach gives the greatest possibility for the kicker to reconsider and go away, and it costs me very little advantage.
 
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The 1st kick (or knock) will generate a loud response from or German Shepherd; potential intruder now knows a dog is on the other side of the door.
There is also a Bullmastiff, but he doesn't bark... Surprise.
Then there is the homeowner who carries even at home (despite being in a "good area") and its a Glock 19 minimum.
There are a lot of decisions a potential intruder could make that would be better for them than breaching that door.
 
There are situations where shooting through the door might be justified, but in almost all scenarios you will want to identify the threat.

lemaymiami said:
Someone trying to kick in your door - time to plan a response and prepare yourself (maybe even time to call 911..). Someone coming into your house - treat them as the deadly threat they pose...
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This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Make a plan in advance and rehearse it with the family. Good physical security measures should make it unnecessary to shoot through the door. A good steel clad door properly installed with deadbolt locks will be hard to breach. That will give you time to move to your designated safe room, call 911 and prepare to repel boarders.

Good physical security measures and a plan that the family has rehearsed can keep you from shooting the drunk beating on your door because he thinks he's locked out of his house. (Yes, that's happened more then you would think. Usually doesn't end tragically but sometimes it does.)
 
The front and back door of my house have locked Glass Storm Doors on them.

Example of the style I have.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/LARSON-Wil...in-81-in-Actual-35-75-in-x-79-75-in/999997976

It's an added layer of security. While it's true someone can smash the glass and kick the door in. The glass will slow them down and possibly cut the heck out of them.

Otherwise I have no nearby neighbors and can shoot almost 360deg around my house. Pants on gun on is my motto and I keep AR15's for HD.
 
Its quite a ways from our front gate to the door. I would already be up to see what set off the motion detector at the gate before they ever made it to the house or up to the door.

Also have cameras that are recording 24/7 around the house, shop and chicken coop that send motion alerts to the cell phone along with video, I could dial 911 if appropriate or access any one of them to see what’s going on out there.

All before anyone is in contact distance of our residence. That’s a larger advantage than it might seem. You can’t make time after it starts but you can get a head start.

When we did live in the city, I had a motion sensor with a “pet lens”. They are designed to not trigger on small animals but pickup larger human heat signatures. Our door bell had two chimes (“ding/dong” and “dong”) I connected the IR a sensor to the single tone because we had no rear access to the back yard. Just being at the door as they reached for the button would startle most people. I quit opening the door before hand when the pizza guy jumped and almost lost our pizza.

You could use a regular one but any animal walking or flying by will set them off. The ones that don’t trigger on pets, reduces the false alarms.

https://www.safewise.com/home-security-faq/pet-immune-motion-detectors/
 
Jeff White said:
Good physical security measures and a plan that the family has rehearsed can keep you from shooting the drunk beating on your door because he thinks he's locked out of his house. (Yes, that's happened more then you would think. Usually doesn't end tragically but sometimes it does.)
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Ah yes, the disoriented drunk. Happened some years back that the kid across the street came home drunk and couldn't get into his house (he thought his house, but was my next door neighbor, whose house is laid out the same as the kid's). He broke the window out in the mud room between the garage and house before he finally figured it out and left. My neighbors are Democrats and would never own a gun. The kid long since was reformed and is a productive citizen with a family.
 
Firs, one should never ask the question "when can (may) I shoot?"

Deadly force should be regarded as a last resort to be used when and only when it is immediately necessary to defend against an imminent threat of death or serious injury to one's self or to one's family.

Kicking a door does not rise to that level

I would not shoot at anyone without seeing them or otherwise identifying them as a serious threat.

I would not leave the safety of my house.
 
Something to consider... Years ago I was involved in the planning phase of one of our SRT's actions where they might need to force entry into a dwelling (bad guys dealing dope out of a house...). A competent team will always scout out the site (verify the right address) and make a point of noting how many exterior doors are involved and more importantly - which way each door opens - inward or outward... Different strategies were used depending on that key fact....

What I'm getting at is for everyone to do a bit of advance planning about home defense before you are ever faced with a possible incident... If your door opens outward.. someone could wear out a pair of boots trying to kick it in... If it opens inwards - then you are vulnerable and home planning should take it into account. Lots of difference between a good solid wooden door and a hollow one (or one with enough glass panels in it that could be shattered to allow entry..).

Like most - I'd like to spend the rest of my life without getting into any problems that might even possibly require an armed response. A little advance planning is always a good idea though...
 
A simple method is to use a firefighter door wedge INSIDE entry doors to further reduce "kick-in" success.
Firefighters use them to prevent getting automatically locked and to keep heavy doors from closing on hoses.
They are available in high-viz colors and are inexpensive. They don't compress and grip better than wood.
 
aaaaa said:
SCENARIO: Someone is Kicking In Your Front Door
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20220413-160013.jpg


Good luck with that.
 
Kicking in a door is of less concern than forced entry. B&E takes work,

Simple answer to the question is that you retreat in a manner just shy of panic to an area you feel is defensible and expect your waferboard door to collapse under force when you are at your weakest point and worst location.

Similarly you can be hanging out waiting for a friend when a random tweaker barges in trying to clean your windows and sell you cleaner and when you demand he leave your home he chugs the window cleaner like people in tv commercials chug a coke. When you demand AGAIN that he leave and he advances into the living room you present the firearm and Ol Tweaky damn near runs through the front door glass trying to get out. Then he gets arrested 2 houses down for doing the same thing a few houses before. This happened to me about 7 or 8 years ago. Luckily I had just laid out and detail cleaned my m9 and reassembled it. The gun was presented as I chambered a round, and the guy was mentally together enough to figure out he was at the wrong house.

The ridiculousness of the situation is very clear and highlights the point that you can’t plan for these things. You prepare what you can to give yourself as many options as possible so that you can either pick how you die if thing go sideways or hopefully come out on top if things go well. I got lucky. I had more options available around the house after that incident but now I have a little one who is into everything so things are now back behind doors with locks.
 
Two of the main entry points on my home would allow me to positively ID threats that were trying to get in, before they were in.

The third I would have to wait until entry was made.

In either case I'm more than confident I would at a minimum be able to persuade the perp/s to stop or leave, or stop the threat.
 
Reminds me of a story from years back.

911 call comes in.
Dude calmly says that an angry biker is trying to get through his door saying he was going to kill him because of him not renting an apt to him or something along those lines.
In the background you can hear the banging and ruckous and the yells of “ima f’ing kill you etc etc.”.
Now the whole time this dude on the phone is calm as a cucumber.
I simply say “your sitting there with a 12 gauge waiting for that door to come down aren’t you?”
He simply says “Yup”.

That calm “yup” has stuck with me and made me chuckle to myself for years.
 
For one thing, LE doesn't kick doors in. They get rammed and usually open on the first attempt. So if someone is "trying to kick" my door in, they are automatically a threat to my family regardless of thier mental state or level of sobriety.
2nd: I'm out of town almost 2 miles and only a handful of houses on my road, so not very likely a drunk mistook my house for his.
3rd. When you approach my house, especially at night, assuming you caught the dog sleeping, motion lights, cameras, and extra IR illuminators are clearly visible. I'm not taking time to go check my camera feed while the door is being kicked and I'm not retreating to some other room in my house while I allow the offender to come in and have free range. I will direct my family members to take shelter and cover other entrances, but I will not relinquish entry into my home and wait for them to find me, set my house on fire, or whatever else they have in mind.
I will get in a cover position, give a verbal warning, and call 911 or direct a family member to do so, if I have time.
I would not shoot through the door unless bullets or other weapons come through the door first.
I do keep pepper spray near all entrances, so if the offender broke the glass out or made it thru the door and fate smiled on them long enough for me to assess thier threat level, they might get the pepper spray, but that's a very precarious "If" . The gun will be in my hand first and pepper spray will be a contingency.
That's just my scenario, if I lived in an urban area, my plan might be different, then again it might not.
 
My doors have multiple very long bolts going into steel-lined receivers.
The doors are steel and coupled with aforementioned firefighter wedges.

My plan is to not approach doors (thanks, Mas Ayoob) to monitor plus call 9-1-1.
In any circumstance, the doors are simply not going to collapse as if made of balsa.
 
Blue Jays said:
My plan is to not approach doors (thanks, Mas Ayoob) to monitor plus call 9-1-1.
In any circumstance, the doors are simply not going to collapse as if made of balsa.
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Excellent point. That is how my friend's father-in-law was taken out. Our natural inclination is to go to the door but we have to train against that.

I tell my wife always keep the doors locked, no matter what time of day, even if you go in the back yard, do not go out front without locking the back door. It is a lot easier to keep some weirdo from entering your house than it is to get him to leave once he comes in.
 
Night Rider said:
Not a .40?
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"Glock 19 minimum" is not the same as I carry a Glock 19. ;)
I've not carried a Glock 19 in months. ;)
Glock 17, 22, 35 or 20SF with the 35 being most frequent after my last range session.
Glock 35 with 180 Gold Dot. :)
 
Several made reference to a family plan.

No substitute.

Ours situates us in a high position with a narrow shooting lane. It's more than clear; breaching that lane can only mean personal harm is priority over goods.

From our vantage point, whatever an intruder wants they can have. I have homeowner's insurance and I certainly won't shoot over a TV.

But that lane must remain clear.
 
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